Effective selection is more than identifying rising stars; it is also about screening out under-achievers. Doing this well can be more difficult than it may seem, which is why a three-prong approach to due diligence — involving Standardized Assessment, Structured Behavioral Interviewing and Proper Reference Checking — is considered hiring best practice.
Of these three components, proper reference checking is arguably the most overlooked. When reference checking is conducted, The Society for Human Resource Management has consistently found that the task is delegated to human resources personnel. Unfortunately, survey research conducted with human resources specialists who check references has found that many of these specialists do not believe references provide credible information. This perception of limited usefulness may result in reference checking being given a low priority, if done at all. Unstructured, inconsistent and unreflective reference checks may not produce useful information. To practitioners who are unfamiliar with best practices, this poor return may seem intrinsic to reference checking as a method.
Proper reference checking clearly is not a universal hiring practice, which is unfortunate since proper reference checking has a number of advantages. Direct benefits include making better and more informed hiring decisions, improving job-person match, improving on self-report assessments of training and experience, demonstrating fairness and equal treatment of all job applicants and sending a message about the high expectations of the employer. Longer term benefits include avoiding the costs of a bad hire and maintaining employee morale by making quality hires. An increasing trend in the industry is to supplement or replace traditional reference checking with a standardized background check. Background checking consists of mining and evaluating verifiable behavior-based information, such as a candidate’s work history, money management (credit check), criminal records or any illicit drug use (drug screen). This type of background information can be extremely useful in determining whether the candidate has potential integrity issues or a pervasive pattern of behavior that will likely undermine work performance.
20|20 Assessment™ does not directly provide background checking services like these, but we recommend HOV Services (http://www.hovservices.com | http://www.screen-360.com) as the provider of choice for a broader range of solutions to perform comprehensive background checks. HOV Services is a leading BPO company with 30 locations across North America serving more than 50% of the Fortune 100. With a commitment to exceed expectations, HOV Services delivers comprehensive business solutions that the meet the strategic objectives of their clients. By collaborating with clients, HOV Services provides flexible offers that help match the right solutions and locations to assure that benefits are realized rapidly with the least amount of risk. Employee screening that utilizes a standardized assessment like 20|20 Skills™ (www.2020skills.com) combined with a standardized background check like HOV Services can dramatically enhance the likelihood of identifying both rising stars and screening out under-achievers. Moreover, as an added value HOV is extending preferential pricing to referrals from 20|20 Assessment™.
It is well known that organizations suffer huge costs when hiring the wrong people, as well as when maintaining mediocre performers and the less-than-optimal “fits” with a company’s culture. Studies have shown that even for low-level positions a failed hire costs a company double the person’s salary. At higher levels, the cost can be six times the salary. Nothing a company does is more important for its lasting success than managing talent. For more information about best practice due diligence, please contact 20|20 Assessment™ for a free consultation.
