How many times have you heard a hiring manager decide on a hire because of “good chemistry?” Be honest with this one: Have you ever hired someone for the same reason?
Sure everyone has. OK, OK. Not you there in the back row, but most of us have, especially when we’ve got two good candidates, but one’s eye contact wasn’t so strong or their handshake was limp.
We look at the wrong things, argues Matt Poepsel, PhD,vice president of product development at The Predictive Index, which is why, as he put it to his DisruptHR audience in Manchester, New Hampshire last year, “We do suck at hiring.”
A resume comes in and in the 6 seconds recruiters spend with each, “What are they looking at?” Poepsel asks. “Where do you work. Where have you worked. Where did you go to school.” And what about the interview team? “We spend less than 10 minutes getting ready for somebody who might spend the next three to five years at our company.”
Poepsel says that many of what recruiters and hiring managers focus on — GPA and education, emotional intelligence — are poor predictors of success. Integrity tests and the interview itself are better, but, he insists, “Still not great.”
What’s better? Behavioral and cognitive assessments combined with a structured interview, Poepsel says. These are a far better predictor of hiring success and help provide a clear picture of the “whole individual” — the head, the heart and the briefcase. He explains these in his entertaining, rapid fire 5 minutes.
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