Background
A fast growing, global business was suffering from a substantial cost associated with recruiting the wrong people to sales roles. As one of the top 10 companies in Denmark in terms of turnover, it is a major player in shipping fuel trading. As a large and highly successful business working in an enormously competitive market, pressure on the sales team is always intense. The company had huge annual growth and currently the local managers did the hiring from their local network.
Why did they choose Facet5?
Facet5’s Audition has the unique ability to match a person’s personality to a job role allowing an organisation to explore learned behaviours at the interview stage. The process begins by developing a ‘role template’ for the position being recruited for. Candidates are then asked to complete a questionnaire and the results are matched to this template for the job. Audition also produces a comprehensive tailored behavioural event interview guide. This saves time and helps to ensure that effective interviews are carried out.
We used Facet5 to create a template for the ideal candidate, making recruitment more effective and staff turnover much lower.
Tools and Approach
Six subsidiaries of the company were chosen to take part in the project across Asia, Europe and the Americas. We worked with the client company to obtain a deeper understanding of the characteristics of different roles they needed their sales representatives to perform. Internal surveys suggested that two different types of personalities were required. The outgoing, dynamic sales person – the HUNTER, with high energy and ability to engage easily, and the more detailed back office account manager who will follow through the needs of each of the new customers once they’ve been brought on board – called the FARMER.
We used the Facet5 Audition module to define two different role templates. These templates define the key personality factors that the organisation felt successful candidates would have to meet the requirements of the role. The HUNTER sales representative needed to be high energy, high will, low control and low affection, while the account managers – the FARMERS – would have much higher control and affection to develop deeper and longer term relationships and manage the new accounts effectively. The concept was adopted globally with templates slightly adjusted for the Americas, Europe and Asia due to cater for cultural differences.
The Outcomes
The following results were achieved thought implementing a robust recruitment process using Audition:
- The organisation put in place a process that inspired motivation and responsibility in the people involved in the recruitment process
- Decision-making was based on facts
- Leadership was based on leading edge guide to leading which is produced as part of the Audition process and based on the Bernard Bass model of Transactional and Transformational leadership
- Those involved in the recruitment process were now consciously thinking about transformational vs. transactional leadership competencies.
- Interpersonal style was improved as the company started treating people as individuals
- The process allowed the organisation to build an effective competency framework
- Long term customer satisfaction was achieved by ensuring that the best candidates were recruited to meet customer needs.
Ongoing Results
A review 1.5 years after the beginning of the project, the organisation was still experiencing significant benefits, including:
- Employee turnover reduced from 45% to 1%
- Marked improvement in communication between subsidiary managers
- The company were much more conscious about their people, process and culture
- Person organisation fit had resulted in better hires
- The Audition interview guide and guide to leading was the key to success
The client was delighted with the recruitment process and has seen an astonishing reduction in staff turnover.
Key Learnings
- Facet5 is a flexible and versatile instrument, which can have multiple applications. Re- using Facet5 beyond the recruitment process to include onboarding and team development drives significant benefits to organisations
- The Audition role definition process is a very effective way of bringing together diverse opinions on what constitutes success in an organisation, This leads to greater clarity on who and what is successful in an organisation and therefore attraction and selection of ideal candidates
- Listen to the diverse range of viewpoints as each interacts with a role or team in different ways. They have different requirements and will help define the various subcultures of an organisation
- Where you can, involve the customer, they bring a unique experience and perspective of the organisation.
Continue the conversation
Talk to us about how we can support you with your recruitment and selection programmes. Just drop us a note and we’ll get back in touch to arrange a time to talk.