PRISM SELECT ONLINE

THE SUCCESSFUL RECRUITMENT FORMULA

If you were told your next major financial investment had a one-in-ten chance of succeeding, you would probably turn it down. If you were offered four-in-ten odds for the success of a significant capital outlay, you would probably say no. And yet, a range of academic studies have shown that those are exactly the odds for success you may be playing with when you use the traditional methods of recruiting people. Many recruiters admit that they base a significant part of their recruitment decisions on interviews, yet in a University of Michigan study, 'The Validity and Utility of Alternative Predictors of Job Performance , researchers analysed how well job interviews accurately predict success on the job. They concluded: Most people are still hired on the basis of their CV and an interview alone. Statistics prove that decisions based on interviews alone are accurate only 14% of the time. That means we have the chance to be wrong 86% of the time in the hiring of top performing individuals. In other words the interview process alone only gets the recruitment recommendation right one out of seven times not a great average! Moreover, according to Quintessential Careers, traditional hiring practices are only 10% predictive of a future employee's job performance.

A Changed Job Market

Its a sign of the economic times. Companies looking to hire often have a large field of candidates from which to choose, yet the market is now flooded with job applicants, many of them desperate to get work doing something - anything - even if they arent remotely qualified. That means a lot of extra work and added cost. Most businesses realise its just really too time consuming to look closely at everyones application. The result? Recruiters dont have time to respond properly to most applications and organizations are looking to rewrite the book on old-fashioned recruitment efforts to produce better results for less effort. The upward trend in the number of job applicants is affecting both large and small businesses, sending them scrambling for new solutions to finding the veritable needle in a haystack: the best candidate for the job. The question is: how?
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New Technology and Recruitment

More and more organizations are turning to pre-employment assessments because theyre trying to improve upon one or more of the following problems: high turnover, hiring people that dont fit the company culture, hiring average or poor performers and increasing the information they have on a candidate. Now, the development of online pre-screening capability is an added bonus to the range of new technology available, and some would say it is now vital to the overall effectiveness of the hiring process. From the employer's perspective, online assessment now enables them to screen out unsuitable applicants quickly at an early stage, facilitating short-listing of the best people to be interviewed. Given that employers often need to assess a large number of people, such as during an annual graduate recruitment programme, this has huge time and cost-saving implications. This does not just apply to graduate programmes; many businesses have recently seen a steep increase in the volume of applicants for individual roles, due to the unfortunate influx of candidates into the job market. The development of online delivery systems has also led to unprecedented global reach and, with multilingual assessment offerings, has truly opened up a global, cross-border recruitment and selection market The key for any pre-hire assessment is to be consistent and ensure that every candidate has the same experience - one that is comprehensive, transparent and fair. PRISM Select Online offers recruiters the ability to create a tailor-made job benchmark for each vacancy and then automatically pre-screen large numbers against that benchmark. It is important to stress that the overall objective of PRISM Select Online is to help recruiters make better informed hiring decisions; it does not make decisions for them. Online pre-screening and job applicant filtering starts with a carefully crafted job description from which a benchmark will be made. Unfortunately, all too many job descriptions are merely wish lists of activities with no clear priority and no clear performance expectations. A good recruitment decision is fundamentally about aligning the right person with the right job. When creating a job description, it is important to begin by identifying the outcomes - the must do activities that the post-holder has to deliver if he or she is to achieve excellent performance in the job. What will success look like in this particular job? If there is a lack of clarity about what the job must deliver, it is difficult to know who the right person for the job is and thus achieve good alignment.

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Job activities are the fundamental building blocks of business performance. Must-do activities have to be clearly identified in the job description in order to ensure that employees are clear about what need to be done and that performance can be measured. It is important to bear in mind that a good job description should, in reality, define the success formula for the job and the same degree of logic, rigour and strategic thinking should be applied to recruitment decisions as to other business decisions. Once you are clear about the job, the system identifies and measures the core behaviours, aptitudes and work environment preferences the ideal candidate will need to possess. Then it calculates and prioritizes those factors and provides you with a job benchmark against which to measure each candidate. By using PRISM Select Online, you can see at a glance where your candidate matches the job benchmark. If there is a mismatch, you will easily identify whether the mismatch is significant - if it is in an area of crucial importance. The system will also highlight how any mismatches will impact job performance and productivity. PRISM Select Online not only highlights those that are critical for excellent performance, but also those traits that could, potentially, be counter-productive in the role. Having created a PRISM measurable benchmark, it can be saved in the system so that applicants can be pre-screened against it.

The PRISM Successful Recruitment Formula is based on data compiled from a variety of academic studies which highlighted the significance of each phase of the recruitment process, in the selection of people who will become successful, competent, productive employees. The studies showed that predictors of on-the-job performance increase as each of the factors listed below is added:

Sources: The Psychological Bulletin Vol 96 No1, Michigan State University School of Business and Manchester University

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Let us now consider each of the six predictors listed above:

Eligibility Match (Interview, Background Checks & References, Skills & Abilities Testing)
The traditional approach to recruiting relates to factors such as CV, interview, references and skills assessments, and determines if a candidate has the necessary education, skills and prior experience required to do the job to a high standard. Going through the process of defining optimum eligibility is important. Normally, eligibility factors are defined in terms of minimum requirements - the must haves. However, a much clearer picture of eligibility can be obtained by looking at both minimum required and ideal eligibility. This is must have and want to have. For example, if two years is the minimum level of experience in a similar job, what is the ideal level of experience required? Two years is enough, but five years would be significantly better. A CV primarily addresses a persons eligibility and it is fairly easy from a resume and interview to determine if an applicant has all the relevant levels of skill, education and experience for the job. For that reason, PRISM Select Online does not focus on eligibility issues. Instead, it concentrates on those key issues that are all too often not taken into consideration during the recruitment process. These are: Suitability Work Aptitude Work Environment match

Suitability Match (Job Benchmarking)

Is the degree to which a candidates natural behavioural preferences are aligned with the requirements for high performance in the job. For a candidate to move beyond mere capability to high performance, he or she needs to be well-suited for the job: they need the natural qualities that make them right for the job. It is counterproductive for an individual to perform in a role that does not match his or her behavioural preferences because, not only the individuals level of enjoyment and job satisfaction decreases, but so does job performance. When mandatory tasks make up more than 35% of a jobs responsibilities for which there is a poor fit, role satisfaction and performance will often suffer. Eligibility, in terms of education, skills, knowledge, experience etc., indicates if the candidate is able to perform the role to a high standard. Suitability, in terms of
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behaviour preferences, indicates if the candidate is likely to perform the role to a high standard. Research has shown that when a person enjoys more than 70% of his or her work activities they are three times more likely to succeed than those who do not.

Work Aptitude Match

Is designed to predict someone's potential to learn or acquire the skills to perform specific tasks. There are many factors to be considered when designing a job specification, but aptitude is one most often overlooked. Although a candidate may be able to do almost anything they put their mind to, that doesnt mean they will be able to do it to a high standard. For example, the individual who is good at working with tools and machinery may not be as successful in roles that require them to be creative or artistic. Work aptitudes help predict where that natural affinity can best be applied. One problem is that people often confuse aptitude and skills. A skill is the ability to perform a task. Although a person can increase their knowledge and skills through education and experience, their innate aptitude is largely unchangeable. It is also important to bear in mind, that success in a career is usually determined by more than one aptitude. For example, a person may happen to have a strong aptitude for working with the paper, data processing and computer based aspects of work, but that person might also have a weak or low aptitude for conducting detailed research and uncovering facts. This would probably indicate that they should think twice before deciding to apply for a job in accountancy.

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Work Environment Match

Is the extent to which an applicant will fit into or enjoy a particular work environment or organisation. As teamwork and group projects become more common in the workplace, finding the right candidates to fit into corporate culture has become essential for success. Despite a candidates promising skills and experience, how can you tell if they will be a good fit? Matching a candidate to the requirements of the job is one thing, finding someone that can match the companys culture can be an entirely separate and distinctive consideration. For example, a person who prefers to work alone and to have sufficient time to do his or her work to a high standard will, almost certainly, not enjoy or perform well in a busy team environment in which there is frequent change and tight deadlines to be met. It is also important to recognise that there are often subcultures within organisations - the work environment in a marketing department can be very different from the one in corporate finance. Although research has clearly shown that job performance is definitely linked to job eligibility, suitability and aptitude, it has also been demonstrated that if the person and environment fit, there is a significant increase in job performance, satisfaction and retention. PRISM Select Online highlights those work environment factors that are likely to enhance a candidates performance and those that are likely to inhibit his or her performance. A single green tick indicates that the environment is likely to enhance the candidates performance, whereas two green ticks indicate that the environment is likely significantly to enhance the candidates performance. Conversely, a single red cross indicates that the environment is likely to inhibit the candidates performance, whereas two red crosses indicate that the environment is likely significantly to inhibit the candidates performance.
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Career Development Needs

It is important to recognise, however, that even the best candidates will often require some additional development if they are to achieve their full potential in a role. PRISM Select Online analyses each candidates assessment results against 26 key areas of work, ranging from People Skills and Drive for results to Conscientiousness and Resilience. PRISM Select Online extracts the relevant range level required by the job benchmark for each of these key areas and matches the candidates strengths against them. This report, Career Development Analysis highlights potential development areas that need to be explored to ensure that candidates high potential is fully exploited. If you are considering a large number of candidates for a vacancy, the system is a great tool for side-by-side comparison of applicants. PRISM Select Online has a best fit facility which ranks candidates in order of how well they match the vacancy benchmark. It helps you to see clearly key areas of match, so that you can more easily decide which individual is most suitable. One of the most important things PRISM Select Online offers is an unbiased perspective. It provides you with facts, so you do not get distracted by whether you like or dislike a candidate. PRISM Select Online will tell you whether the individuals key characteristics are a match or a mismatch with your vacancy. The system points out strengths and challenges, things you need to consider if you decide to employ this person. Getting this kind of objective third party input can be invaluable.

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The benefits of using PRISM Select Online do not cease when you have made a decision to employ a candidate. PRISM can help you understand how to get the best possible performance from your new team member. PRISM Professional is a performance management system that enables you to use a wide range of development interventions, ranging from annual appraisal and 360-degree feedback including in-house competencies - to coaching and mentoring. It can also be used to enhance skills in leadership, selling, customer service, teamwork, emotional intelligence and mental toughness. PRISM Select Online is designed to help you to recruit the most suitable people for your organisation by giving you inside information, that would be difficult to get by any other means, about each candidate. Such data should, never be the sole basis of a recruitment or redeployment decisions, and should always be supported by other means such as interviews, skills assessments etc. For many managers, hiring is ultimately a leap of faith. Certainly they try to do all the right things. They attempt to ask the right questions. They listen to the candidates answers. They focus on being truly objective and realistic when trying to determine the persons strengths and weaknesses. And they attempt to work out not only how the individual will fit with the job, but also how the person will fit in with the existing team as well as the overall company culture. Most managers do their very best to make the right decision. In the end, however, managers still get fooled, because they have to make their choices knowing full well there are still things about the candidate they dont know. Things that are beneath the surface, that just are not revealed during interviews. Hopefully these unknowns will be positives - hidden talents or abilities, areas where the individual is even stronger or more competent than they thought. But unfortunately, just as often the revelations arent happy ones. With a PRISM Select Online assessment, you will not only gain a much clearer picture of what you are getting and not getting in your candidates, but also you will be able to identify the characteristics of your star performers. If you want to recruit more people, like your star performers, in a specific role, PRISM Select Online can help. It will enable you to assess and benchmark your top performers and identify the characteristics they share and those that set them apart from their peers who are less successful. This information will enable you to establish, or modify, your benchmarks, so you will know what to aim for next time you recruit for that role. Over time, jobs change and company cultures evolve. When that happens, the characteristics of the people you need may change as well. PRISM Select Online can be used continually to assess and modify your targets to make sure they reflect your current and future business needs. While some teams are strong from top to bottom, just as often we see one or two individuals in a group delivering the bulk of the results. Some people just seem to have a certain something that allows them to reliably hit the mark, all the while making it look easy and more importantly making it easy for you to manage them. And its not always a matter of experience or intelligence or even work ethic. Whatever it is seems to be almost intangible. But is it?
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Research has shown that top performers in specific jobs often share certain core behaviours, aptitudes and work environment preferences. We also find they frequently have traits not found in middle or lower level performers. Our goal is to find the answers to two critical questions: What traits do top performers in a particular job have in common? What traits set top performers apart from others to make them unique? Having your top performers undertake the PRISM Select Online is the first step. Once your top performers have taken the assessment, you can start to understand their high performance blueprint. You can identify their most prominent characteristics and see which ones are consistent from person to person. Maybe they only share one or two traits. Or perhaps there are a number of qualities they have in common. Either way, you can pinpoint the type of individual you want to hire in the future. You can then use this information to create job benchmarks with which you can compare your candidates. In summary, PRISM Select Online can dramatically help improve the recruitment process for your business, improve staff quality and reduce costs. Pre-screening assessments, such as PRISM Select-Online, have been proven to be up to 5 times more effective than traditional selection techniques in the prediction of performance. In fact, one third of human resource managers recently surveyed by the American Management Association were now incorporating pre-screening into their hiring decision-making process.

Sources: Professor Mike Smith, University of Manchester; John E. Hunter, Industrial Psychologist, Michigan State University, Testing as a Predictor of Training Success and Job Performance; Validity and Utility of Alternative Predictors of Job Performance, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 96, No. 1; Robert P. Tett, Douglas N. Jackson and Mitchell Rothstein, Personality Measures as Predictors of Job Performance: A Meta-Analytical Review, Personnel Psychology, Michigan State Universitys School of Business

Center for Applied Neuroscience 2002