KeenHire Blog by Margaret Graziano

Choose Your Executive Search Firm Wisely

In Today’s competitive climate for talent many companies are counting on

HR Executive Search professionals to be their field talent scouts. It makes perfect sense that progressive talent minded organizations would require a top notch Executive HR Search partner to augment their internal Corporate Talent Acquisition team.

 

Whether you are building your Internal Talent Acquisition team or hunting for the right Executive Search partner it is important that you ask some fundamental talent acquisition questions; such as:

 

1.     What is your Role Analysis process?

2.     What is your talent mining process?

3.     Where do you find your candidates?

4.     What percentages of hires are generated from which sources; job boards, social media, corporate talent mining and existing databases?  

5.     What is your hiring process?

6.     How do you validate the candidates you recommend are the right candidates for our roles?

7.     What is your on boarding program? 

 

At KeenHire, our teams of tenured Executive Search, HR and Recruitment partners are each skilled in segmented niches and stages of Executive Recruitment and Employee Selection.  Every Keen partner has been working in the HR, Executive Search, Talent Mining and Employee Selection field for a minimum of a decade and has a long list of successful projects, programs and customer references. Segmenting the Executive Search process allows for highly skilled people to focus on their areas of proficiency increases our throughput and effectiveness which brings you highly qualified candidates who match your criteria, faster.

 

We approach building your team strategically and deploy expert level Talent Mining and a Conscious Hiring process in every HR Executive Search project we accept. 

At KeenHire Talent Management, our Executive Search model begins with a complete Organizational Culture and Role Analysis.  We diligently follow Stephen Covey’s philosophy of begin with the end in mind.  We work with your organization to understand your Organization’s direction, values, competitive advantages, objectives and challenges.

 

Once we know who you are, where you are going and what your barriers are to getting there, we help you discern what competencies, behaviors, beliefs, values and emotional intelligence levels your leadership team must possess walking in the door.  Our proprietary Role Analysis process has been utilized in over 100 companies and is the foundation of all of our Executive HR Search projects. This process has successfully led our founders in placing over 2500 business leaders.

 

KeenHire’s team of highly skilled Talent Acquisition, HR and Executive Search professionals are certified in our Conscious Hiring process, the benefit to you is that each and every candidate presented to your company is fully vetted and benchmarked against the Role Analysis.  We only present candidate with the right behaviors, competencies, values and emotional ability to do the job, in the right way for the right period of time.

 

In most Executive Search operations the founders have deep domain expertise in the firms area of specialty. At KeenHire, we too have deep domain expertise in our field of Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, Executive Search and Organizational Development.  We have worked in these areas for over a quarter of a century.  What makes us different is our commitment.  Keen’s brand, unique selling proposition and core differentiators are all driven from our founders expertise with Top Grading principles and building Good to Great companies.  We built our business with outside in strategic thinking. We built our business to help you scale your organization and achieve your goals. 

 

 

Do You Want to Profile Performance or Predict It?

A Commentary from Previsor on the Risks of Profiling in the use of Pre-Employment Psychometric Assessment Tools in building a Conscious Hiring Process. 

Overview
This commentary describes the profiling approach to using pre-employment psychometric assessments, compares it to the predictive approach to using assessments, and then contrasts these two very different approaches. It then describes the dramatically different results derived from an analysis in which the two methods were compared side-by-side in the selection process for a given organization. At KeenHire, we use both approaches in tandem to deliver the best hiring process to our customers. The Key is in the Role Analysis (referred to as job analysis in this article).

What is Profiling and How Does it Compare to the Predictive Model?
The profiling approach involves assessing a small group of employees that have been identified by the organization as high-performers, and using the resulting test scores to determine how to evaluate job candidates. Candidates whose assessment scores more closely resemble the scores obtained by the high-performers are judged to be better “fits” for the role, and are forecasted to be better hires. A predictive approach, by contrast, involves identifying job-relevant traits based on an in-depth job analysis, and selecting those candidates who earn higher scores on measures of those traits.

Seven Problems with the Profiling Approach to Assessment
Most assessment experts do not advocate using a profiling approach, even though it would be easy for them to implement, due to seven major problems with profiling. These are summarized below.

#1: The "Ceiling Effect" Problem
The scores obtained by the high-performing employees asked to complete the assessment define the ceiling—the maximum possible score that can be obtained on the assessment. This means that it is actually impossible to identify a candidate who is a better fit for the position than current high-performers. The high performers used to develop the model don’t just represent “desirable,” they represent “the best imaginable. ”The profiling model has no answer for the question, “If a candidate came along who was an even better fit for the position than your current high performers, how would you know?”

#2: The Not Enough Data Problem
The profiling approach relies on a large number of conclusions and decisions made on the basis of a very small amount of data. Profiling assumes that the test scores obtained from a handful of employees produces information that will be consistent with and generalizable to job candidates. But the unfortunate reality is that small data samples are very rarely conclusive. Models built on the basis of test scores from five people, or even fifteen people, are very unlikely to be accurate. They may not even be close, and can even lead to false conclusions. At KeenHire, we measure the actual on the job performance of every participant in the job benchmark study. If the on the job results are not exceptional, we encourage our customers to exclude that participant from the study.

#3: The (Non)Essential Trait Problem
Profiling is more likely to incorrectly identify unimportant traits as job-relevant, or overlook traits that are essential to job success. This is because the profiling approach is based on a few individuals and their traits, not on how relevant those traits are to the job demands or requirements. Maybe the handful of assessed employees just happen to share traits that are not actually job relevant. Maybe they differ on traits that are job relevant because one or two of them have learned to compensate for a limitation in one area with particular strengths in others. Maybe the traits common to the top-performers who were tested are the same traits possessed by weaker performers—but since weaker performers were not assessed as part of the approach, there is no way to know. Any of these possibilities would result in a profiling model that has no value in identifying future high performers.

#4: The “Over-Cloning” Problem
Profiling emphasizes similarities without any regard to whether or not they are important similarities. For example, if the profile is created based on a ten-scale personality instrument, but only four of those scales are actually relevant for success in the position, the organization is needlessly forcing consistency and uniformity in six areas. Good, high-potential candidates may be passed over because they are not sufficiently similar to current employees in areas that have no bearing on their likelihood of success. At KeenHire, our process begins with an Organizational Development approach. We work diligently to build a balanced organization by first digging deep into who the organization is, we seek to understand the current corporate culture, the desired culture, the strategic objectives and goals as well as the barriers to achievement.  We then assess and evaluate the Executive team,the mission critical and key contributors. We look for what is working, what is not and what is missing, the presence of which would make a difference. Only after we have a full picture of the current state and the desired future state do we make recommendations.  No one with any level of discernment or sanity really wants the "Stepford" culture. Most companies simply do not understand how to build a high performance culture. That is where we come in and make the difference.

Should You Hire A Contingency Recruiter, Retained Search or Contract Recruiter?

In today's plight for the right talent most competitive organizations are dealing with the challenge of securing the right mission critical, key contributor and next level leadership people. 

Astute companies are building internal or external talent minded programs that generate top tier candidates, amplify their employment brand and mitigate their risk of mis-hires and unwanted employee turnover.  Leading edge talent minded organizations are solidifying their relationship with Executive Search providers, Interim HR Executives, Contract recruitment organizations while building competitive employee retention programs that maximize employee engagement and personal productivity. 

Given the last 2-3 years have had most companies operating in survival mode, many of them have lost touch with their external and internal Talent Acquisition providers.  KeenHire has seen a huge uptick in inquiries for developing Hiring Process, Executive HR Search, Interim HR Executive contracts and Employee Retention program development and the biggest challenge our customers have shared is that the market is changing daily and they just can not keep up.

Some reports say that the search activity for Executives is 60% higher today than it was one year ago, which is a good thing; however from where our clients sit this makes it extremely difficult to identify and differentiate between the winners and the whiners. 

Below is an overview of what differentiates the Executive Search providers, Contingency and Contract Recruiters; it is a good reference sheet, so fee free to share it with your clients and your team.

Who Do They Represent?
Retained: Represent employer clients only, learn about their client and establish a solid foundation for the future.

Contingency:  Can and do represent individuals seeking placement, they are more like sports agents, representing and pitching the latest and greatest.

Contract recruiter: Work for one company, and represent them but....share candidates from previous gigs, mostly they are loyal to themselves.

How They Work?
Retained: Conducts assignments on an exclusive basis only.

Contingency: Are usually in competition with other similar firms or agencies for the placement.

Contract Recruiter: Work on site at the customers’ office working on as many or as few assignments as are needed.