Knowledge Center

Looking Beyond the Resume to Find Great Hires
By Michael D. Novack and Eugene Oksman

If "compensation" is the first thing a job candidate looks at when considering whether or not to apply for a job, "qualifications" is next in line. Companies, on the other hand, immediately toss applications into the trash if they do not include the three to five or even ten years of experience the job calls for, and applicants know this. Proper job-search-etiquette dictates that a candidate not apply for a job if he or she does not meet the complete qualifications.

It is this screening process that discourages workers from finding the job that best suits them, and as a result, places and keeps people in positions they do not want to be in, do not belong in, and in which they do not perform at their highest level.

New additions to the workforce are not exactly welcome with open arms and are frequently forced to accept whatever work they can find, even if it is not in their desired position, or even their desired field. This is where the problem begins.

Seasoned workers who recognize they are not in the right position are discouraged from finding the job that is right for them by a system that emphasizes not only experience, but experience specific to one’s desired field or position. This is where the problem is cultivated.

What this system does promote, at best, is lateral movement, or what psychologist Herbert M. Greenberg, Ph.D., refers to as "recirculating mediocrity."

"Perhaps the biggest mistake companies make is hiring on the basis of experience," Greenberg says. "When they find someone with that so-called "ten years" of experience doing similar work, more often than not they find that the individual really has one year's rotten experience repeated ten times, and any manager in the world will validate that."

In 1961, Greenberg developed a test to assess individuals' strengths and weaknesses as a tool to facilitate greater sales success. He quickly realized that it was also a useful tool to help match job seekers with a wider variety of appropriate positions, and created Caliper, a company which has provided coaching, assessment and consulting on behalf of over 25,000 companies.

"We all walk around with a lot of potential," Greenberg said. "Too few people actually work to that potential because they don't work at what they should be working at. They are sort of performing at a mediocre level, and a lot of talent is wasted."

Since 1961, Caliper has assessed more than 2,000,000 candidates, and within that, more than 4,000 athletes for professional sports franchises.

From his work with executives from a vast cross-section of the entrepreneurial spectrum, Greenberg made some revealing discoveries about hiring and staffing practices.

For one thing, Greenberg found that companies which focus primarily or exclusively on applicants' resumes often miss out on some great hires. While resumes can provide a wealth of information about an applicant's track record, they fail to provide insight into an individual's personality and work ethics.

You may get a better idea of what a person is like based on their interview, but Greenberg says he too frequently hears, "but they looked so good in the interview," from corporate executives frustrated with the quick turnover of new employees that seemed so promising.

Greenberg suggests that in order to truly make solid hiring decisions a company must obtain insight into the personalities of its applicants.

While Caliper and Kiosite offer companies many services to make the hiring process easier, faster and more effective, the personality tests it provides are ultimately what sets the company apart from others in the industry, giving clients an edge on competition through a system that provides a glimpse into what lies beyond the written word.

"I'm seeing better qualified candidates," said Michelle Shanker, human resources assistant at Thompson Coburn LLP, who said the number of applicants the company receives varies from position to position, but can sometimes be overwhelming in a firm which has a small human resource department serving approximately 700 people.

"What Kiosite does is help us narrow (the resumes) down...The qualifying questions eliminate the need to manually review every resume."

Shanker said the platform helps her determine which applicants will be a good fit, "not just for the organization, but for the specific area the candidates are applying for."

Clients are able to customize Kiosite's HireTrue suite of assessments not only for their company, but specifically for each department or even position they are looking to fill. The position and the nature of that position dictates how the applications are ranked and what personality-types get filtered out. The tool provides critical information about specific strengths and weaknesses of a particular candidate when compared against an ideal template established by the client.

When a company is looking to hire a salesperson, for example, it might prioritize confidence, sociability and assertiveness above other qualities. When that same company is looking to hire an administrative assistant, on the other hand, other traits–such as thoroughness and helpfulness—might be of greater importance.

At the same time, it is probably safe to say that there are some qualities—such as honesty and reliability—that are considered important across the board.

Of course the question we hear time and time again is; how reliable is such a test? "Won't people just answer what they think we want to hear?"

Indeed, some statistics state that roughly one in three job applicants lies on his or her resume.

While it is safe to say that an applicant will always attempt to put his or her best foot forward, HireTrue works to unearth truths about applicants' personality traits through forced-choice methodology, which makes it a bit more difficult to simply answer what you think you are supposed to answer.

For example, let's say you are asked whether you would categorize yourself as "uncreative" or "observant." Chances are, you would choose the latter. What if, however, you were asked whether you would categorize yourself as "observant," "active," "uncreative," or "unforgiving." While you would probably steer clear of the last two, your choice between the first two would be very telling. Through questions such as these, HireTrue in effect forces applicants to make decisions and reveal something about themselves. The different forms of questions used work together to paint a highly descriptive profile. The client company is then provided with insightful information about applicants.

The insight provided from the HireTrue assessment does not stand on its own, however. Client companies are expected to take what they learn from the assessments and use that information to help guide them along the hiring process. For instance, the company is provided with interview questions based on the applicant's individual strengths and weaknesses as gleaned from the assessment. This enables the interviewer to get the most out of the interview and use that interview together with the assessment to obtain the best possible understanding of the applicant.

The information provided can also help the company with human resource decisions other than the actual hiring. For example, having a solid understanding of a new employee's personality can help with placement by providing insight into team dynamics and manager/subordinate chemistry.

"Companies often fail to look at the chemistry between a manager and a subordinate, which is often a cause of failure," Greenberg said, likening the situation to a divorce. "More often than not there isn't one hero and one heroine; it may be two perfectly good people, but they are not right for each other. That chemistry is often ignored."

Greenberg also said understanding an employee's personality can help companies do a better job at successful incentives.

"They set up system policies and compensation plans with no regard to who the people are that you're asking to implement those systems."

In general, Greenberg said the overlying problem lies in a philosophy that relies on "one size fits all, which it never does."

The basic premise is that a company that has improved insight into its applicants personalities will undoubtedly make more informed decisions not only when hiring but when operating in general, and as a result benefit from improved productivity, reduced turnover rates, and improved morale overall, as employees are more consistently placed in positions that play to their individual strengths, and kept happy in an environment that caters more successfully to their needs.

Note: Michael D. Novack, Chief Executive Officer, and Eugene Oksman, Vice President of Product Development and Operations, Kiosite. This article was republished from Employment Marketplace