No longer a buzzword or catchphrase, Evidence-Based Selection is the future of recruiting! You may need to overhaul your talent selection process if you haven’t already gotten started.
If you’re new to the party here, Evidence-Based Selection (EBS) is all about taking the gut reactions out of hiring and use calculated, consistent, and aligned methods to fill roles. At W Talent Solutions, this is really all about getting the right candidate, in the right seat, at the right time, the first time and uses tools to evaluate candidates against the organization’s needs.
The essential elements of evidence-based selection include: (1) a fair and objective process, (2) compensatory ratings, (3) reliable, valid, and predictive selection measures, and (4) score measures using valid selection criteria.
So WHY do you need it?
- Alignment! Agreeing on selection criteria and scorecard layout is the very first step in the recruiting process. A job is never posted and a candidate is never screened until everyone agrees that you won’t hire candidates outside of the criteria and you won’t decline outside of the criteria. That means that starting your search everyone is on the same page and in agreement.
- Time-saving. When you’re evaluating all candidates fairly and with the same criteria, you cut down on recruiting waste. Unqualified candidates aren’t advanced, qualified candidates move forward, and everyone moves forward on the same page. It sounds simple but when a scorecard guides you decisions are made easier, better, and faster.
- Gut can only get you so far! We’re all about trusting our guts, but the challenges that come with relying on gut-based decisions can stifle an organization’s creativity, its talent pipeline, and hamper employee engagement.
- Overriding candidate “noise.” Candidate noise is everything not on your candidate scorecard. In our experience this has shown up as social media presence, poor taste in footwear, or the car they drive—all irrelevant to their ability to do the job and navigate the organization’s culture. When you have a clear process and scorecard, you can shut down this feedback in your organization and revert back to your hiring requirements. Simply put, if it’s not on the scorecard, you don’t evaluate candidates on any additional criteria.
- Fairness, equality, and inclusion. Too often we try to “hire ourselves”. Someone just like us, who thinks like us, talks like us, and works like us—and while we think there’s a time and a place to duplicate a Rockstar incumbent, we first need to map out the job, skills, knowledge, and requirements.
- Diversity in every sense. Diversity of thought, skill, background, values all bring new and fresh perspectives to your organization and allow creativity to explode when you remove bias from your hiring process.
- Easier declines. This is the dreaded part of every recruiting process, but if you’re using an EBS process, each candidate will have a clear gap in requirements (skill, knowledge, behavior). This keeps everyone aligned and allows you to give constructive and fair feedback to candidates on why they weren’t selected.
- Easier hires! You won’t be stuck questioning if a candidate is the right fit, you’ll have evaluated them thoroughly and you’ll be confident in your selection and if you’re not, it’s time to revisit you EBS process for gaps.
- Risk Mitigation. Having a guided and clear process protects everyone. Without it, the legal fairness usually falls to just the recruiter and leaves the rest of the process open. Concise interview questions, rubrics, clear job descriptions, and scorecards reduce risk and keep your process legal and fair.
- Sustainability. Turnover and absenteeism is an unfortunate aspect of any business’s operations which can halt the best intentions in a recruiting process. But having an EBS with a well-documented process keeps your process consistent and moving forward no matter who’s managing the process.
Ready to learn more about how to incorporate an Evidence-Based Selection process? Reach out to us today for a complimentary consult! We’d love to learn more about your process and get you started on the EBS path!
