If you’ve ever been in the market for buying diamonds, you’ll be familiar with the 4 C’s in assessing the quality of a diamond – clarity, colour, cut and carat weight.
This universal measure means those interested in diamonds can communicate in the same language – diamond customers know exactly what to expect.
How is this relevant to assessing the quality of a candidate? Much like buying a diamond it’s important to ensure you are getting the characteristics you need/want in your business.
Every business has different needs when it comes to recruitment/talent acquisition and whilst there are many elements that need to be considered when hiring, there is a baseline measure.
I use my 4 C’s as a starting point to help businesses and hiring managers to improve their recruiting process and increase the quality of hire; which ultimately impacts positively on retention rates.
The 4 C’s are – competency, consistency, capability and commitment.
- Competency
In today’s job rich, candidate short market it is easy to get carried away with securing a candidate only to find the skills, knowledge and experience are lacking or not what you assumed. An expensive mistake to make.
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) in their report ‘Perfect match: Making the right hire and the cost of getting it wrong’ placed the cost of a poor hire at mid-manager level with a salary of £42,000 at around £132,000.
There are a number of methods to assess competency; the most popular being evidence-based questioning, assessments or competence based/professional qualifications.
- Consistency
Delivering one time is not enough. Much has been written about businesses delivering a consistent hiring process. Equally, assessing candidate consistency is important.
Consistent action on behalf of the candidate demonstrates how they could potentially fit into a role, the overall impact on the team and its reputation within the business.
Essentially, setting expectations and delivering on them.
- Capability
When we asked our clients to break down the quality of a hire, the most common element was capability coming in at 73%. In addition, 48% deemed team contribution to be important when evaluating the quality of hire.
Armed with that data, it is important to weigh up the mid to long term fit and assess not just where the candidate is today but what is the potential growth and therefore lasting value to both parties through professional development, promotion and coaching.
- Commitment
Hiring is expensive. Not just in recruiter fees but also in the time businesses and hiring managers invest in screening, interviewing and training new hires.
When you get the right fit, it is worth it, but it can be painful process. Particularly if you are not successful in securing your hire. Or worse, the appointment is short lived.
It is therefore important to go through a process to ensure candidates will commit to the business and be a good long-term fit.
Commitment is difficult to measure but not impossible. By understanding the applicant/candidate goals and motivations, using tools like behavioural assessments to ensure cultural fit you are less likely to lose potential hires compared to those not using such tools.
As a business it is important to clearly articulate your values, as well as role requirements. With honesty and transparency – the main reason employees leave within the first year is because the ‘role was not as described at interview’.
This is by no means an exhaustive list. The 4 C’s are a starting point to set the standard for long-standing, productive relationships. We should know, after all, 100% of our hires enjoy longevity and professional growth in the businesses that hired them!
For more information, or request a call back to discuss how we can help you please do contact us
