TL/DR: Most hiring decisions are made based on a resume and a 45-minute conversation. Neither were designed to tell you whether a candidate will actually perform in your role. The third tool does and most companies never use it.
Most companies follow a similar hiring process: get a resume, do some interviews, and follow their gut on who feels right. It’s simple and repeatable. However, the problem is that the tools you’re using to make that decision aren’t actually answering a very important question: will this person be successful in this role, on this team, and in this company? Here’s what each tool does and does not tell you about a candidate.
Tool #1 – The Resume
The resume has been around for centuries and by this point, everyone understands what makes a good resume. They’re a concise list of past achievements quantified. In other words, the resume tells you what someone has done: where they worked, what titles they held, and anything else they want you to know. The problem is, this information doesn’t tell you how they achieved their goals, what drove them to succeed, or what kind of environment they preferred to work in.
For example:
We know John increased email open rates by 56%. Great, but how? Did he dig into 6 months of analytics to find the gaps? Did he start working remotely and the lack of commute re-energized him to be more focused and engaged? Does he enjoy working with analytics or did he collaborate with a team and their conversations sparked innovation? The answers to these questions are important and cannot be answered using a resume.
Tool #2 – The Interview
The interview is so inherently human, it produces the most confident wrong answers. Let me explain: a candidate prepares, rehearses, and then tells you what they think you want to know. If that sounds like a total mind-twister, it’s because it is. But it’s human nature. Meanwhile, the person interviewing is often not a natural interviewer so they’re not paying attention to rehearsed answers, let alone probing for deeper, behavioral answers.
“Don’t always assume that because you’re great at your job that interviewing should come naturally for you and don’t feel bad about the fact that it doesn’t.
A well-prepared candidate in a structured conversation can look like a great fit for almost anything. But three months into the job, when the interview version of the role meets the reality of it, that’s when you’ll find out what you didn’t actually know.
Tool #3 – The Talent Assessment
This is a tool many companies have never heard of, let alone used. Those who have heard of it assume it’s a personality quiz. It isn’t. A talent assessment measures behavioral traits, drivers, and competencies. These three identifiers show exactly how someone is naturally wired. I’m not talking simply about whether someone enjoys working remotely or in the office; nor whether they like solo work or collaboration.
What assessments can tell you:
- Communication Style
- Motivational drivers
- Decision making tendencies
- Behavioral Strengths
- Stressors and potential blind spots
- Work environment preferences
- How someone prefers to be managed and motivated
The best part is that behavioral traits don’t change much over time. Which is the entire point. You’re not measuring how someone presents on a Tuesday afternoon, but how they’re fundamentally wired and whether that wiring matches the needs of the role.
The Power of Using All Three Together
Using one or two tools here and there is fine if you’re relying on gut feelings and a 45-minute rehearsed conversation. The companies that consistently hire well use all three. The resume should help filter candidates, an interview should focus on behavioral questions that give you clarity around achievements on the resume, and the assessment reveals insights into natural wiring to understand if they’re a good fit for the role, team, and environment. None of these tools are meant to replace one another, but simply sharpen the whole experience. You go in with better questions and come out with better information. Suddenly, your hiring decision goes from a coin flip to being scientifically proven to be successful.
A Note For The Skeptics
First, hiring is not a thumbs up or thumbs down decision. When using all three tools, remember that the assessment is a neutral measurement that gives you information but doesn’t make the decision for you. Second, like buying a car, using these tools is like reading the car ad (resume), test driving and talking with the owner (interview), and then checking under the hood to make sure the engine runs smoothly (assessments). It’s a big, expensive decision and all factors should be considered before signing a contract. Losing an employee can cost 3-4x their salary, so why would you make a decision without having all the facts? That’s just gambling.
At Hiring by Design, we personally use the TTI Success Insights assessments that are multi-science psychometric tools backed by over 35 million global assessments and 30+ years of research.
If you’ve been hiring on two tools and getting the same results, the third one is usually what’s missing. My free guide, How to Identify and Engage the Best Talent for Your Organization, walks through what to do before you open a role, during recruiting, and after the hire.
Don’t Just Take My Word For It
I’m Tricia Neves, a Talent Analyst & Optimization Specialist. I’ve spent 27 years advising companies, assessing more than 3,100 individuals, and selling more than 16,500 assessments to companies I’ve personally trained.
Now, I’m bringing that same work to leaders who want to stop losing good hires in the first three months and start building a process that tells them who they’re hiring, and whether that person will succeed (and be happy) in the role.
The results my clients see? Fewer hiring regrets, low turnover, high engagement and a stress-free hiring process they trust.
