How long is your recruitment process? Have you ever hired the wrong person?
When we speak to growing and scaling companies, particularly those in the marketing sector, they often say that their recruitment process takes far too long, and on a number of occasions they have hired the wrong person.
Our framework enables growing and scaling companies- and any organisation that is recruiting- to recruit faster by identifying the right people earlier in the process.
In this article, we are going to outline how you can do that by implementing our framework, and how we can help you to start- for free- in a couple of weeks.
Three ways of processing information:
As we have highlighted previously, our 30 years of executive development and practical research has identified three ways of processing information– the green (direct) way, the blue (thinking and processing) way, and the red (feel) way- the third of which is focused on relationships.
We call them ‘three brains’- and one is dominant within each person.
It is those three ways of processing information that form the foundation of our framework to ensure our clients recruit better and faster.
Effective communication in teams:
In teams, effective communication in practice is where one team member carries out a task exactly how the person instructing them would have done it.
Thinking of it another way- a message can go around the world over seven times in a second, but take a lifetime to go the final millimetre. Put simply, if you don’t communicate with someone (in this case your team members) with their ‘dominant brain’ in mind, any instruction you give could miss the final millimetre it needs so it is implemented correctly.
Compliance officers v traders
When we looked at the story of the compliance team v the team of traders, we identified that the source of friction between the teams was because they ultimately had different characters and different ways of processing information.
Continuing with that thought then, it would be unlikely that you would hire a compliance officer to be a trader, because the two roles require very different characteristics- so therefore require different characters.
The same can be said for all roles. Different roles require different characters, because different roles need different communication styles.
What kind of characteristics are you looking for?
One of our clients, for example, is a growing tech company that has been expanding their client services and support team.
For this kind of role, which is client facing and problem-solving, your team members need to be able to listen, empathise, diffuse, and get to the bottom of things.
Thinking about the three brains we mentioned earlier, it would be very unlikely that someone who was very direct (i.e. with a green character) would be the best person for this role.
Identifying those characteristics as early as possible:
Once you know what kind of people, and the kind of characteristics, you are looking for, the next step is then identifying those people as early as possible.
For the tech client we mentioned, they have implemented the Perfect Teams application at a very early stage in their recruitment process, to identify the best candidates as quickly as possible.
How many of those that apply, even fit the bill?
When companies recruit, they expect to receive applications from people who don’t necessarily fit the role.
With growing and scaling companies, they tend to attract more of these because of the opportunity the company presents.
So as well as identifying the right people, it is also important to identify those that don’t fit the bill, as early as possible.
Based on the current data from working with our tech-based client, around a third of the candidates that are applying actually fit the bill.
Only interviewing those that fit the bill:
How much time (and money) would you save if you could eliminate around two thirds of candidates early on in your recruitment process?
By carrying out the work above, you would be able to filter your pool of candidates so that only the best fits from a character-perspective proceed to the interview stage of your recruitment process.
Building your world-class team at speed is not the only result:
Of course, one of the main benefits of the above is the time saving in your recruitment process, but from our experience the following three benefits are also realised too:
1. Saving money:
By reducing the time invested in your recruitment process, you are able to ensure people are not distracted from their main roles for longer than they need to be.
For team leaders and managers involved in recruitment, for example, their time interviewing removes them from their day-to-day role. In the time for one interview to take place, they could have had a 1:1 meeting with a team member that needed support.
How many people are involved in the recruitment process within your business, and what do you invest in them financially on a daily basis? What could they be doing each day that they are not focusing on recruitment?
2. Increasing the speed to proficiency:
Knowing a candidate’s character, communication style and primary way of processing information, as well as how they prefer to be communicated with, enables you to train them in the way they learn best. They are also likely to be better suited for the role in the first place.
Overall, this will mean they get up to speed faster, so can be delivering in their role more quickly.
How long does it currently take new starters to get up to speed in your business? How could you improve this?
3. Reducing the likelihood of inter-personal conflicts:
When we looked at the story of the compliance team and the trading team, the source of friction and conflict between the two came from how they communicated with each other.
By understanding how your team members prefer to be communicated with (in other words, which of their three brains is dominant), you are likely to reduce the chances of internal conflict and of people leaving.
How many people have left your business following internal conflicts? What has been the cost of replacing them?
Our founder Neil, and our team, have over thirty years of experience in executive development, and have worked with more than 6,760 business owners to unlock the potential within their teams.
In our experience, effective communication will save you 27% of your time– the equivalent to almost 1.5 days each week- within your recruitment process as well as elsewhere in your business.
That is the subject of our next complimentary workshop in a couple of weeks.
To find out how we can help you save 27% of your time with effective communication, click here and book your ticket now.
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