Increasingly, companies are evaluating job candidates on how well they fit their corporate culture — not just job.
It’s an important consideration, as shrinking budgets and economic uncertainty put a squeeze on corporate environments and demand smarter hiring practices.
Filling open positions can be a grueling, expensive and lengthy process. According to recent research by global human resources firm DBM, 94 percent find average job search is taking four to six months, with majority seeing most job seekers taking about five months to secure employment. And finding a new, senior-level position in current job market takes more than 12 months, compared to about seven months in 1998.
To manage more extensive search process, many companies are using personality assessments to find right person for their company. In fact, one third of 2,100 human resource managers recently surveyed by American Management Association were incorporating personality profiling into their hiring decision-making process.
Personality testing allows companies to go beyond first impressions and analyze true value of candidates’ skills and character. The goal is to determine how combination of two will fit into organization.
Considering a job candidate’s characteristics can help employers determine if that person has right ability and adaptability for their work environment. For example: a new hire may have outstanding abilities, but if he doesn’t have communication skills to work well with a team, he may not be best candidate. The company may be better off hiring a great communicator with average skills that can be improved upon with training instead.
The bottom line is: Personality assessments can help companies hire right employee — and retain them longer. And employee retention saves companies money and valuable time due to lost productivity and costs associated with recruiting and hiring.
In addition to personality testing, more businesses are relying on expertise of innovative firms like ASearch LLC to help them identify best candidates for job and company. ASearch is a Connecticut executive search firm that heavily factors a potential employee’s character into recruitment and hiring process.
In his 30 years of organizational development consulting, Bruce Clinton has watched too many poor executive hires endanger success of organizations. But very few executives fail because of their resume, says Clinton, a founding partner of ASearch. “Most failures are due to lack of right behavioral or cultural fit.”
If you only hire on experience, he poses, how do you deal with behavior and chemistry that walks in door? “We help hiring authority get beyond tip of iceberg, which is resume, experience, interview and references…to find best fit for organization's culture and job requirements.”
ASearch takes an in-depth approach that helps its clients lower their transaction costs. The company provides value-added services such as a company culture analysis of executive team. As a result, job candidates submitted to companies will all meet cultural and behavioral requirements for position and will have third-party assessments to verify their qualifications. Therefore, their clients generally only need to review a few candidates to find best match.
ASearch’s process guarantees suitability of candidates and removes risk of a poor fit. “Our value proposition is not offered by all search firms,” Clinton says. “As a matter of fact, I don't know of any that do all we do.”
The company’s approach is evidenced by its bold slogan: “We go beyond search. We take risk and doubt out of your next critical executive hire.”
ASearch is a major New England search firm that represents decades of organizational development, executive search and assessment experience. Following are questions and answers about company’s background and perspective on executive search process. More information is available at company’s Website at www.asearchllc.com.
Q: Why did you start ASearch? A: I saw this as an opportunity to fill a gap in an under serviced and misunderstood market of closely-held businesses. I believe small and medium sized businesses are key to our economic growth and felt that this retained search business could make a positive difference. And between my background and that of my two partners, we had an exceptional value to offer key executives and company owners.
Q: Tell us about your experience. A: My background is over 30 years of organizational development consulting to closely-held and family businesses. Prior to this, I was owner and president of a residential real estate business with two locations plus a new home sales division; president and owner of a land development company; and general partner of a limited partnership which developed 200 acres of land into a luxury subdivision of 96 lots. I later joined consulting company that helped me build my real estate business when I sold it to one of my managers in mid-seventies.