Talent Acquisition:
Why You Should Never Make a Hiring Decision
Based on Hard Skills
In the 30 + years of my career as a consultant in Talent Acquisition & Retention, I have been regularly faced with the following question : “What is the biggest mistake employers make when hiring new talent?”
My answer is radical: The #1 mistake in hiring new talent is putting too much attention on hard skills…. and not enough on the soft ones.
A lot of literature has been written on the subject, providing the evidence of the statement above. Yet, that mistake is repeatedly made by the majority of small business owners and their recruiters, leading to a 50% rate of failure in talent acquisition. (Source)
Danny’s great question
Danny is an entrepreneur-driven client who was looking to hire a General Manager. The purpose was to delegate his daily management activities so that he could allocate more time on strategic planning and expansion.
Danny was questioning one specific applicant’s resume, based on the fact that the candidate appeared to have an amazing business background BUT was not familiar at all with the company’s industry. Danny’s question was: “Could such a major technical weakness affect the candidate’s ability to perform as expected?
My instant reaction to Danny’s question was to send him a link to a LinkedIn article (published in August 2022), “Why You Should Avoid Hiring Candidates Who’ve Already Done the Job?’
Per the LinkedIn article, the highest performers — the ones who consistently exceed expectations in each role — rarely take on the same job twice at any point in their careers. They usually take on meaningful step-up roles offered through connections in their networks.
Soft Skills Make up 89% of a Hire Success – or Failure
In a three-year study conducted by Leadership IQ, 5,247 hiring managers from 312 public, private, business and healthcare organizations were examined. Collectively, these managers hired more than 20,000 employees during the study period. The study focused on why new hires fail at such alarming rates which is certainly a growing trend:
- 46% of newly hired employees will fail within 18 months.
- 30% of new hires fail because they can’t accept feedback.
- 22% of new hires fail because they’re unable to understand and manage emotions.
- 20% of new hires fail because they lack the necessary motivation to excel.
- 17% of new hires fail because they have the wrong temperament for the job.
- 11% (only) of new hires failed because they lack the necessary technical skills.
During the study, 812 managers experienced significantly more hiring success than their peers. What differentiated their interviewing approach was their emphasis on interpersonal and motivational issues.
How you should use this information
- Clearly define 2-3 hard/technical skills maximum, vital to success on the job
- Clearly define 5 – 8 soft skills that are absolutely vital to success on the job
- Test all candidates on the same soft skills for a specific job
- Evaluate all candidates against your company culture
- Hire only candidates who, besides scoring high on the vital hard skills, are clearly a culture fit and score highest on the needed soft skills for a specific position
In a next article I will address what soft skills you need to evaluate applicants on, no matter what the job is. In the meantime, do not hesitate to contact us if you need to hire ad/or test the right people.
Best,
Patrick Valtin,
CEO Hirebox
