01 Jan Your Business Succeeds Because of Your People. Here’s How to Keep Them
Have you ever found the perfect hire for a position, and then had that hire leave within the first 90 days? According to Bravely, more than one third of new hires do just that.
The top reasons for leaving are varied, but often include:
- stress in the workplace
- poor working relationships
- problems with the role and performance
- not feeling connected to the company
- feeling misunderstood
- communication difficulties within teams
At Talent Suite, we have an introspective way of looking at this very common problem.
We ask: What are you as a manager – or what is your team – doing that caused the employee to leave?
This question is not meant to be overly critical or place direct blame, but it is important because we know that employees typically leave for people reasons, or needs not being met, not on account of the job itself.
As a leader how can you better understand the needs of employees?
Understanding Why People Behave the Way They Do is Crucial When Hiring
Renowned author, leadership expert, and University of Virginia business professor James Clawson rightly says: “Unless leaders understand why people behave the way they do, their efforts to influence others will have random, perhaps unpredictable, even alienating effects.”
Personality clashes in the workplace mean you lack the team cohesiveness that is necessary for your business to thrive.
Sometimes these clashes are because hiring managers and/or recruiters tend to instinctively hire someone they have a gut feeling about, or someone they like. We know from years of research and analytics that these are not always the right people for the job.
One way to guard against hiring bias is to use a behavioral analytic tool as part of your recruitment process. One such science- and data-based analytic is called Predictive Index (PI), and it provides objective data about the roles hiring managers want to fill. PI provides information on where people align and where they have gaps to the role, which gives hiring managers a better understanding of where they can lean into someone’s strengths, and where they need to coach them up.
When you bring data and objectivity to the process, that’s where the magic happens.
What is Predictive Index (PI)?
PI uses science-based methodology to measure a person’s motivating drives and needs in the workplace. PI can help you understand:
- how a person is naturally wired to achieve results
- how they’ll likely communicate, make decisions, and take action with others in a team
- how they may relate to others and the impact this will have on the team
- what their basic needs and drivers are
- the conditions in which they’ll be most productive at work.
Workforce analytics drawn from the Predictive Index can therefore help you make data-informed hiring decisions, because you now have access to information on how people are hardwired and how they will likely behave in given roles or circumstances.
By taking time to understand your hires up front, you’ll reduce operational friction and increase the likelihood of retaining talent who:
- enjoy their day-to-day work and feel energized,
- contribute to the success of your business, and
- generally feel as if the role they’re in suits them, and is a role where they can be successful.
But what else can you do?
How Else Can You Use Data to Help Your Hiring Process?
In work, as in life, we know that teams made up of too-similar people are somewhat limited in scope.
When you have unbiased data from PI assessments at hand, it’s much easier to assemble a varied, multi-skilled team to accomplish your company’s goals.
PI can also help you decide if you need to flex a current team member into another position for a new circumstance that they’re best suited for, and possibly bring in a new hire to complement an existing team.
Finally, knowing why people behave in a certain way – because you understand their wiring – allows you to avoid engaging people who most likely aren’t wired to achieve your business goals.
The major benefit of this is that having those analytics translated into clear, simple, tangible insights will enable you to maximize your people and your teams.
At Talent Suite, we help you merge behavioral analytics with practical leadership skills to help you build the best teams for your business. Contact us today to discuss your people challenges and goals.