Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
Can They? And Will They?
HR Leadership Idea….
‘Finding’ Employee Engagement
Can Help Cut the Cost of ‘Growing’ It
Inland Press Foundation
Human Resources Management Conference
March 10, 2015
Building
the bottom
line... one hire at a time
© Copyright Growth
Ventures,
Inc.
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
Today, some thoughts…
1 – ‘Employee engagement’ is continuing to gain attention…
 Low hiring volume puts more focus on the current workforce
 Research shows ‘growing’ employee engagement has payoff
2 – We think attention might shift a bit…
 It’s not purely the organization’s responsibility to build engagement
 People might differ in their ‘inclination to engage’… so find them
3 – ‘Employee engagement’ will enter the world of candidate screening…
 Tools will target the concept of ‘inclination to engage’
 Data analytic platforms will track and refine the payoff
4 – The question is how well the idea might work…
 First, let’s set the stage…
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
First, we know differences in employee
performance exist everywhere …
Number of Operators and Adjusters
Performance evaluation results for more than 500 Machine
Operators and Adjusters…
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Overall Job Performance Rating
Needs
Improvement
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
Acceptable
Performance
Outstanding
Performance
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
Another example…
Performance evaluation results for more than 400 Sales Associate
staff…
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Number of Sales Associates
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Job Performance Evaluation
Below
Expectations
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
Meets Some
Expectations
Meets Most
Expectations
Exceeds
Expectations
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
That’s why business asks — How do we
predict performance before we hire?
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Number of Sales Associates
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Job Performance Evaluation
Below
Expectations
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
Meets Some
Expectations
Meets Most
Expectations
Exceeds
Expectations
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
One thing we’re finding – overall performance
is composed of multiple pieces…
Performance differences result for many reasons…
 How well people learn… how they apply it
 What they do… how they do it
 What they seek… whether they engage with their work
If we want to predict overall performance, we need to
“predict the pieces”…
 Do certain pieces drive who performs best overall?
 Are some pieces more predictable than others?
 Is overall based mainly on Can Do pieces?
 What about Will Do pieces?
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
Some interesting findings…
Using statistical analyses to examine supervisors’ ratings
Sales
of Overall Job Performance among 500 factory workers…
Learning & Applying
What’s Learned
24%
Showing a Drive
to Succeed
23%
5%
Troubleshoo ng &
Problem Solving
23%
25%
A Team Player
Showing Dependable
Commitment
Note: The values shown are computed using regression-based policy capturing analysis. They show how each
individual performance rating related to supervisors’ ratings of Overall Job Performance; i.e., how much
statistical weight each “Can Do” and “Will Do” area carried in shaping an Overall Job Performance rating.
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
Digging deeper – something else is
happening in the labor market…
In the 1950s, only 12% of
teenagers tested agreed with the
item ‘I am an important person’
whereas in the 1990s, 40 years
later, more than 75% of
teenagers tested agreed.
“The results also show an increasing
trend in which personal value is less
associated with what one does or how
hard one works... less likely to believe
that work should be an important part of
life…”
(Newsom et al., 2003.)
(Smola & Sutton, 2002, p. 379.)
“…almost two-thirds of recent
college students are above the
mean 1979-1985 Narcissism
score, a 30% increase.” (Twenge
Compared to young people in 1976,
“…almost twice as many young people in
2006 wanted a job at which they could
work slowly.”
et al., 2008, p. 875.)
(Twenge et al., 2010, p. 1132.)
Peoples’ Will Do and Employee Engagement seem to be changing…
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
So, how do you find the best performing
people?
Most candidate assessment tools are decades old
 Based on research and development a half-century old
 Good research on “Can Do” assessment, some on “Will Do”
 But, results are linked to an old workplace and workforce
The workplace is different today
 What “explains performance” has changed
 Technology has altered what jobs demand
 A tough economy emphasizes cost control
The workforce is different, too
 Different generations – evolving wants
 Different businesses – evolving needs
 Shifting “Can Do” and “Will Do” balances
Legal issues in hiring continue to grow
 Candidate screening can create legal challenges
 Adverse impact is monitored with ATS systems
 “Equally valid/less adverse” is a growing standard
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
How to address these things…
Try to gain a view of the “whole candidate,” so we can
predict overall outcomes on the job…
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
Some of the areas to initially assess…
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
Other attributes likely to be assessed…
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
In our experience…
Standard assessment tools can work across different companies and jobs…
 Some assessments cover the basics
But, companies are unique…
 Their leadership seeks differentiation
Jobs are unique, too…
 Creative job design drives differentiation
“Company-keying” candidate assessment works best…
 Finding how to maximize the company’s greatest investment… people
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
But can you really measure Will Do qualities?
“Drive to Succeed” scores for more than 400 Retail Sales Associates…
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Number of Sales Associates
30
Sales Associate “Will Do” Assessment Scores
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
One way to look for evidence of candidates
faking “Will Do” assessments…
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Sales Associate "Will Do“ Assessment Scores
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Sales Associate Applicant "Will Do" Assessment Scores
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
Sometimes, though, there is evidence of
faking in “Will Do” assessments…
“Will Do” assessment scores for approximately 1,000 blue collar employee
candidates…
No. Of Candidates
Scores on a Rational “Drive to Succeed” Scoring Key
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
Sometimes it’s necessary to take steps in
avoiding “Will Do” faking…
Some assessment vendors use “rational” scoring keys in assessing candidates’
“Will Do” qualities…
Rational Scoring
1
2
3
4
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
Avoiding “Will Do” faking (cont)…
Other vendors use “empirical” scoring keys in assessing candidates’ “Will Do”
qualities…
Rational Scoring
0
-5
5
-1
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
Sometimes it’s necessary to avoid faking
(cont)…
Driven by data, an “empirical scoring key” can erase faking…
Number of Applicants
Distribution for the Empirically-Keyed “Drive to Succeed”
Assessment
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“Will Do” Assessment Scores
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
It’s important to avoid faking, but some say…
“If candidates are smart enough to fake an assessment, they’ll be great
employees”
 Bunk… the tool’s validity will be zero… or worse
“When our tests were validated they showed no evidence of being fakable”
 Were they validated with current employees ,or with real candidates?
“Faking is a very rare event”
 There is growing evidence candidates fake “Will Do” assessments
“Keying” candidate assessment tools works best…
 Find how to maximize the way to score your candidates
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
The most important question, though…
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Do
They
Link?
5
Job Performance
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"Will Do" Assessment Scores
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
The strongest way to review – criterionrelated validity…
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
When valid, “Will Do” measures improve
hiring – more “hits” and fewer “misses”…
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
Back to the focus on ‘employee
engagement’…
The HR world is paying more and more attention to
‘employee engagement’…
 A driver of organization-wide surveys and research
 A foundation for action planning
 A metric for holding management accountable
 A norm for comparing organizations
Just what is ‘employee engagement’?
 Simply a new version of employee opinion and satisfaction surveys?
 An demonstrable influencer of job performance… and things like retention?
 A quality of the employee? A result of things the employer does? Both?
 Is it possible to “find engagement”?
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
The first thing we believe…
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IS A TWO-WAY STREET
“Many view employee engagement as management’s job, but it also resides in an
employee. Assessing ‘Will Do’ qualities in candidates helps hire those more
likely to engage,” says Dr. Leaetta Hough, Chief Science Officer with HirePayoff™
“We know management-led actions play a role in growing employee engagement, but
our research shows a major part of employee engagement resides within the employee.
It’s a very simple fact – an organization’s level of employee engagement results from
both whom it hires and, then, how it treats them,” concludes Dr. Hough.
Visit www.hirepayoff.com to see the full story on
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IS A TWO-WAY STREET
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
The second thing we know…
ENGAGEMENT IS PREDICTABLE!
“Sure, management plays a role in building employee engagement, but the evidence
is clear – a large part of the load rests in who gets hired, ” says Dr. David Jones
“…This is where the concept of payoff enters the discussion,” says Jones. “We’ve already
demonstrated that a selection tool predicts bottom-line performance. But now,” adds
Jones, “it’s possible to put a third leg under the stool. Dr. Hough was right – employment
testing for ‘Will Do’ competencies can forecast employee engagement.”
Visit www.hirepayoff.com to see the full story on
ENGAGEMENT IS PREDICTABLE
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
Screening for employee engagement means
“looking through two lenses”…
Work Focus
Scores
People Focus
Scores
Low work-focus drives
severe employee
disengagement
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
Work Focus
Scores
People Focus
Scores
High people-focus drives
strong employee
engagement
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
The Eager to Engage scale predicted…
Chances of Being
Highly
Engaged
100%
Increase
42
21
Chances of Being
Disengaged or
Disenchanted
56%
Reduction
23
52
0
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
10
20
30
40
50
60
Pass
Fail
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
The third thing we know…
ENGAGEMENT PREDICTS!
“HR analytics show screening for competencies and the likelihood of growing
employee engagement produces a clear bottom line return,” says Dr. David Jones.
“…When held to both performance screening standards and employee engagement
screening standards, results showed clear bottom line payoff…the most distinguishing
feature of Highly Engaged employees was how effectively they “Meet and Greet”
customers… Highly Engaged employees perform higher overall, but customer interaction is
were they were most different from those who reported being Disengaged,” says Jones.
Visit www.hirepayoff.com to see the full story on
ENGAGEMENT PREDICTS!
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
Predicting (cont)…
Those who ‘passed’ Eager to Engage screening standards…
Select among the top 15% of Eager to Engage scores and raise the
odds of finding ‘Highly Engaged” employees….
63%
Select among the Top 50% of Eager to Engage scores and lower the
likelihood of finding ‘Disengaged” employees….
51%
Select among the Top 50% of Eager to Engage scores and lower the
likelihood of finding ‘Disengaged or Disenchanted” employees….
55%
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
The fourth thing we know…
‘FINDING’ ENGAGEMENT PAYS!
“Why would an employer not focus as much on ‘finding’ as on ‘growing’ employee
engagement?” asks Dr. David Jones.
“Bottom line, why wouldn’t an HR or operations leader add the concept of finding engaged
employees to the hiring process?” asks Jones. “Too, what if the employers’ turnover is in
the 20%+ range; typical of lower-level positions, where engagement is so important and
receives so much employer investment? Look at how quickly the organization’s overall
workforce engagement could be increased via finding higher levels of engagement. Why
spend resources only on growing employee engagement in such a setting?” Jones asks.
Visit www.hirepayoff.com to see the full story on
‘FINDING’ ENGAGEMENT PAYS!
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
Employee engagement predicts retention,
too…
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
Finally… the legal compliance world…
Candidate screening is still challenged…
 Gender and ethnic challenges are frequent
 Background checks are gaining attention
 ADA challenges remain
There’s a growing employer checklist…
 Monitor adverse impact closely
 Seek out “equally valid, but less adverse” possibilities
 Use Will Do screening to mitigate adverse impact!
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
The key questions…

No matter what tools make up a selection (or promotion) procedure…


No matter how the procedure is used to guide decisions…


‘‘2 to 3 SD Test’, shortfall, etc.
Q: If so, is there ‘Prong 2’ evidence of validity?


Simple pass vs. fail standards, multiple hurdles, weighting, rank-ordering, etc.
Q: Is there ‘Prong 1’ evidence of adverse impact?


Tests, interviews, physical ability exams, physical fitness metrics, job simulations, etc.
Are there job analysis findings, validation research, statistical analyses, and acceptable
documentation to justify the procedure?
Q: If so, is there a ‘Prong 3’ challenge to the method of use?

Might different qualifying standards maintain the validity, but reduce the adverse impact?
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
The standards reference several approaches
to ‘validating’ selection procedures……
Criterion-Related
Validation
Content
Validation
Construct
Validation
Different Validation Strategies for
Different Selection Procedures and
Their Uses
Validity
Generalization
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
Validity
Transportability
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
The strongest way to review – criterionrelated validity…
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
Judgment-based content validity…
1. A Suitable Job
Analysis
4. Selection Procedure
Content Representative
of Job Content
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
2. Competent
Selection
Procedure
Construction
3. Selection
Procedure Content
Related to Job
Content
5. A
Justified
Manner of
Use
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
Validity transportability…
Same Test
to be
transported
from
Setting No.1
to Setting
No.2
N
Y
Clear
evidence of
criterionrelated
validity in
Setting No.1
Y
N
Job in Setting
No.1 closely
matches job Y
in new
Setting No.2
N
Evidence of
fairness in
Setting No.1
for groups a
significant
factor in
Setting No.2
N
Y
Account
taken of
variables
that might Y
affect validity
in Setting
No.2
VALIDITY
TRANSPORTABILITY
JUSTIFIED
NN
NO BASIS FOR TRANSPORTING VALIDITY
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
38
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
How the test is used is key…
“It is the interpretation of test scores required by proposed
uses that are evaluated, not the test itself. When test scores
are used or interpreted in more than one way, each intended
interpretation must be validated.”
The premises…
 Those who ‘pass’ meet basic requirements on what’s measured
 Higher is better in predicting job performance
 Those who ‘pass’ might undergo further screening, or…
 Hires might be selected at random from those who pass
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line
That’s all the thoughts…except for one…
Building the bottom line... one hire at a time
How Tapping a Candidate’s Can Do and Will Do
Drives the Bottom Line