Stop Hiring Smart, Likable People.

Too Many Hiring Managers Focus on the Wrong Traits

You read that right. You need to stop hiring smart, likable people.

You probably LIKE smart, likable people. Heck, you probably ARE a smart, likable person.

But too much time during the hiring process is spent on these two attributes, which have proven to not be predictive of how a person executes the job you need to be done. And that’s a problem.

“Hiring is hard,” Amy Bruske, President of Kolbe Corp, explains. “It’s hard, and it’s expensive.”

The missing piece to hiring (and avoiding the high costs of turnover) is to ask how applicants solve problems. How do they execute? If you give someone a specific task, are they going to get it done in a way that’s efficient and natural for them?

“What we have found,” Amy adds, “is the more alignment you have with how someone naturally solves problems or takes action, the more likely someone is going to stick around in a role. So you’re going to help yourself with some of those turnover issues.”

The Hiring Cheat Code — Instinctive Strengths

People know how to answer job interview questions. There is no shortage of resources available to inform applicants on how to give the “right answer.” Also, you’re only human. You will naturally connect with some candidates’ personalities more than others in the interview process.

However, when you present a candidate with an objective assessment like the Kolbe A™ Index before the interview, you get the information you need without the natural bias. Instead of falling in love with a candidate, you fall in love with the fit.

Intelligence and personality tests are great for understanding people’s skillsets and preferences. These can give you a more well-rounded picture of your team members. But those assessments don’t get to the root of most people problems in an organization.

The Kolbe A Index is the only measure of instinctive strengths on the market, and it’s the one assessment that’s going to get you results immediately. Coupled with Kolbe’s other robust resources to identify job requirements and boost productivity, you’ll be able to find employees that are the RightFit™ for your business.

Three Ways to Improve Your Recruitment Process:

1. Are you looking at all three parts of the mind (affective, cognitive, AND conative)?

2. Do you have an easy, objective way to figure out what a job requires to find the right employees for the right roles?

3. Can you effectively onboard new employees who will thrive based on their instinctive strengths, not just things like “culture fit” or prior positions?

Bottom line: yes, your employees should be bright, and their affective skills are crucial to some company successes, but the best leaders know there’s a missing piece — instinctive strengths.

• How does somebody gather and share information? 
• How do they deal with structure and systems?
• Do they avoid risks or are they a natural innovator who drives change?
• Do they build tangible models, or do they naturally envision solutions?

If you know the answers to the questions above, you can find the right people for the right tasks and maximize productivity on any team.

What’s smarter or more likable than that?

How to Hire the Right Person Based on Instinctive Strengths

Kolbe’s proprietary RightFit hiring system drastically improves hiring success by ensuring candidates get the job done and communicate effectively with their boss.