How to Avoid Hiring Failures: Tips for Sales and Business Development Roles
Hiring the right talent is crucial for any organization, yet it remains a challenge. According to Leadership IQ, a staggering 46% of newly hired employees fail within 18 months, while only 19% achieve unequivocal success. The primary reason? Attitude. Leadership IQ also notes that attitudes drive 89% of hiring failures, with technical skills accounting for just 11%.
Sales and Business Development roles are particularly susceptible to the high costs of hiring mistakes. Here’s how to get it right every time:
Start with the End in Mind
Begin by clearly defining the profile of your ideal candidate. Ensure that your hiring team agrees on this profile before starting the recruitment process. Here are the steps to follow:
Identify Essential Experience and Skills: Determine the necessary experience, skills, knowledge, and technical or scientific background required for the role. Focus on the must-haves and eliminate the fluff.
Assess Attitude Over Skills: While skills are important, the candidate's attitude is crucial. Ask yourself, "Is this candidate one of life’s winners?" Look for evidence of excellence in their past achievements and identify whether their success was driven by their attitude.
Understand Your Company Culture: Be brutally honest about your company culture and identify the type of people who will naturally fit in. This will help you assess the candidate’s potential cultural fit.
Focus on Behavioral Fit: Most hiring processes emphasize skills, knowledge, and experience, the "Can they do the job" factors. However, the "Will they do the job" factors, which pertain to cultural fit and attitude, are equally important.
Utilize Psychometric Profiling
Psychometric profiling can be invaluable in understanding a candidate’s behavioral tendencies and attitude. If you're not using psychometric profiling, you're missing a crucial tool that can help eliminate bad hires. By incorporating this into your hiring process, you can significantly reduce the likelihood of hiring failures.
Conclusion
Hiring the right candidate goes beyond just assessing their skills and experience. It's about understanding their attitude, cultural fit, and behavioral tendencies. By focusing on these factors and utilizing tools like psychometric profiling, you can improve your hiring success rate and build a stronger, more cohesive team.
For more information on how psychometric profiling can help you avoid bad hires, please get in touch.
