We hear “evidence based” a great deal today, evidence based medicine, evidence based management . A main driver is the trend toward data analytics which helps us make evidence based decisions. We are now hearing the terms “evidence based hiring” and “evidence based selection” as a type of HR Analytics.
Evidence based hiring defined: Evidence-based selection is a process that leverages the use of highly relevant quantitative information about applicants to improve selection decisions. We are applying data-based decision processes to talent acquisition decisions.
Research shows traditional hiring methods that only include applications/resumes and interviews are ineffective and lead to gut-feel hiring. Hiring decisions, like many other decisions, improve significantly when based on objective evidence.
At PDServices, we have been in the evidence based hiring business for 25 years. We help clients create benchmarks of high performing employees and use the benchmark with our pre-employment testing tools to help identify candidates who display those same characteristics.
This type of approach helps:
Our customers find great value in discussing and documenting the traits they are looking for in a specific job at the start of the hiring process. Stakeholders in this process include hiring managers, recruiters, and any others you feel should have input. We challenge stakeholders to identify objective, measurable traits as much as possible. We use this input to create a “benchmark” of traits that will lead to high performance..
The Harvard Business Review published research showing objective data that has a high correlation to performance in the job:
Other objective data that may have value in your specific job benchmark includes but is not limited to:
The best benchmarks are created by gathering and analyzing data from your top performing employees. There are challenges to this approach. First, it is critical that top performing employees are identified by objective metrics to eliminate subjectivity and bias. Second, many organizations don’t have the benefit of having enough high performers in a given position to make a valid analysis. In those cases, PDServices can provide data based on multi-company research, for cognitive and personality traits which should be included in your benchmark. Other sources like www.onetcenter.org, industry organizations and your own experience may also help.
In our experience, the broader the net for objective data, as long as it is relevant to the job, the better the result. You may find it appropriate to use a weighting scale to show the importance of particular traits. It helps if you can identify “knock-outs” which may disqualify candidates early in the process. For example, if you know a mechanical engineering degree is critical to high performance, you can immediately knock out any candidate that does not have a mechanical engineering degree.
Determine the best sources for data and assign responsibilities to those involved in your hiring process.
Data can be sourced in a variety of ways. Generally, multiple data sources are needed. Candidate provided data may be inaccurate so it can pay dividends to compare results from multiple sources. Some sources include:
Be as objective as possible, recognizing that some traits in your benchmark may be hard to measure on a completely objective basis. For example, if you need to rely on an interviewer to assess certain skill sets, strive for objective questions and use a rating scale to reduce subjectivity as much as possible
Organize your data into a spreadsheet or some other grid to help you objectively evaluate how well candidates fit with your benchmark. This will help you drive your hiring decision by making it an evidence based hiring decision.
Take a second now to contact PDServices at info@PDServices.com or call 740-326-4494 to discuss this approach and to give job fit assessment testing a try in your organization. It’s easy, it’s inexpensive, it provides a great ROI, and you’ll be on your way to better hiring decisions!
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