The recruitment and promotion bias that’s costing your organisation more than you know

Most of us know the value of working with people who are good to work with and working with a manager with strong leadership and people skills is a rare joy.  Why is it then that there continues to be such a strong focus on qualifications and work history for promotion and recruitment at all levels?  It’s a bias that remains remarkably pervasive and it’s harming, employees, teams and organisations. The value of people who are good to work with is so important that it needs to be an integral part of how and who you recruit and promote.

Here are some ways to help you keep your focus where it needs to be.

In essence and at its simplest we would say good recruitment practice identifies those people who can do the job well.

First you consider the requirements of the job in the broadest sense. Then you need to identify the person with the greatest capacity or expertise for the work, combined with the best positive personal attributes and interpersonal skills and the best ability to thrive in your organisation.  Quality practical assessment and testing are an important part of the process as is assessing personal qualities.

Some of the most important of the personal and interpersonal capabilities include:

  • Strong resilience and interpersonal skills
  • Conflict resolution skills
  • Ability to adapt to change and be innovative
  • Commitment to ongoing personal growth and professional development

Some questions that will assist you to assess these attributes include:

  • Describe a time when you had to adapt to an unplanned change. What did you do about it?  What was the end result?
  • Describe a situation when you had a disagreement with some-one. How did you go about resolving it?  What was the outcome?
  • Tell me about a time when you had to deliver an important project under pressure. What action did you take? What result did you achieve?
  • What have been the most important things you have learned about yourself in the past 12 months? How did this learning come about?  How do you intend to apply this to your work?
  • List a professional goal you have for yourself? In the past how have you ensured that you have met your professional or personal goals?
  • Describe a time when you effectively led a significant project. What did you learn from this experience? What have you done differently on subsequent projects?

For leaders the importance of character and capability is arguably more important.  Some of the most important capabilities for senior managers include:

  • Strong and positive leadership
  • Balancing multiple and competing demands
  • Good judgement and ability to keep a strategic focus
  • Commitment to ethical behaviour

Some questions that will assist to assess these attributes include:

  • Describe a negotiation that stretched you. What was the circumstance? How did you continue to work towards a positive result?  What did you achieve?  What did you learn from this?
  • When did you last admit you were wrong or that you made a mistake? What was the situation?  What did you learn from this?  What remedies did you make?
  • What are some of the situations at work that most draw on your reserves of self-control? What have you done to build your self-control?  What benefits have you seen from this self-control?
  • What techniques have you used to test your most significant decisions? List some of your best decisions and say why they were good decisions.  List some of your least good decisions.  What would you have done differently?
  • Outline the circumstances of leading a significant change where you were able to maintain positive business results including engaged staff? What were the most important actions you took to achieve this?  If you did this process again, what would you improve about how you led the change?
  • Describe a time when one of your core values or a core value asked of you by your organisation was tested. What did you do to ensure you stayed true to the value?

The price of poor recruitment or promotions decisions is always high.  Think about a leader who turns out to have poor judgement, questionable decision making skills, a need to always be right or who is unapproachable. What about that employee who can’t work with others, intimidates and bullies or who is unwilling to receive feedback?  These are the people who will cost you time, money, staff morale and negatively impact on the culture of your workplace.  Can you afford not to take action?

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