The hard science of soft skills October 9, 2012 Paul Basile CEO Matchpoint Careers, Inc For the Best Practice Institute

Introductions 2

POLL: Who are we? In-house talent acquisition specialist Talent management specialist HR generalist Professional recruiter None of the above 3

What is hiring like now? 4

How’s it working? 5

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Current hiring – the results 85% of applicants are unfit for the job 55% of employees are dissatisfied with their job 46% of new hires leave within 18 months 30% of business failures are due to poor hiring decisions 8

Selection criteria Knowledge Skills Experience Traditional criteria 9

Selection criteria Knowledge Skills Experience Cognitive abilities Patterns of behavior Interests & motivation Traditional criteria Performance- predicting criteria 10

Research into selection criteria Correlation coefficient 11

Weak predictors Unstructured interviews (0.18) Years of education (0.10) Years of job experience (0.18) Graphology (0.02) Age (-0.1) Weakly predictive Correlation coefficient 12

Medium predictors Knowledge of the job (0.48) References (0.36) Unstructured interviews (0.18) Years of education (0.10) Years of job experience (0.18) Graphology (0.02) Age (-0.1) Weakly predictive Somewhat predictive Personality tests (0.40) Correlation coefficient Fit (0.26) 13

Strong predictors Cognitive ability tests (0.51) Cognitive ability tests with behavioral assessment (0.67) Knowledge of the job (0.48) References (0.36) Unstructured interviews (0.18) Years of education (0.10) Years of job experience (0.18) Graphology (0.02) Age (-0.1) Weakly predictive Somewhat predictive Powerfully predictive Personality tests (0.40) Correlation coefficient Structured interviews (0.51) Fit (0.26) 14

Scientific definitions Performance … is behavior; actions not results Competencies … are sets of behaviors 15

Baselines and differentiators Employee performance Baselines Skills Knowledge Differentiators Cognitive ability Behavior Preferences 16

Differentiators: “soft skills” Cognitive ability Behaviors –Apply to all roles, in different combinations –Relatively stable over time for an individual –Strongest reliable predictors of human performance Preferences –Different for each individual, can change over time –Account for around 26% of engagement, 12% of performance and 26% of managerial potential Competencies 17

The science of humanity

Fit for purpose

How poor fit appears

More on soft skills GMA has dominant predictive validity, but some issues… –Predictive validity of GMA increases with level of experience –People with higher GMA acquire job knowledge faster –Personality and GMA together achieve correlations of about

Example: Project Oxygen 22

Example: Project Oxygen Technical ability the least important success factor 23

Criteria creation: the job Need to assess baseline and differentiating requirements and job context Groundwork done by consultants & psychologists Established, validated methodologies & normed reference databases Used to be expensive & time consuming… 24

Criteria creation: candidate skills & knowledge Thousands of different skills Accurate, skill-specific assessments exist (many online) Skill testing usually quick and reliable Usually assessed at relatively early stage 25

Psychologist interview Observation at work Psychometric tests Criteria creation: candidate competencies 26

Criteria creation: candidate competencies 27

Criteria creation: candidate preferences Good tools exist, but.. Too few are specific to work Too few are online Often undervalued and underused despite dramatic impact of employee engagement on results 28

Objections to assessments Assessment does not work and we don’t need it Assessment is too expensive, we can’t afford it Assessment will get us into hot water Assessment is really complex Administrative hassles Cheating/faking Applicants react poorly Reports/outputs hard to use Hard to scale while retaining accuracy 29

Assessment timing Application forms / résumés Interviews / other assessments Psychometric assessments Traditional recruitment pipeline 30

Assessment timing Application forms / résumés Interviews / other assessments Psychometric assessments Self-selection, employer- specific assessments Interviews / other assessments Psychometric assessments Performance-predicting recruitment pipeline Traditional recruitment pipeline 31

Compare Job Candidates Rank shortlist Hire 32

Comparison on competencies Demonstrates objectivity and consistency Is validated against performance Scalable and cost-effective Easy for recruiter Delivers results quickly Gives practical inputs to final selection 33

Results Companies that use scientific performance prediction, compared to those who don’t, have: 75% greater year-on-year increase in hiring manager satisfaction 75% greater yr-on-yr reduction in hiring costs 2.5 x greater year-on-year increase in profit per employee 34

Thank you Paul Basile 35