Hitting or Missing on Evaluations for Job Fit
The danger of unfavorable context for candidates, employees and partners
Talent acquisition and placement can be more difficult than presumed. There are errors that happen. A professional in one industry recently brought a problem to light.
“The importance of fit gets overlooked,” wrote Tyler Metcalf at No Ceilings.
“From a (recruiting and management) perspective, it can totally skew an evaluation in the wrong direction because the (person) is simply in an unfavorable context.
“When the fit is right though, the (candidate or employee) is put in a terrific position to succeed and show off a tantalizing skillset that had previously been slept on.”
Properly evaluating a person’s strengths and ability and where they can best apply their skills and amplify strengths and provide value is a critical task.
“More recent research in this area shows that the assessments of competencies is deeply flawed,” says Kay Tear, a business psychologist turned founder and coach at Business Reimagined. “Competencies, or criteria, can not be measured accurately and yet this is the dominant paradigm and practice.
She adds that studies have examined and proved it.
“See the research: ‘Everything that you have ever been told about assessment center ratings is confounded,’ Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(7), 976–994,” Tear says.
“I think this is the bigger issue and assessor bias.”
She remembers personal experiences as well.
“I have worked for two companies where they fired a lot of people because of fit and those people went on to have great careers at other organizations,” Tear says, “showing it wasn’t the person’s ability but the organization’s capacity, whether by their leader, structure or processes, to help them reach their full potential.”
Conversely, new hires and current employees can shine when factors are aligned.
“And the opposite is true,” Tear says. “The right environment can help people to succeed and get to productivity more quickly too.”
When the evaluation is accurate and the context and fit align and a person’s strengths are properly implemented, a person is likely to be in a strong position to meet and surpass expectations, even if they were inaccurately perceived by other organizations.
“Ultimately, I see this as bringing out someone’s potential, but as I said in the answer above, there can be a lot of reasons why this is never met,” Tear says.
She provides a recommendation.
“I think that organizations should be learning to understand abilities and crucially, learning agility,” Tear says. “This set would not focus on competencies but in the system that the candidate will operate in and their ability to learn.”
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