In the McKinsey and Company July 27, 2020 article ‘HR says talent is crucial for performance – and the pandemic proves it,’ they mention five common talent-management practices that have had greater emphasis during Covid-19 and will continue after, to help with the new ways of working. The authors suggest that HR is central to build resilience in the organization and drive value. HR has been busy during Covid-19 to maintain morale and productivity for remote workforces and trying to figure out, if and when, employees will return to the office.
The afore-mentioned five important practices that have more weight during this time include: finding and hiring the right people, learning and growing, managing and rewarding performance, tailoring the employee experience, and optimizing workforce planning and strategy.
For this blog, the focus is only on the first area, Finding and Hiring the Right People. The authors believe that even with the shifts in labor demand based on changes for most businesses, efficient and effective hiring is still important. My guess is that finding the right people for the jobs is even more important since the demand is different; this could be more intense with the increase in people applying for and are available to work. Now more than ever, companies can’t afford to make the wrong hiring decisions when trying to restructure or figure out how best to support employees.
In other words, making the right decisions from the start on who is hired, will save time in other areas that are demanding attention from HR – areas like morale, productivity, or training managers to effectively support remote workers.
In May 2020, the authors surveyed more than 190 C-suite offices and functional leaders across industries, to find out how they were thinking about spending funds for each of the five areas. Of those surveyed, 67% anticipated they would spend less on permanent hiring in the next 12 months, as they are leaning toward temporary hires. Due to this shift in hiring, it is even more critical they hire the right people since they need them to ramp up the productivity more quickly. HR won’t have time for high turnover issues that add cost and takes time from established employees that they want to keep and nurture, increase morale, and improve engagement and productivity.
The article specifically mentions that HR should “take a fresh look at the range of tools, including assessments and platforms, that are making it easier to connect people at work.” They relate this to “a deeper understanding of their skills and how those match available jobs.” Identifying skills that match available jobs can only be accomplished by identifying competencies that are important to the success of the job and assessing them. Especially with the impact that Covid-19 has had and the need to be innovative, responsive, and hiring with more confidence, it is critical that HR focus on competency-based assessments rather than only personality-based assessments, as they have relied upon in the past. While a personality assessment is useful for leadership development, it is the lowest predictor of performance if used alone for selection (hiring, recruiting, or succession.)
Reveal is a competency-based assessment designed to put the ‘right people in the right seats.’ Reveal’s job-specific reports show you what is needed for success in a given position and how candidates align with that role. Reveal uses a comprehensive assessment process based on over 50 years of research and experience using multiple measures, with a wide variety of positions, clients, and industries. These measures utilize standard assessments that confidently provide validity and reliability in predicting performance and job fit, based on the competencies defined for the position.
Based on this article, HR will be seeking better assessments to help relieve them of the time and cost required to hire and select people that are a good job fit, will stay in the position, and be engaged and productive. Finding the right people increases customer satisfaction, innovation, and creates increased profits and revenues.
Reveal answers all of these concerns and is the relief that HR is looking for, to make better and more confident hiring decisions for employees, whether they are permanent or temporary. Even if HR is planning to restructure using their current workforce, Reveal is the right option to assess current employees and understand where they might be able to fill another critical job in the organization.