All leaders have been there-your best employee just put in their two weeks and you need to fill their position fast.
“I wish I had another Kelly (or whoever) right now!”
This kind of wish is unfortunately common among leaders and hiring managers. There is a seemingly never-ending desire to find that perfect person; to get the right person in the right role and to save time and money by doing so. So then why do leaders and hiring managers keep wasting time and money on the wrong people?
A large piece of this puzzle is behavioral fit. Part of the problem comes from the fact that many hiring managers do not consider the behavioral requirements of the job, and consequently, the traits that the employee needs to possess to make them successful in that environment. In other words, their core behavioral traits need to be a good match for the behavioral requirements of the job.
Let’s take Kelly for example. Kelly is creative and likes changing up her routine everyday. She appreciates variety in life and is drawn towards originality, art, sensuality and aesthetics. She is eccentric and enjoys taking risks. These are all examples of her behavioral traits. They are measurable traits that are advantageous in many creative and entrepreneurial jobs. Thus, when Kelly is matched in an environment that favors her behavioral traits, she thrives. However, if we were to put Kelly in a cubicle crunching numbers everyday and following strict policies and procedures, she would quickly become very unhappy and her performance would reflect that, and probably ultimately result in an empty cubicle.
Luckily, you can avoid this hiring distress and determine if a person’s behavioral traits are right for the role before you hire them by using Behavioral Role Benchmarks.
A Case Study
So how do you build a behavioral benchmark for a role and use it to hire? Let’s take a look at one of our cases.
Cassano’s Pizza is a family-owned pizza chain based out of Dayton, Ohio, specializing in signature pizzas, famous subs and other Italian favorites since 1953. With their recent growth, Cassano’s was struggling to hire effective managers that would accurately represent their brand. They were averaging 200% turnover rates, and within eighteen months of implementing behavioral benchmarks into their hiring process with Behavioral Essentials, their turnover was reduced by 50%.
“The turnover in managers seemed to never end.”
-Janet Hurley, VP of Operations
How it Works
In order to standardize their hiring process and reduce turnover, Behavioral Essentials met with key stakeholders, understood their current approach, and diagnosed gaps in their process. They then had their best existing managers take the BE Success Survey and designed a benchmark for the role, integrated the Survey into the hiring process and changed the profile of the new hires they made by comparing them to the benchmark.
The Results
By implementing the BE Success survey and Behavioral Role Benchmarks, Behavioral Essentials was able to standardize the hiring of managers, identify the behavioral characteristics of the personality profile of their top managers and then only hire people like them going forward. Within eighteen months, Cassano’s turnover was reduced by 50% as evidenced by a dramatic reduction in the amount of W2’s.
“The BE Success Survey has had such a positive impact on our training, our hiring, and our whole overall business experience. It’s been amazing. I don’t think you can afford not to do it.”
-Vic Cassano, CEO
