SELECTION EDGE

BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT TOOLS
JOB BENCHMARK

Problem

We hire for hard skills and fire for lack of soft skills – hire people for what they know and fire them for who they are.

When hiring to fill a particular position, many organizations fail to find the best match available because they hire for the skills necessary to do a particular job but do not pay sufficient attention to the behaviors that will make a person successful in that position in their environment.

Job descriptions describe the hard skills necessary, but no thought is given to the behavioral styles that will really determine whether the person will be able to perform as required.

Solution

The Job Benchmarking system was developed to assess the behaviors, Motivators and Core Competencies that are needed for successful performance in a particular job. By focusing on the aspects of what would make the incumbent successful, this system delivers an objective view of job requirements.

If the job itself could talk, this is what it would say about the behaviors needed for an incumbent to be successful.

Process

A group of up to five people comprising a mix of the manager, incumbent (if appropriate), peers and subordinates complete a questionnaire about the job in question.

The online questionnaire comprises 150 questions designed to uncover the behavioral styles that the job calls for. Inevitably, different people within the hierarchy have different opinions about the rankings and it is important to capture all the different points of view.

Once the questionnaires have been completed, the reports of all the contributors are combined to create a merged benchmark report which describes the ideal behavioral, motivational and core competence metrix for the position.

It identifies styles, behaviors and values, and presents core competency information to show the soft skills required for the position. The merged benchmarking report also contains sample interview questions that can be used to focus on what have been identified as key areas.   

Prospective candidates can be assessed using the Personal Talent questionnaire which produces a report that matches the benchmark report. Applicants can be screened using the results so that management time is spent on the candidates who exhibit the appropriate hard skills secure in the knowledge that they also have the behavioral style to succeed.