By Tonya Lanthier
“If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.”
—H. James Harrington
Interviewing a new hire can be a lot like a blind date. You show up with very little information about the person and rely on your gut to tell you whether to stay and finish dinner or escape when they go to the bathroom.
Like blind dates, most managers rely on small bits of information from potential hires: previous work experience, resume, and schooling then make a decision based on a gut feeling during the interview. They are confident they know their business and can determine if a candidate will be a good fit long term.
Unfortunately, the research suggests humans are easily distracted by inconsequential bits of information and are terrible at synthesizing information consistently. When the Harvard Business Review studied intuition vs. data driven hiring they found data does a much better job than human intuition.
Why I believe in data driven hiring
Early in my career I held temporary positions in over 100 dental offices. The variance in my experience from office to office was shocking. Some offices worked like well-oiled machines. The team was cohesive, the management was stellar, and patients were happy. Other offices were dysfunctional messes. Each day was filled with bickering, back stabbing, disregard for leadership, and mismanaged patients.
What I began to piece together was that successful offices hired the right people. Interestingly, the things I noticed that separated the great teams from the dysfunctional teams were the teams’ compatibility in four areas:
- Communication behavior style
- Values
- Skills
- Culture
The offices that hired teams well-matched in these focus areas were successful. Over time I began helping friends find work, falling into a role of matchmaker between offices and potential employees. I realized I needed a standardized way to place people in offices where they would be well-suited based on their communication, skills, values, and culture.
The best data for the best fit
My early experience temping gave me insight into what kind of data matters when both hiring a new employee and searching for a new job. Often our intuition leads us to hire people that are like us. Research has proven this time and time again. We hire people who look, talk, and act like us.
However, if you hire a team full of dominant, quick decision makers that are only focused on the bottom line, you are in for an epic clash of too many chiefs. A good team requires a variety of temperaments and communication styles.
To hire based on these metrics, I developed a platform that not only allows for job seekers to show their work experience, but also scores them based on their communication style, values, and cultural needs. When prospective employers are looking to build a team, they can find someone who fits their needs. On the other hand, candidates can also find job opportunities consistent with their needs and values.
Measuring communication and behavior style
Our job seekers complete a dominance, inducement, submission, and compliance (DISC) personality test in order to better understand their own communication and behavior as well as learn how to notice and adapt to other styles. In a nutshell the DISC test helps us understand:
- Who you are and how your personality affects others
- How to appreciate and respect personality differences
- How a team can play nice in the “sandbox”
- How we can be more effective working as a team
DISC provides insight into what some have called emotional intelligence (EI). This assessment helps employees and employers become self-aware and attentive to differences—therefore, better able to interact with others based on their DISC type.
If, for example, a manager needs to hire a dental assistant that works well with others, loves to talk and interact with patients, and has great energy he or she can find someone who fits the temperament they are looking for. Additionally, candidates who know their DISC style can more easily search out jobs where they will be a good personality fit.
For instance, if the job seeker finds they are an ‘I’ or an influencer personality, (someone who is socially inclined and hates to be bogged down by details) he or she may not want to apply for a job whose boss falls into the ‘C’ or compliance quadrant (he or she would need systematic and detailed reports).
Measuring values
We define values as those core beliefs that motivate us to get out of bed in the morning. We begin with a list of over 100 terms and ask employees to narrow their core values down to three. Articulating what drives you can help determine if you will be a good fit for a company.
If your core values are: making a difference, kindness, and joy and you see an employer whose core values are: power, competition, and innovation it is obvious it may not be the best fit. When values are misaligned employees can feel alienated and unfulfilled. Our values give us purpose and carrying out our purpose leads to happiness.
Measuring skills
Of course, there are hard skills that are required for each job. It is important to know how familiar or competent potential hires are in certain areas like technology, tools, and procedures. For each skill the job seeker rates themselves on a proficiency scale:
Level of ProficiencyLevel 0 = Not Familiar Level 1 = Familiar With Level 2 = Experienced In Level 3 = Expert |
The strength based result can better help employees match their skills to what employers are looking for and vice versa.
Measuring culture
The final area critical to a company’s success is a solid work culture. As an employer you have expectations and values surrounding the work environment—everything from scheduling to the way your team is dressed. We have found the following keys in finding a good fit for both employee and employer:
- Schedule
- Pace
- Tools/technology
- Ethics
- Flexibility
- Dress Code
- Social
- Supervisory style
- Decor
For example, if you are an employer who likes a fast-paced day and prefer to allow your team to have a great deal of autonomy over their work, you need to hire people that value a high-paced work day with little supervision.
Putting the pieces together
Hard data is the best way for candidates and employers to get a truer picture of one another. If left to intuition alone hiring managers may ‘feel good’ about a candidate but not realize the person has a difficult time working in a busy office, and may end up quitting after 3 months. Having hard data helps employees and employers avoid such mismatches, saving a great deal of time and money.
Linking the right employee to the right job based on data has positive impact on both employee job satisfaction and the business’s bottom line. Employers find people based on the personality type or communication style they need and job seekers can look for offices that have targeted needs they know they can meet. Not only is a data driven hiring system a time saver on both ends, the job satisfaction and team cohesion resulting from the process for both employee and employer is unmatched.
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Tonya Lanthier started