| Innovative organizations cannot sustain their | | | | with organizational culture until late in the recruitment |
| achievements without fresh ideas and new | | | | process may potentially eliminate a candidate who has |
| approaches that are often brought in by new hires. | | | | a higher P-O fit but lesser match of KSAs or P-J fit, |
| Companies that foster innovation need not just highly | | | | as his or her resume may not even be accounted for |
| skilled workforce; they need highly engaged | | | | the selection for an initial interview. In this study, I |
| employees - people who love to work there, who are | | | | attempted to analyze if the information of the |
| motivated to be creative, and whose personal values | | | | candidate's person-organization fit provided to hiring |
| fit well the organizational culture. Dan Pink, in his talk | | | | managers would affect their decision to invite this |
| about engagement and motivation in the work place, | | | | candidate to an initial job interview. The study was |
| describes three main elements of motivation - | | | | designed as a real-life-simulated experiment, where |
| autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Autonomy motivates | | | | respondents were provided with hypothetical |
| us because we all want freedom and flexibility in our | | | | information about a hiring company, a job description |
| work, mastery gets us going because we naturally | | | | for a vacant position, and a job applicant's resume. |
| want to get better at what we do, and purpose is the | | | | The research sample included 57 hiring managers or |
| most vital component in any of our creative projects - | | | | Human Resources professionals from various |
| there is nothing more discouraging than working on | | | | companies, who currently have, or have had in the |
| something that has no meaning, lacks direction, or | | | | past, responsibility for screening job applicants and |
| doesn't have any real need. Highly motivated and | | | | inviting them to personal interviews. All participants |
| engaged people, who are driven by those elements, | | | | were randomly divided into four groups with |
| are best to spark creativity in organizations. Creativity, | | | | approximately equal numbers of members in each of |
| in turn, serves as the most vital component for | | | | the groups. |
| developing innovations. | | | | The first, "control," group was supposed to mimic the |
| Finding these "right" people for the organization is a | | | | current selection process by reviewing only an |
| challenge that goes through all stages of a recruitment | | | | applicant's resume, and comparing it to the job |
| process - from generating applicants for a vacant | | | | description. Other, or "treatment," groups were also |
| position to extending a job offer to a selected | | | | provided with additional information about the results of |
| candidate. Every stage has an important role in the | | | | a Situational Judgment Test (SJT), demonstrating the |
| process of hiring the best available candidate, | | | | level of person-organization fit to the hiring company. In |
| however, this article focuses on generating a pool of | | | | total, there were three versions of the level of P-O Fit |
| qualified applicants as the initial stage of the hiring | | | | (Low, Medium, and High) provided to the participants, |
| process. After this pool is compiled, the number of | | | | one for each different treatment group. After |
| available applicants can only deteriorate; hence, this | | | | reviewing and comparing all provided documents, |
| initial stage creates the greatest possibility for the hiring | | | | participants from each group were simply asked to |
| managers and Human Resources professionals to | | | | decide if they were to invite the applicant to an initial |
| make the most effective selection decisions (Carlson, | | | | job interview and, optionally, elaborate on their decision. |
| Connerley, & Meacham, 2002). | | | | To minimize any potential biases, participants were not |
| Human Resources researchers have long argued that | | | | provided with any data about the scope, goals, or |
| hiring a successful employee not only requires a | | | | design of the study; they were also not given any |
| combination of relevant experience, technical skills, and | | | | information concerning any other treatment groups. |
| abilities of the candidate, but also depends on a match | | | | The results demonstrated that the pool of candidates |
| between a candidate's personal values and the culture | | | | invited to an initial job interview can be significantly |
| of an organization (a.k.a. person-organization fit or P-O | | | | altered if hiring managers have knowledge of a job |
| fit). Making a prediction of how the applicant would | | | | applicant's P-O fit in addition to the information about |
| potentially fit with the working environment is an | | | | this applicant's knowledge, skills, and abilities currently |
| organic part of the traditional hiring process. However, | | | | derived from resumes. |
| in most cases, these predictions are pretty | | | | Specifically, 69 percent of hiring managers interviewed |
| unstructured and opened to personal biases | | | | for this study indicated that the information about a job |
| (Grigoryev, 2006), paving the way to potential hiring | | | | applicant's P-O fit served as a main reasoning in their |
| mistakes. | | | | decision-making process of inviting the job applicant on |
| A typical job application includes information about a | | | | an initial interview. Additionally, 77 percent of the |
| candidate's knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA), | | | | participants were not going to grant an interview to a |
| relevant experience, and education. In their resumes or | | | | job applicant who possessed a low P-O fit, even |
| CVs, applicants may also include information about | | | | though this applicant had a strong resume. This leads |
| their so called "soft skills," such as an ability to work | | | | one to believe that if information about P-O fit was |
| independently or as part of the team, leadership | | | | considered during the selection process, even a |
| aptitude, communications skills, etc. This information is | | | | resume demonstrating a strong match of knowledge, |
| meant to demonstrate to the potential employer how | | | | skills, or experience to the job description, may not |
| this candidate will fit their organization, but rarely is | | | | warrant an invitation to an initial interview without a |
| taken into consideration until the later stages of the | | | | strong match of the candidate's personal values and |
| recruitment process when more face to face | | | | organizational culture. |
| communication occurs. | | | | In summarizing the study results, a more integrative |
| Instead, current recruitment procedures initially use the | | | | approach to selecting candidates is needed. The |
| computerized system of keyword parsing, matching a | | | | evaluation of P-O fit can be conducted electronically |
| candidate's experience, technical skills, and abilities | | | | as part of the application process, before the initial |
| (a.k.a. person-job fit or P-J fit) to the job requirements. | | | | information about the candidate reaches the human |
| This system produces an initial cut of the candidates | | | | eye of a decision maker. As an example, innovative |
| used by hiring managers and Human Resources | | | | organizations may want to appraise a candidate's |
| professionals to invite applicants to an initial job | | | | creative problem solving skills, associative fluency, or |
| interview. The other important job fit "intangibles" will | | | | ability to make decisions in atypical situations. In addition, |
| likely be assessed during the later stages of the | | | | companies can assess a candidate's openness to |
| recruitment process or, in some cases, not be | | | | differences, his or her ability to work independently and |
| evaluated at all. | | | | within a team, or other intangible skills. Overall, this |
| Frequently, an applicant, perceived as the best match | | | | approach adds yet another dimension to the applicant's |
| for the job during the selection process (based only on | | | | data, complementing the subjective take of the hiring |
| technical skills and experience), cannot, or would not | | | | managers during the interview process with the more |
| want to, stay on the job due to other, non-technical | | | | objective, and structured information. |
| factors. For example, research shows that 46% of | | | | The investment into developing and implementing this |
| twenty thousand new hires in 312 companies left their | | | | approach would not only be rewarded by getting a |
| respective organizations within the first 18 months. | | | | more balanced pool of candidates who fit the |
| Follow up interviews with more than five thousand of | | | | organization better and stay with the company longer, |
| the hiring managers found that only 11% of employees | | | | but also improved objectivity in hiring processes, further |
| who left their organizations did so due to a lack of | | | | defining the hiring requirements, and increased |
| technical or professional competence. In fact, other | | | | awareness of corporate cultural values among |
| "intangible" issues, such as motivational problems (15%), | | | | employees and hiring managers. |
| temperament issues (17%), lack of coachability (26%), | | | | Making the initial selection of job candidates more |
| and low levels of emotional intelligence (23%) | | | | comprehensive is just a first step to getting the "right" |
| accounted for the reason the new hire left the | | | | people on board. However, if that first step fails to |
| company (Grigoryev, 2006). This high number of | | | | bring these "right" people into the mix, the whole hiring |
| employees failing to stay on a job for more than 18 | | | | process may prove fruitless. |
| months due to culture-related reasons suggests that | | | | References: |
| companies could benefit from improving the selection | | | | Carlson, K.D., Connerly, M.L., & Mecham, R.L. (2002). |
| processes in order to minimize the impact of | | | | Recruitment evaluation: The case for assessing the |
| employee turnover. | | | | quality of applicants attracted. Personnel |
| Is there a better way to select candidates? In my | | | | Psychology,55, 461-490. |
| recent doctoral study, I argued that not applying the | | | | Grigoryev, P. (2006). Hiring by competency models. |
| concept of matching a candidate's personal values | | | | The Journal for Quality and Participation, Winter, 16-18. |