As we all know, the process of recruiting, hiring, and training an individual can be very costly. It is a common problem among many organizations who have yet to figure out an effective solution to retaining employees. The main reason employees are let go or resign from a company is because they do not "fit." Many times the reason someone doesn't fit is because they are unhappy. Unhappiness in the workplace due to insufficient salary, poor work environment, no connection with co-workers, an egotistic boss, and multiple other factors. These factors all play a role in how the employee performs and fits into the company. If any of these are present, it is likely that the person will leave or be let go due to poor performance.

Now the part everyone has been trying to figure out, how to keep employees and reduce turnover. The following list is based on findings of CDR Assessment Group who specialize in succession planning and consulting.

1.       Use a well-established multiple hurdle selection or promotional decision process.

2.       Early in the process, before any interviews are scheduled, administer a scientifically validated personality character, risk and motivational assessment such as the CDR 3-D Suite that is validated for selection and succession planning purposes. We suggest that you administer the assessments to those candidates who you “think” you want to interview. If you are concerned about sufficient numbers passing the screen, you can add more candidates to this assessment screen process. The assessment results will reveal what type of jobs the candidate is well suited to perform or not. From there, you can begin scheduling interviews.

3.       Use the assessment data at the scale and subscale level to help you select and develop your interview questions, based on each candidate’ specific results relating to the job vacancy, business requirements, and performance needs.

4.       You may have to beef up recruiting efforts to attract more candidates. Yes, this could require a bit more upfront effort by HR and management staff. Often, clients will only identify 2 or 3 candidates for an executive position – and, it is not unusual for all 3 to be poorly suited for the job. So, expanding the candidate pool is a good idea.

5.       The assessments are objective and EEO neutral. Be sure that your overall selection process is open, sufficiently comprehensive, and investigative as fact finders and verifiers.

6.       Don’t dismiss the assessment results. On occasion, when someone is referred or favored to get the job, a manager will say that the results can’t be right, this person is a highly capable leader – I have it on good advice from a friend… Invariably, when the data is ignored, a hiring mistake is made and the decision comes back to haunt the company.

7.       Provide training for your managers who are responsible for hiring and promotional decisions. Help them to understand the process and the assessment tools they are using so that they can maximize the results. If they are in the dark on what traits are measured, they will not be equipped to understand and make effective decisions.

8.       Once your new selection process is in place, perform utility analysis on regular intervals to measure the increased success of your new selection and promotional process. The numbers matter.

These steps are useful in finding the person who "fits" the organization and position the best. Meaning they are more likely to be successful and happy in their role leading to more productivity and longer employment. For information on succession planning, character assessments, leadership coaching and more, visit www.cdrassessmentgroup.com.