"Hiring in the New Millennium - Can you afford not to use Assessments?"

RAYMOND A. INGLESI, M.A. PRESIDENT AND FOUNDING PRINCIPAL

Business Profile Magazine

Case Study

The Stafford Corporation screened a number of candidates for their CEO position, soon to be vacated by their successful, long-term CEO of twelve years.

The search firm presented the Chairman and the Board of Directors with several candidates. After careful reference checking and a series of rigorous interviews, two candidates emerged as having the qualifications to lead the company. Both finalists seemed eminently qualified to run the two billion-dollar retail company and face the challenges of the next decade. The candidates were comparable in many ways, including years of experience in the business, professionally trained and groomed for a senior level position and both seemed to have excellent leadership and management skills.

The next step was for the candidates to go through an assessment process.

They each participated in an intensive examination, which consisted of a lengthy interview with the evaluator and a battery of comprehensive tests, surveys and questionnaires. It became apparent to the evaluator that one of the candidates was superior and a better "fit" for the CEO position for this company. The second candidate, Bill, was lacking in conceptual depth.

Unfortunately, it is not always the most qualified or superior candidate who gets the job and the company did not listen to the findings of the evaluator. In this case, the lesser candidate, Bill, was chosen to be the new CEO.

As with all new hires, there is a certain degree of subjectivity that goes into the final selection. Bill successfully impressed the key decision-makers with his "down to earth" style, superb knowledge of the operations side of the business, personal charm and sense of decency.

This gentleman remained as CEO for less than eighteen months before he was asked to resign. Within the year it became apparent to many of the executives, the Chairman and the Board of Directors, that Bill was clearly lacking vision, could not inspire his people and, therefore, was losing credibility as their leader. This CEO failed, primarily because he was lacking the ability to think conceptually and, therefore, could not create a vision for the future of this organization.

The formal assessment brought to light this evidence to the hiring committee, but they chose to overlook this important data and placed more weight on other factors. Bill would have made a superb COO because his strengths were in the area of retail operations but not in running the entire company, particularly in terms of creating a vision and strategy to move the company forward.

This was an expensive and painful lesson for this company. They lost significant business momentum, and the employees were disillusioned by ineffectual leadership on the part of the new CEO. It is hard to measure the true costs of this mistake. The hard costs alone associated with the CEO hire and separation amounted to nearly $1.5M. And, after Bill vacated his position, the CEO position was vacant for nine months before a successor was hired. The new CEO had more than surpassed the critical competencies of the position and, of course, had the conceptual and visionary abilities so necessary in a top-level position.

The case study above is but an example of why formal assessments of key positions are often critical to the hiring process. The assessment process provides the hiring manager with important information not easily extracted from the typical interview process. Most importantly, it removes a great deal of the subjectivity that often influences the thinking and, therefore, the conclusions drawn by the hiring manager. In the above example, the candidates were examined from several key perspectives. (See Diagram A)

The assessment process is also widely used as a tool for assisting managers in the professional development of their direct reports. One of the great challenges that managers and leaders face is understanding the full range of capabilities and talents of the people that report to them. Often they are so busy focused on business objectives, travel and a myriad of other responsibilities that they do not come to know their direct reports intimately. Consequently, they assign projects or activities to them that are inappropriate or do not match their talents, abilities and interests. A Developmental Assessment examines the above categories (see Diagram A), thereby, providing specific data that can assist both the direct report and the manager in making prudent and responsible decisions regarding the appropriateness of the project.

As an example, if the task requires that the employee have excellent organizational skills and be attentive to detail and order, and the ability to function autonomously, the test data can identify accurately whether this direct report indeed has these attributes. Lacking these specific traits, it is possible that the direct report may fail in this task and, in doing so, jeopardize advancement opportunities for the future. Of course, if the employee has all of the appropriate credentials to do the job, but is lacking in these two areas, the manager may determine that with proper support and resources the employee is still the best person to accomplish the task. The important point here is with a Developmental Assessment the manager and the direct report go into this contract knowing full well the possible problems or "land mines". Putting in place corrective or preventative measures adds more assurance that the job will get done satisfactorily.

The Assessment Process uses various "tools" such as test instruments, questionnaires and surveys. These tools provide specific data regarding the key categories noted in Diagram A. As in the examples noted above, the first being a Candidate Assessment (new hire) and the other a Developmental Assessment, the findings from the assessment process provide important clues and data to support the manager's decision. The evaluator will provide a fairly detailed written report summarizing the principal findings to include very specific strengths and limitations. When an assessment is utilized, it is important that the assessment findings are integrated within the context of the overall process and include other information pertinent to the situation. The data should never be used in and of itself to make critical decisions.

A competent evaluator brings to the assessment process three important elements: 1) A background and understanding of the role of tests in the assessment of professionals; 2) An academic and experiential history of working with people and understanding of the personality structure and other facets of the individual; and 3) A solid understanding of the corporate culture and, of course, the exact position and/or career track that the individual is being considered for. These three elements are crucial to providing the hiring manager with the proper feedback gathered from the assessment process.

* The following extract from the 16PF test is one of many used to assess professional candidates.

As an example of how these scales can affect the decision about the candidate or a current employee, let us examine the Expedient/Conscientious Scale. A professional who scores to the far left of the scale is someone who may not always follow rules and procedures in an exact fashion. They are inclined toward getting to the end result as quickly as possible. An individual favoring the right tends to be conforming and attentive to following the rules and procedures to the "letter of the law." Without understanding the position requirements or the career path of the individual, it is difficult to determine if the individual's profile in this regard is favorable or unfavorable. However, let us assume for the moment that the position in question requires careful attention to detail, order and procedure. It is likely that the individual who falls far left on this scale may experience some difficulty.

Let us take one other item from this testing. The individual on the left of the Forthright/Shrewd Scale, favors being more forthright, tends to be unpretentious, open and less political. The opposite is true of the individual who falls to the far right. This individual tends to be diplomatic, calculating and often purposely political. Again, depending on the nature of the job, the individual in question may be a perfect fit or be out of place. A work culture that prides itself on treating people in an honest and open manner may find the politically inclined employee to be manipulative or not perceived as honest.

We can see the possible implications from these two examples in terms of how the individual "fits" within the organization, which then can ultimately affect their performance and competency on the job.

In conclusion, the assessment process is a vital tool and resource for management. It assists management in making informed decisions about a new hire and about an individual's promotion or suitability for a particular task or career path. These are crucial decisions affecting the long-term viability and success of the organization!

Cathy Psaros
Vice President of Human Resources
Staples, Inc.

"I see Drake Inglesi Milardo's assessments as being invaluable--their assessments of outside candidates is vital because they validate the individual's interpersonal capabilities and cultural fit with Hannaford. Using their assessments internally have provided us our best performance improvement outcomes-it is powerful process for people to have their strengths highlighted and to receive true feedback on their obstacles to success."

Barbara Irish
Manager of Employment and Development
Hannaford Bros. Co.

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If you would like to speak to Raymond Inglesi about the article or our assessment services please call him at 207-772-2823.