How to Apply Research & Development Method’s Directly into Recruitment & Development
The Expectations of HR
It is always a troublesome task that HR faces when looking at the trends and troughs of recruitment and development drives. Constantly bombarded with the new current fad, or stuck in a process that is too old to challenge or too new to take that plunge into the unknown, untested (sends shivers down our spines)!
However, we allow jargon talk to float about like ‘leveraging capabilities, ‘innovate’, ‘be creative’, ‘having a vision’ (don’t we all), be more ‘people-centric’ (that’s why we are in this business right?), yet on the other hand we are also expected to be billy whizz at HR Metrics, ‘measuring’, ‘standardising’, ‘datafying’ (BTW has no research backing, nor is it found in the Cambridge Dictionary), building ‘big data’ pictures to share on ‘dashboards’ at the 4th meeting that day, nod in agreement yet leave more confused than beforehand (of course this will not apply to those clever clogs out there)!
Let’s get to the point, the expectation HR faces is massive. The need to speak directly to the business, be negotiators, psychologists, counsellors, artists, mathematicians, tech geniuses, architects of change all rolled into one. Tough call. Think back to what inspired you in the first place, we all have a different niche, a passion that influenced you to educate and work hard to be where you are now. For most HR and L&D specialists I know, it’s simple, it’s helping, supporting and improving people’s experience in the workplace.
So how do we go about cutting the jargon, fight the status quo and deliver upon those expectations? By becoming all of the above of course! Obvious? Easy? Well maybe not initially, but let’s see how you can do this.
How HR Can Create Intelligent Experiences
The first step to creating intelligent experiences is to believe in the ‘vision’ you are promoting, whether this is either in what you want to improve on or want to change.
At face-value it is quite a daunting mission. What do you do to encourage and convince the powers that be to support your vision? How do you go about being recognised for bringing strategic insights whilst implementing actual (and successful) change to the business? Its simple– start with experiencing and learning about what you have got already and go from there.
To understand this a bit better, let’s take a look at how the steps that follow can be applied in candidate assessment and employee development – think of these as the research and development tools needed that will equip you to create (or improve) experiences in a practical and intelligent manner. These are not normally accessible together and that’s the difference t-PHI provides. We make these available and we want you to use the tools provided so that you too can Improve your Online Experiences for your people
Candidate Assessment
Prospective employees are your future talent pool that are waiting for you to attract them, not you waiting to assess their potential (well not yet). Early engagement and great employer branding relies upon the apps and online technology you utilise to grab their attention as well as the type of initial assessment you provide.
When innovating a vision in regards to candidate assessment, think back to before you worked in your current organisation (or even somewhere you really wanted to work, but on closer inspection uninspired you – or you didn’t get the job (their loss not yours)). What was it that grabbed your attention? How did you experience the application, assessment and on-boarding stages? Was there any part of that journey that you thought you really enjoyed, could have been better, or bored the hell out of you – it’s a process after all?
So you have your own thoughts based on your experience but what about the experience of current potential candidates? What are you doing about this?
If indeed you are inspired to alter or change the current assessment process then at t-PHI we advise and support our clients in a few ways:
#1 – introduce short and targeted user research with (finger quote sign time) “candidates” (finger unquote) on all of your recruitment interfaces
#2 – apply statistical analysis; this will uncover the true value of the assessments you use in recruitment for future performance, engagement and diversity
#3 – by following the first steps we then help you to identify key behavioural metrics by properly testing the impact of different recruitment experiences. The outcome will increase both your attraction and validity measures (ticks the candidate experience and metrics boxes).
Employee Development
In regards to employee development think again from within, what assessments are being used to identify potential (i.e. 360 or other development evaluations), have you experienced these yourself? Do your business competencies reflect current or future values?
These are great questions to reflect upon. By doing so you are beginning to think in a more holistic and people-centric way. This will provide you with the two-sides of HR needed to make strategic decisions – being aware of how your employees experience the company from the inside. Make the necessary improvement or changes needed to boost engagement and positivity measurements, whilst unlocking the metrics needed to support and predict future performance.
Here are a couple of steps:
#1 – apply user research techniques to selected employee development and career management interfaces
#2 – we help you apply immersive techniques into development. These help improve engagement, whilst giving you the evidence base you need to make strategic decisions
With this new evidence, which incorporates both the vital ‘people-centric’ experience and metrics you need to ‘datafy’ (or whatever term you wish to use), you now have the tools needed to apply behavioural metrics to improve performance assessment, career development and leadership potential.
Not convinced? Well, what we have found with our clients are these steps (applied together or individually) has unearthed how competencies are actually being measured and how they are being used in career development, performance assessment and leadership potential with real-life predictable outcomes, future-proofing the organisation (and there’s the link to the picture).
Old Habits Die Hard
It’s not easy to convince the business that something needs to change or even at times you may convince yourself that processes are perfectly fine the way they are. After all, they haven’t been touched for 5, 10, 20 years, so they must be doing something right?
Processes are just like habits, sometimes bad ones, sometimes ones that you know you need to ditch but just don’t know where to start. Think of us as the ‘self-help’ kit you need to kick start a new, fresh beginning. No, not building a new habit but create new experiences for your people based on real results!
So before you get your fidget spinner out to ease your stress (not being rude, it’s a real thing), we have given you a sneak peak of how to innovate and implement your vision. It’s simple, don’t fret about what you do not have; experience what you have right now, learn from it, create from the intelligence you get, inspire and educate the business with measurable and valid metrics, make up some new jargon (why not) and be a step ahead of trend.
Interested to find out more? Feel free to drop me a line directly, or contact us today: www.t-phi.co.uk
About t-PHI
It’s all about the experience!
t-PHI specialises in integrating user-centric approaches to online assessment utilising psychological science with immersive assessment and development techniques.
We improve how organisations recruit and develop their people, by paying close attention to the candidate and employee experience.
We have specialised in developing new immersive approaches to talent assessment. We have designed & developed the psychometric’s for games-based assessment (i.e. Ipsemet).
We are also currently researching new methods for assessment (i.e. alternative ‘immersive’ games-based assessment, virtual e-assessment and development centres).
We have also helped a range of high-profile organisations understand and apply behavioural metrics – unlocking HR Big Data with practical, reliable and predictable results.