Why You Shouldn't Trust Your Gut When Making Hiring Decisions

DON'T TRUST YOUR GUT (when making hiring decisions!)

Recruitment in the time of COVID19 is a thing. With the nation going in and out of  lockdowns, the positive reality is that work still needs to be done, and we need people to do it – take Amazon’s creation of 100,000 new jobs for example, or closer to home – Coles’ creation of 5,000+ casual jobs. In times like this, where people are working via distance and can’t orchestrate interviews and assessment centres, it’s easy to adopt the mindset of ‘trusting your gut’ on hiring decisions – something we know is crawling with bias. However, this need not be the case! There are plenty of distance-friendly solutions for assessing your candidates. Certain industries, in particular suppliers and supermarkets, are dealing with extreme recruitment volumes (because we all keep hoarding their products) and are actually finding the socially distant methods as the most effective!

 

DISTANCE-FRIENDLY, EVIDENCE-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR ASSESSING YOUR CANDIDATES

You may not be interested in getting up close and personal with your candidates, but there are still many online solutions available that can help you deal with these colossal applicant volumes and make the best hiring decisions:

  • Online psychometric testing, whether it be cognitive or behavioural, can give you a reliable and market-leading prediction of how your candidates will perform on-the-job (or from home!) and is quick, objective, and easy to compare across large groups of candidates.

      • Don’t forget your assessment debriefs with our psychology team can be done over the phone, via web-link, or in written reports too!

  • Video Interviewing allows you to screen many candidates at once by allowing you to view and rate short videos of candidates answering your organisation’s questions. You can adjust the time in between each video, and whether you’d like them to be able to re-record or not, all from the safety behind your computer screen.

  • The combination of these methods provides a strong prediction of candidates’ on-the-job performance, without the risks associated with face-to-face interviews and assessment centres.

CHOOSING BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES: KEY SKILLS TO LOOK FOR WHEN HIRING IN A CRISIS

Emotional Intelligence

Computers are trading our money for us, supermarket checkouts are automated and cars are driving themselves. Computers have the ability to synthesise and analyse information for us, but what can’t they do? Empathise. In the age of AI, emotional intelligence skills are the main thing computers can’t do better than us and are therefore being seen as a must-have in the next 3-5 years. Also, what do you need most when the corona anxiety hits? Not a hug! But someone to listen (preferably from 1.5-2 meters away).

Adjusting To Change

Change orientation is a highly sought-after skill, and its relevance is peaking right now. Changes in the workplace are inevitable and necessary for growth but are sometimes feared by employees for a range of reasons. For example, restructuring and new developments can result in fear of failure, rejection, and criticism. In the midst of COVID19, the world we know is feeling unstable. Now is the time to focus on candidates who can work flexibly, and adopt a positive attitude in the light of confusion and uncertainty.

Resilience

Humans find comfort in the safety and predictability of everyday routine. It’s normal to feel unsettled in the face of such changes, however, resilient people are more likely to adapt, think positively, and overcome challenges. Resilience is a key competency to test for during this pandemic to promote effective productivity and organisational culture.

The experts at Testgrid are able to create behavioural frameworks specific to competencies necessary for your organisation at this time, so you can focus on hiring employees who embody these relevant behaviours. If you would like to know more, get in touch with our team for a gap analysis.

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