Innovative Tool Aims To Reduce Wrong Fit Recruitment Churn

A resource tool has been designed by Edinburgh-based Allen Training Associates to tackle the problem facing businesses that recruit staff who fail to match the culture of the firm and move on in a relatively short space of time, thereby causing disruption and incurring further cost.

The Interviewerís Resource Pack has been developed via trialling with a number of well-known organisations, and is based around a set of behavioural competencies, sample interview questions and example behaviours. Companies involved in the trialling process include Office Personnel, Arctec, The Scottish Agricultural College and leading recruitment consultancy, Hays.

The tenet upon which the Pack is founded recognises that one of the potential weak points in the recruitment process is that line managers are often put in charge of recruiting new staff. These individuals tend to focus on candidates that have the professional knowledge, technical skills and experience for the post to be filled, often without due regard to their suitability to fit into the culture of the team or company that they are joining.

ìThis is an inherent flaw in the approach adopted by many organisations to the recruitment process,î states Madeleine Allen, Managing Director of Allen Training Associates, ìand I have seen the damaging results at first hand.

ìI worked in a well established IT security consultancy that was recruiting a new Sales Manager. The successful candidate had excellent experience and technical skills, but came from a military background that proved to be completely at odds with the informal, academic background in which the rest of the team members operated. While the candidate ticked all the right knowledge boxes, he was command and control driven ñ and totally inappropriate culturally. The result was messy.î

Allen Training Associates has spent 18 months working with a number of organisations to develop and fine-tune The Interviewerís Resource Pack, which is designed for use by anyone who conducts recruitment interviewing. It provides a best-practice approach that analyses candidatesí experience for evidence of past behaviours most likely to predict future performance, and increases the likelihood of making good recruitment decisions.

The Pack, which will retail at 85 for a single example, enables users to structure questions using a four step guide and gather high quality evidence from candidates. It is based on a series of cards covering 24 competencies, ranging from team working and decision making, to leadership and managing change. Each competency card has a series of questions and example behaviours that assist the user to assess the fit of the candidate being interviewed.

ìWith the average cost of filling a vacancy estimated by the CIPD to be 4,800, The Interviewerís Resource Pack will pay for itself many times over from the first time it is used, ì concludes Allen.

Bonnie Clarke, a recruitment consultant with Hays, a global leader in specialist recruitment and HR services, said: ìThe Interviewerís Resource Pack has revolutionised the way I conduct interviews. Out of all the interview tools I have used in the past, it is the most comprehensive as it has all the information I need right at my fingertips. It has increased my professionalism as it makes the interviewing process much more robust, meaning we can provide a better consultancy service to our clients. The pack sits on my desk and I use it on a daily basis.î

HR professionals will be able to utilise the Interviewerís Resource Pack to supplement their existing processes, and it comes into its own as a means of allowing line managers to undertake interviews armed with a comprehensive tool that will enable them to make more informed decisions. While there are plenty of existing competency frameworks, the difference with the Pack is that it is designed specifically for the recruitment process and for making interviewing as easy and fail-safe as possible.

It is intended to take guesswork out of the recruiting process.