Human Resources Articles

Article / Updated 01-06-2023

You make your best hiring decisions when you use objective data about a job candidate’s thinking style, behavioral traits, and interests. Sure, a candidate’s experiences and how they perform in interviews are meaningful, but those aspects are far more prone to unconscious bias. To ensure you and your organization align with industry best practices, a validated hiring and selection tool with data-driven insights is essential. Just know that you may be a bit biased, and it’s likely you’re not even aware of some of your biases. Pretty much everyone has what are known as unconscious biases — stereotypes and attitudes that are impacted by past experiences, even things people have forgotten. In the context of hiring and selection, unconscious bias can lead your organization to inadvertently overlook great candidates. It can also derail efforts to create a diverse and equitable workforce. What is unconscious bias? Unconscious bias refers to automatic associations anyone may make involving characteristics such as race, age, gender, disability, height, weight, accent, beliefs derived from prior experiences, even college attended — and how those associations impact interactions with others in those groups. Confirmation bias: The tendency to see information as validating a preexisting belief Affinity bias: The tendency to favor individuals who share your beliefs, experiences, or appearance Halo/horns effect: The tendency to take a look at just one specific trait and end up seeing the person’s overall character as positive or negative These biases may be hidden so well in a person’s automatic actions that they’re not easy to even recognize, much less do something about. But unconscious biases get in the way of hiring diverse, qualified candidates. How to reduce the bias Bias isn’t inherently right or wrong — it’s a normal part of the way our brains interpret patterns and associations. But you need to pay more attention to what your unconscious brain is up to. Many companies offer workforce training on recognizing and dealing with biases. To create a more inclusive and welcoming environment, it’s vital for everyone on the team to be aware of their own biases and work to keep them from impacting how they interact with colleagues and customers. Training and other awareness-raising efforts are not a complete solution, however. There may also be structural issues that open the door to bias. Hiring processes are among those corporate structures that enable bias. How prevalent is unconscious bias? Research and surveying by PXT Select reflect just how prominent this issue is. In one survey, about nine out of ten respondents identified hiring and selection as the number-one organizational process that could be affected by unconscious bias. Recruitment, promotion, and succession planning are potential trouble spots, too, along with interviewing and résumé screening. That’s why it’s so important to create structured, data-driven hiring processes. That includes always using clearly defined hiring criteria, tapping into assessments and other rich sources of data, conducting structured interviews, and including interviewers with diverse backgrounds. Structured processes help hiring managers select the best candidates and reduce the impact of unconscious bias. For example, the data-focused assessments provided through PXT Select yield numerical projections about candidate job fit, steering clear of potentially biased judgments. They also allow interviewers to prepare in a structured manner that’s less likely to be impacted by bias. How do I learn more about unconscious bias? To learn more about how to combat bias in the hiring process, download our free e-book Hiring Successfully For Dummies, PXT Select Special Edition.

Article / Updated 01-06-2023

Making the right hiring choice is essential for your organization because making the wrong one can be downright disastrous. What is job fit? Your goal should be to hire the right person for the job to be done — this concept is known as job fit. Job fit is the ideal approach for selecting a candidate and includes matching their skills and personal characteristics to those needed to excel at a particular job. Without job fit, it is much less likely the person will find the job fulfilling. When a person is not fulfilled in their role, it leads to disengagement, low satisfaction, poor performance, and ultimately, turnover. What is the cost of a bad hire? The cost of hiring poorly can be staggering. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that the cost of a bad hire could amount to 30 percent of a first-year salary. For managerial roles, that cost could be up to 50 percent. A bad hire may mean mediocre job performance, poor productivity, or low accuracy. Add in the time wasted on onboarding and coaching the bad hire, plus the cost of onboarding a replacement. You may also see negative impacts on relationships with clients and brand reputation. A bad hire can also torpedo employee engagement, which, in turn, can lead to costly turnover of other key contributors. How is the job fit approach different than traditional approaches? Hiring is more of a guessing game if you’re going about it with inadequate data. If you’re counting on the traditional tools of a résumé and an interview or two, you’re likely to end up relying too much on intuition. The job-fit approach is your ticket to hiring confidently. Seeking job fit means exploring each candidate’s innate talents, behavioral tendencies, and interests in the context of the job for which they’re being considered. You’re exploring: Whether the candidate can do the job How well the candidate will do the job Whether the candidate will enjoy the job All of these job-fit factors can actually be measured more objectively than you may realize. That’s the approach taken through the PXT Select solution. How can you achieve job fit? The process of achieving job fit begins with creating a performance model for the job. A performance model is a picture of the ideal candidate, setting targets for measurable characteristics of thinking style, behavioral traits, and interests. Then you assess each applicant through computerized adaptive testing (CAT). That results in fit scores to all of the areas spelled out in the performance model, as well as an overall fit percentage to the role. How will obtaining job fit help me? You can imagine how valuable this kind of data can be in comparing one candidate to another. It also can help you find a better role for a candidate who is great in many ways but not the best fit for a particular job. The PXT Select reports also help during the interview process by generating suggested questions based on the candidates’ responses. Through job fit, not only are you better equipped to replicate your top talent, but you also gain insights for discovering the next generation of leaders. Employee retention, talent mobility, promotions, and business succession all are selection processes, and job fit can facilitate these processes. Developing existing talent is particularly important in times of labor shortages. The more your organization looks inward for talent, the more successful you’ll be in any labor marketplace. Job fit is a powerful tool to enable that success. How can I learn more about job fit? To read more about job fit, replicating top talent, and finding the next generation of leaders for your organization, download Hiring Successfully For Dummies, PXT Select Special Edition.

Article / Updated 01-06-2023

The basic aim of the hiring process is to find and select the best fit for the job to be done — a concept known as job fit. Job fit is determined by how closely an individual’s innate talents, behavioral tendencies, and interests align with those predictive of success in a particular role. Essentially, job fit helps you determine if someone can do the job and if they will find fulfillment in the job. But before you can know for sure if they can do the job or if they will find it fulfilling, you need to identify what talents, behaviors, and interests are typical for success in that role. What you really need to accomplish this is a performance model. What is a performance model? The performance model is your recipe for hiring successfully and avoiding all the adverse outcomes that result from a bad hire. The performance model outlines the most desirable traits, which are then used to compare against candidates for the job. There are a few ways to create performance models, but perhaps the most important is the alignment of key stakeholders in the organization on what they need to see from this job What does a performance model measure? A résumé and an interview can inform you about a candidate’s background and experience. What’s missing, though, is objective data indicating how well an individual can do a job and how fulfilling it will be for them. That’s where your performance model steps in, helping you tie individual performance to business strategy by spelling out the required thinking style, behavioral traits, and interests. What cognitive characteristics are assessed through the performance model? Thinking style measures four cognitive characteristics: Verbal skill gauges how a person communicates with others. Verbal reasoning gets into how the person uses words to create relationships between concepts, process messages, and draw conclusions. Numerical ability has to do with numerical calculations. Numerical reasoning explores how a person uses numbers and calculations to solve problems. What behavioral traits are assessed through the performance model? Behavioral traits indicate what a candidate is like on the job. The PXT Select, for example, measures nine behaviors and delivers a fit score comparing how closely aligned a candidate is to the role. Behavioral scales are specific to each job because job requirements are unique and may require a person to lean more one way or the other in one or more of the following areas: Pace: Steady or urgent Assertiveness: Unassuming or forceful Sociability: Reserved or outgoing Conformity: Strong-willed or compliant Outlook: Skeptical or trusting Decisiveness: Deliberate or bold Accommodation: Steadfast or agreeable Independence: Reliant or autonomous Judgment: Intuitive or factual Why are a person’s interests important to factor in the performance model? Interests are also an essential component of the performance model. Interests help predict motivation and potential satisfaction with a given job. The more the person’s interests align with the job’s requirements, the more they will enjoy it. This is critical because we know that people who are happier in their jobs are more productive, more effective, and more engaged. The PXT Select approach considers six interests to help determine job fit: creative, enterprising, financial/administrative, people service, mechanical, and technical. How to build a performance model You can build a performance model by assessing your existing top performers in the role to identify what makes them stars. You then use what you learned from the data to hire others with similar DNA. Building performance models this way is referred to as replicating or cloning top performers. Replicating top performers is among the most effective methods of building performance models because it uses people in the role within the organization who are experiencing success. If you don’t have a big enough sample size of existing stars in that role or you’re recruiting for a completely new position, it isn’t a problem. PXT Select has a library of performance models for many different roles created using O*NET occupational data and other proven methods for creating customized models. How to use assessment results to find the right candidate After you have the performance model to find who you’re looking for, the next step is to assess candidates and identify the best fit. Assessment results offer objective data on how each candidate fits the job requirements and how they compare with one another. Still, selection assessments should never be used as your only tool for hiring. An individual’s prior experience and how they present themselves in the interview should be given equal consideration in any hiring decision. An effective selection tool should also give hiring managers resources and information to enhance and assist during the interview process. PXT Select reports provide you with suggested interview questions to help you focus on areas where things may not be so straightforward or other challenge areas identified in the data. The bottom line is that a performance model is the best way to compare candidates consistently, helping you make unbiased and equitable hiring decisions. PXT Select goes even further by providing you tools (unique reports) for onboarding, coaching, and even up-skilling (sales and leadership) your workforce. How can I learn more about performance models and hiring top talent? To learn more, download Hiring Successfully For Dummies, PXT Select Special Edition.

Article / Updated 09-29-2022

Employer branding is the process of promoting an organization as a great place to work to the kind of talent required by the organization to meet its business goals and objectives. Employer branding focuses on three key areas: Recruitment: Attracting the talent the company needs to achieve its business objectives Engagement: Ensuring that employees become dedicated brand advocates and highly motivated performers Retention: Encouraging talented individuals to continue working at the company and discouraging them from working for the competition Employer branding operates on two interrelated fronts: Reality: First and foremost, employer branding strives to make the company a great place to work. Achieving this goal requires more than competitive salaries and great benefits. Leading employers create a strong sense of purpose, promote diversity and collaboration, empower people, encourage their creativity, and provide opportunities for learning and career development. The strongest employer brands are built on a consistently positive employment experience. Reputation: An exceptional workplace attracts the top talent only if those talented individuals know about it. Marketing is essential to increase awareness, consideration, and preference for your employer brand. Advertising remains important in driving applications, but social media marketing has also become essential in ensuring people engage with and understand what you stand for and offer as an employer.

Article / Updated 09-16-2022

Building an engaged network on Twitter can have a huge positive impact on your employer brand’s recruiting efforts, particularly if you’re recruiting in fields such as knowledge workers, who tend to flock to Twitter. It’s an open platform, meaning anyone can see any content without necessarily following the account, so tweets have the potential of reaching a wider audience. If you don’t know the difference between a hashtag and a price tag, you may want to check out Twitter For Dummies, 3rd Edition, by Laura Fitton, Anum Hussain, and Brittany Leaning (Wiley). Picking up strategies by observing others Before you venture into any unfamiliar social gathering, whether online or not, hang out for a while and observe how others in the community interact. When you’re setting out to establish an employer brand presence on Twitter, observe other Twitter accounts that have strong positive employer brands and take note of the content they tweet, the tone or voice, and how they interact with potential candidates. You can find plenty of role models on Twitter; here are examples of a few good corporate accounts you may want to follow: @NPRjobs, @JoinTheFlock, @PepsiCoJobs, @MicrosoftJobs, @ViacomCareers, @InsideZappo, and @HootsuiteLife. Try following your peers and competitors on Twitter to find out what they’re doing to compete for talent. Check out the collection of more than 250 brand recruiting handles on Twitter. Using hashtags to source candidates for your employer brand Most employer branding efforts are designed around pull marketing (attracting prospects), but sourcing is a push marketing technique that involves proactively recruiting individuals with high-value skills and expertise. The focus here is on building a strong employer brand, but Twitter is also a good platform for recruiters and organizations to identify and engage with prospects who may not even be in the market for a new job. When posting job notices on Twitter, include function- or job-specific hashtags in your tweets (for example, #digitalmarketing, #PR, #webdesign, or #accounting). You can find function- or skill-specific hashtags by searching the web for “job seeker hashtags.” Tread carefully when using hashtags. If you’re oversharing jobs with event hashtags, you’ll likely face blowback for spamming. You can also use Twitter to source candidates by keeping an eye on hashtags relevant to positions you’re trying to fill. For example, if you’re recruiting Drupal developers, keep an eye on the hashtags: #Drupal, #DrupalCon, #Drupal8, and so on to see what these communities are talking about and to identify influential developers. If you’re recruiting marketing managers, keep an eye on #marketing, #digitalmarketing, #marketingresearch, #mktg, and so on. Plenty of tools are available to help you identify influencers within various hashtag communities. Here are a few to check out: Google Trends Audiense Hashtags Sourcing local talent? These tools and others enable you to search for people talking about relevant topics within a certain mile radius of your company. Engaging prospects for your employer brand When you’re posting tweets, which are essentially very brief, overlooking the necessity of offering followers something of real value is far too easy. Keep the focus on delivering valuable content. Share behind-the-scenes photos or videos to help prospects get a sense of what it’s like to work for your company. Share articles and resources about your industry. Join Twitter chats and share your insights and expertise. Interact with your followers. Try to respond to every @mention and question. Engagement and interaction are vital for building community. Getting your employees involved with your employer brand To fully harness the power of Twitter, get employees involved. Candidates don’t want to hear only from employer brand managers; they want to hear from peers doing the work they (prospects) may be doing for your company in the near future. They want to talk shop with the people who may someday be their colleagues. Great talent can recognize similar talent. Consider developing internal programs that encourage employees to share their knowledge and expertise in online communities where you recruit. By increasing their visibility in certain professional circles and establishing themselves as experts in those communities, your employees can expand their own professional networks while helping you identify and attract talented prospects. Prospects want to hear from your employees. That product manager you’ve been wooing wants to see tweets from your product team that will help them get a feel for the work, team atmosphere, culture, and so on. You may share supremely clever and compelling content on Twitter, but you’re still an HR guy or gal. You have an agenda to bring talent into your organization, so of course your posts are biased. Gauging your employer brand’s Twitter impact You can use any of several available tools to measure the reach, retweets, impressions, and so on related to your tweeting activity. You should also be measuring applications and hires coming from Twitter through your applicant tracking software (ATS). Use these tools to adjust your campaigns regularly. You may be tempted to obsess over your number of followers. Don’t let that be your primary indicator as to whether your account is successful. If you focus on providing valuable content and engaging your community, followers will come. Focus on this and you’ll have something better than followers; you’ll have brand advocates who bring you the best talent available.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 09-01-2022

Training and development can be incredibly rewarding, but it is also filled with challenges. This Cheat Sheet aims to cut to the chase in several key areas that trainers deal with all the time. You'll find succinct tips on avoiding pitfalls, designing great visuals, and loads of quick ideas to improve your sessions.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 04-11-2022

These days, strong leadership is more important than ever. Companies with great leaders significantly outperform their peers. At the same time, globalization, attrition, and changing demographics have led to a scarcity of executive talent. As a result, the competition for top leadership talent is fierce. If you want to ensure your company's survival by hiring great leaders, you'll need some effective way to find them, hire them, and ensure they stick around.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 04-05-2022

Performance management is a continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing the performance of individuals and teams and aligning their performance with the strategic goals of an organization. A performance management system is a key tool to transform people’s talent and motivation into a strategic business advantage.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-25-2022

Let’s face it. Although the term diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) may be common knowledge, it’s not commonly understood. Moreover, as the workforce continues to be redefined by demographic shifts, this adds additional layers of complexities and responsibilities for leaders. You already have a lot on your plate, and with DEI becoming a greater focus for many companies, it can be daunting to be expected to know all that you should in demonstrating new behaviors and practices and making decisions. The following sections provide a quick reference to give you food for thought, best practices, and strategies on some key DEI considerations, as well as guidance on how to perform an aspect of DEI effectively.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-22-2022

When you're a business coach or mentor, you have a lot to manage, and you may be a one-man or one-woman show. How do you keep all aspects of your practice moving forward? Use the at-a-glance tips in this Cheat Sheet to help you navigate the world of business coaching and mentoring.