The wrong focus?
Hiring the right person is one of the most important decisions and investments an organisation makes. And it’s an area where things can easily go wrong. Even when there is a structured interview process, new recruits may still fail to deliver as much as expected.
Why?
We think it’s because the recruitment process focuses on the wrong thing.
What’s the problem?
Having gained experience recruiting for a wide range of organisations over 30+ years, its fair to say that most organisations tend to prioritise:
- Experience
- Qualifications
- Technical skills
- Knowledge
All very important elements, but they don’t always give us the full picture in recruitment. What can often be overlooked, or at least not prioritised as much, is how the individual might behave in the team. And that’s often the root cause issue – where potentially the biggest hiring mistake occurs.
“Fit” – The Missing Piece of the Recruitment Puzzle.
What is often missing with new hires can be the right “fit”. Not so much from a team culture perspective although this is can also be very important. It’s more about fit to the role.
For example:
- Does the team need an idea generator?
- Is there a need for someone to sense check ideas?
- Will the new hire be required to challenge decisions in their role?
- What about checking details?
When we prioritise and select based mainly on experience, knowledge etc., there is a greater risk that we may miss out on hiring candidates that may be better suited to the role behaviourally. Without a proper focus that includes behaviourally based selection, organisations risk hiring:
- More of the behaviours already have. (A fairly common issue in recruitment is the potential for affinity bias; hiring someone more like us rather than what the role actually requires.)
- Someone “technically strong” but misaligned with the behaviourals required for the role.
How Does Belbin Improve Hiring Decisions?
Belbin Team Roles can add a crucial selection element to any hiring process.
Using a combination of Belbin job profile, candidate self perception and job comparison reports can help:
- Understand the behaviours required for each role
- Understand each candidate’s unique behavioural strengths and potential weaknesses
- Compare candidates against the requirements of the role objectively
- Consider individuals in relation to any behaviours required in the team / organisational culture
- Ultimately, it can help reduce bias through more objective and better hiring decisions
Using Belbin in Recruitment allows you to:
- Identify what the role actually needs
- Assess candidates against those needs
- Avoid overloading of certain roles
- Build more balanced, effective teams
It simple terms, it shifts the recruitment process from instinct…to insight.
Better Hiring = Better Teams
Finally, the best hire isn’t always about the most experienced or the most impressive candidate on paper. It’s often the person who is best aligned to the role behaviourally and who adds what the team may be missing.
Get this right, and you don’t just hire better individuals, you can also build better teams.
Read more about making making better hiring decisions, using Belbin for Recruitment and find out more about the Belbin reports that can be used to support a recruitment process.
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