It is a well-known fact that a staggering share of employee turnover is because of bad hires, specifically as a result of processes that do not predict job performance. Bad hires are costly for the company. As per a survey by global human resource consultancy CareerBuilder, global human resource consultancy CareerBuilder,  when it comes to companies making a wrong choice in hiring an employee, India figures among the top-four countries worldwide and the cost of one single bad recruitment could be over Rs 20 lakh.

This cost can relatively amount to larger sums each time a wrong hire is made. Add to that the cost of lost productivity, the costs involved in running a hiring process, and the costs and time involved in onboarding such hires-and you can imagine why even one bad hire is bad for business.

Yet, again and again, companies succumb to the same trap of age-old, ineffective recruitment processes, making the same mistakes of relying too much on resumes and too little on integrating skills assessments in the interviewing process that can predict the future performance of prospective candidates.

Relying too much on resumes

Relying too much on resumes is one of the major failures of the traditional recruiting process and one of the major causes of bad hires. Years of research have proven that resumes, which are technically summaries of a person's work experience and education, are not an effective indicator of predicting future job performance. 

Similarly, unstructured interviews, or basing decisions on reference checks and years of job experience, are ineffective metrics to gauge performance. Even years of education are hardly predictive at all. Though a necessary evil, even the screening process is riddled with unconscious biases that can prevent qualified candidates from reaching the final stages.  Often, recruiters rely on hazy terms such as "culture fit" and "personality" and are biased towards candidates who have a similar background as them. 

Hence it is hardly a surprise that hiring decisions based on résumés and unstructured interviews lead to bad hiring and, ultimately, high employee turnover.

Integrating skills assessments in recruiting to predict candidate performance

Predictive analytics and integrating skills assessments into the recruiting process can help us address the failure points in recruiting, predict job performance, and ultimately lead to better hiring decisions that lead to better business results. 

Assessments can efficiently weed out the least-suitable applicants, leaving a smaller, better-qualified talent pool to be a part of the more costly and time-consuming aspects of the recruiting process, making much more business sense for the company. They can also help an employer understand how the candidate will perform in real-life scenarios. 

One such tool is The Workplace Personality Inventory-II assessment which is aligned to the work styles taxonomy included in O*NET. Therefore, recruiters can refer to O*NET descriptions to determine work style requirements for a wide range of occupations and then easily measure candidates' level of fit for the job. The assessment also provides a development report that will help new hires with their self-awareness and guide their direct managers to support them effectively, particularly during the first 90 days on the job.

The assessment focuses on measuring sixteen work style scales summarized under six domain scales or broadly six drivers of work performance. These six drivers are namely-

• Achievement Orientation
• Interpersonal Orientation
• Social Influence
• Self-adjustment
• Conscientiousness
• Practical intelligence

Meanwhile, the 16 workstyles that are grouped within these assessments are as follows- 

This detailed assessment report offers insights into an individual's interpersonal attributes and work styles, enabling HR professionals to predict how the candidate is likely to perform in his/her job. This aids HR to screen the odd ones out against the ones who are the best fit for the required role. In addition, the report also features development suggestions that are personalized for the employee based on his or her scores and provides step-by-step directions for how to begin and implement a development plan.

In conclusion, hiring the right people builds a successful business, and for that, it is vital that you integrate skill assessments and predictive analytics into your recruitment process. Predicting candidates' future performance before hiring thus cuts down on bad hiring costs and ultimately leads to better business results.