« Back to the January 2005 Explorer newsletter

BEST PRACTICES

Integration of Recruitment with Coaching and Development: A Case Study

By Wayne Nemeroff, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, PsyMax Solutions
and William Shepherd, Ph.D. – President and COO - PsyMax Solutions

Recruiters are the face and voice of an organization. They are the first ones to learn about candidates’ work experiences, strengths, and liabilities. Recruiters often understand not just whether job candidates will succeed, but under what conditions they will succeed. For example, a candidate for a Sales position may have a strong probability of being a top performer, but only after he receives coaching and improves his organizational skills.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Have you ever recommended someone for a job that you knew could be a very successful job performer, but only if the person received the right kind of coaching and development?
• Have you seen someone fail on a job because the organization did not have enough information about the person’s relative strengths and weaknesses?
• Have you ever hired someone, but wished you had a better understanding about how to best manage him/her?

Unfortunately, the silos that sometimes exist in Human Resources organizations can hinder such important information from being shared.

Recruiters gather an enormous amount of important information about job candidates during the sourcing process. The information is relayed to hiring managers to be used during subsequent interviews. However, once the hiring decision has been made the information gathered by recruiters is usually filed and never referred to again. The departments responsible for performance management, coaching, training and development could greatly benefit from having this information.

The field of recruitment has traditionally operated in isolation from other Human Resources departments. The mission of recruiters is to fill the staffing pipeline with highly talented individuals – it is up to the rest of the Human Resources organization to coach and develop the individuals to maximum job performance. However, leading organizations are increasing their efficiency and effectiveness by adopting a holistic approach to recruitment, coaching, and development. There is a tremendous competitive advantage that can be gained by improving and integrating the information gathered during the recruitment process with the coaching and development process. This advantage can lead to reduced turnover and increased profits.

The first step to seizing this advantage is still recruiting and accurately assessing the right person. For example, in the retail industry store managers have a great influence on success. Their leadership skills have a direct impact on store operations and profits. Ineffective management results in turnover, shrinkage, mediocre customer service, and reduced profits.

Once the person is hired, the organization’s job is not done. The coaching and development functions of the organizations need to support the retention of high-performing employees. Large merchants spend an average of $77 million a year in severance and other turnover costs. Research indicates that one of the top reasons employees leave their jobs is because they do not see opportunities for career growth; therefore, organizations can reduce turnover by demonstrating commitment to their employees by offering targeted coaching and development opportunities.

Borders Group, which operates 1,200 Borders and Waldenbooks stores, is an example of an organization that is combining what it learns during the recruitment and selection stage with subsequent coaching and development. Borders Group has used the PsyMax Solutions Work Style Assessment ^SM (WSA) inventory as a recruitment tool to assist in the selection of its Store and District Managers since 2002. Borders Group worked closely with PsyMax Solutions to conduct a job analysis to develop a success profile of the most critical work styles required for performing these jobs. The recruiters use the in-depth WSA reports and degree of fit scores to help them select the best job candidates for their organizations.

A recent independent study published by Cornell University professors documented that the work styles in the success profile were directly related to organizational performance. The professors compared the profitability of stores staffed by managers who had high WSA inventory work style scores with managers who scored low. Controlling for other store-specific variables outside of the control of the managers, the researchers found that the stores run by managers scoring higher on five specific work style behaviors had millions of dollars more in profits (please go to www.psymaxsolutions.com for more details about the study).

Dan Smith, Borders Group Senior Vice President of Human Resources, said "Plain and simple PsyMax Solutions Work Style Assessment works. Borders' success is determined by the management team at each location, and PsyMax helps us to identify the candidates with the characteristics that we know drive sales most. PsyMax has been a proven producer." Borders Group has begun to incorporate these recruitment and assessment data with its subsequent training programs. Borders Group conducts follow-up coaching and development programs for their managers that specifically help them improve on the five work styles that have shown to be most critical for success.

In today’s organization, companies are spending fewer and fewer hours providing coaching and development. Each hour is valuable and precious. Border Group has been able to save costs and streamline its coaching and development efforts by focusing on these five critical work styles. Borders Group has concluded that using the PsyMax recruitment tools to help select managers and guide their development has a significant return on investment. The results from this study are an illustration of how companies can benefit from integrating information gathered during the recruitment phase with on-going coaching and development.