When to profile

It should not be so much a matter of “Could this person do the job?” It should be a question of “Is this the very best candidate available for this role?”

Would you prefer to employ a candidate based on their grooming, choice of tie and plausibility, or would you consider respect for commitment, tenacity and adaptability to be more important to their role? Gut feel is no longer good enough in the staff selection process – well, not if you want to build a strong Team to compete in the rough and tumble that is today’s commercial world!

Recent studies prove that many of the most common reasons good staff leave their secure employment revolve about the stress of the role. It is also known that much of this stress can be caused by the fact that they may not be a good fit for that role. Nobody denies that they may be doing a great job, but the hard cold reality is that, unless an employee is truly suited to that job, in that environment, they will be putting stresses onto themselves that simply can not be endured on a daily basis. With their health inevitably deteriorating, the seemingly good employee leaves to seek greener pastures. Profiling can help you to identify those candidates who may appear to be right for the job, are even able to complete it to the satisfaction of an employer, but just are not the right fit. Good employee – wrong job.

We appreciate that cost factors may play some part in your decision of who and when to profile. However, if you seek the very best results, we recommend the following process, following advertising, and the receipt of applications:

1. The Practical Considerations
   Inevitably there are going to be applications which can be discarded from the outset. The applicant does not have the experience, or the qualifications, you require. They do not have a driver’s license, can only work part-time, or whatever criteria would simply be impractical to consider as satisfactory. Clearly it would be a waste of your time and theirs to interview such candidates, if there is no realistic chance of your being able to offer them a job. Depending on the requirements of the job, it is likely that somewhere between about 10% and 30% of the applications may be rejected on this basis.
2. The Objective Selection Criteria
   Having narrowed the field down to only those who MAY be suited to the job, this is the very best time to apply the profiling tests. (You may choose, or have the luxury of being able, to eliminate a sector of candidates at this point as being only possible rather than probable, perfect matches.) A Job Match Profiling test at this point can give you a very clear indication of which candidates are most appropriate to go forward to interview. Perhaps more importantly, these profiles can indicate which candidates are NOT suited to progress further. This leaves you free to spend valuable time only with strong candidates. The reports from the profiling test will also indicate which areas of the candidates profile may suggest targeted probing with specific questions relating to areas of concern.
3. The Subjective Selection Criteria
   With only those candidates who have been identified as having the right education, qualifications, experience and practical compatibility (all from their CV or written application), and the right temperament, people skills, leadership style, competencies and work ethic (and other traits, all from the profile testing), an interview can then make a selection far more likely to be most favourable to a long term relationship. With the best will in the world, it is difficult for most of us to interview without allowing our subjective judgment to influence our opinions. However, this is not such a bad thing – after all you need to have a workable relationship with your staff, if you want the operation of your business to be without unnecessary conflict or irritants. With the information offered by the profiling, you have the opportunity to investigate potential pitfalls and make your subjective decision based on responses.

In the event that you choose to use Job Match Profiling only to test the short-listed candidates after interview, you need to understand that your subjective judgment may have already eliminated what is potentially the candidate most likely to be the elusive “PERFECT MATCH” – perhaps because he was a bit nervous, and stumbled over one aspect of your interview, or even just had a bit of her lunch on her jacket.

We urge you to make the best decision for long-term mutual success. This is best done by using Job Match Profiling as early as practicable and affordable in the process.