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How’s that warm body strategy working for you?

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What's your hiring criteria?

Many companies that are suffering from high turnover strive to fill the open positions as quickly as possible. If the hiring process is truly optimized, that’s all fine and well. If the speed is achieved simply by picking the first candidate who meets the minimum requirements, it’s called the ‘warm body strategy’.  Although it may bring short term relief, it can also amplify the original problem. The new hires who don’t fit the company culture and are not necessarily high performers are likely to quit or frustrate their coworkers. The vicious cycle continues.

To break the cycle, hiring managers must turn their attention to the quality of hire. It is easier said than done, when the team is working overtime, or an important deadline is looming around the corner. Some key elements to increase the quality of hire are being specific about what you want, assessments, skilled interviewers and good follow-through.

Culture fit is the highest determinant for long term success for the candidate. You must be clear on what types of behaviors it takes to thrive in your organization. Add specific functional competencies, and your recruiter can source much better matches to start with.

The interviewers’ time is valuable. The best practice is to narrow down your candidate pool by assessing the candidates before interviews. This way, you only interview good matches. There are multitude of assessments to choose from, depending on the position you are hiring for, ranging from cognitive and psychomotor tests to skill and personality tests. Make sure that the tests are valid and reliable, to avoid inadvertently discriminating against any candidates.

Hiring an employee is an important investment for your company. It is surprising how often those who interview candidates do not take this investment decision with the appropriate seriousness. The interviewers should also keep in mind that they are creating the first impression of their organization. All who interview should coordinate their questions ahead of time and reconvene or submit comments afterwards. HR or recruiting often takes the lead in coordinating this process. The interviewers should be trained in behavioral and situational interview techniques. One of the most in-depth interviewing techniques is topgrading.

When you have done all this work to identify a truly excellent fit to the company and the position, don’t drop the ball on day one. The highest turnover takes place in the first 90 days. Focus on the onboarding process and ensure that the new employee feels welcome, gets clear direction and the tools to get productive fast. Now you have much more than a warm body working for you.

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Filed under: Talent aquisition Tagged: Assessments, culture fit, Interviewing, Onboarding, Quality of hire, talent acquisition, Turnover, Warm body

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