Human Capital Management
4 steps to high-impact
behavioral science for HR
Organizations today run on data. From production to sales
and marketing, departments are making informed choices
based on analyzing hard facts. HR is no different: smart
decisions, based on behavioral science, has successfully
reduced turnover for globally-dispersed call centers by
37% and helped accurately predict top sales performers
who generated 48% more in gross profit dollars than
their coworkers. It’s time for HR to become part of the
data-driven organization.
Follow these four steps
to transform your
organization’s HR practices
with behavioral science.
Human Capital Management How To
1
Select a robust methodology
Traditional methods of candidate selection too often
rely on gut instinct: Recruiters spend an average of
just 6.25 seconds evaluating a resume, and busy
managers tend to rush into ineffective, unstructured
interviews. This results in a subjective method that
produces inconsistent results. In contrast, a robust,
tested hiring methodology provides consistent data
for use across different HR functions; and with the
right technology, is even scalable to grow as your
organization grows. This impact-at-scale is one reason
companies are using data-driven techniques to
improve HR processes.
1
2
Build success profiles
Whether the target HR area is initial recruitment,
internal promotions, skills development, or succession
planning, organizations need to know “what good
looks like” in any role. Ideally, each role is defined by
the organization's unique key performance indicators
(KPIs) that naturally fall in step with strategic business
goals. In addition to skills and experience, employees
can offer more intangible factors helpful to the role,
but sometimes managers rely only on vague and
often inaccurate “gut feelings” to identify them.
To garner predictable results, you need to build a
clear “success profile” for roles that include a set of
tested and well-defined characteristics, such as
Infor’s 39 behavioral, cognitive, and cultural traits.
To create such a profile, you need to assess the full
range of performance among all employees, not just
the most successful ones. This allows you to identify
the characteristics that differentiate successful
employees. Some results might be surprising; you
might find, for example, “mental flexibility” correlating
better with high performance than “verbal reasoning.”
Human Capital Management How To
2
3
4
Compare individuals
against profiles
Most interviewing techniques currently in use
unfortunately allow for an individual manager or
recruiter to introduce their own unconscious bias to an
already imperfect system. This results in sub-optimal
candidate selection, and creates non-diverse teams
that don’t perform well. In contrast, when selection is
based on a candidate’s Behavioral DNA®, the most
suitable candidates for a role are selected, which
increases on-the-job performance and reduces
turnover. For example, a leading fashion retailer’s
sales staff that was recruited against success profiles
generated 9.3% greater sales-per-hour; and a
healthcare network saw turnover among its operating
nurses drop 51% by recruiting against success profiles.
Apply the data widely
Methods for assessing talent cover a range of
different approaches and definitions for each role.
The behavioral science method, in direct opposition
to multiple test platforms, uses a single behavioral
measurement tool across all roles; subsequently,
because behavioral characteristics do not change,
employee profiles can be reused at any time. As a
result, data can be used for internal recruitment, as
well as for succession planning and development—all
without the need to repeat assessments. With
succession planning becoming a key trend in HR,
making that process as smooth and successful as
possible must be a priority.
By using the right data analytics-driven methodology,
building profiles, comparing candidates to those
profiles, and applying the findings across the
employee life cycle, HR decisions can now be truly an
integral part of planning the overall business strategy.
Explore more about the value
of data and analytics in talent ›
Learn more:
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