Evoke Development

Selection/Succession Planning Services

Putting It Into Practice

Samantha was a very loyal, service-oriented employee who, over the years, proved to be a wonderful asset to the organization. If anyone ever had a question or problem, Samantha would be the first to offer assistance. Several months ago, the call center supervisor resigned. Upper management immediately thought of Samantha as the logical candidate. After all, everyone liked her, she was extremely loyal, and she had been with the organization for several years and deserved a promotion.

Everything seemed to be going well the first couple of months after Samantha started her new role, but soon after, problems started to arise. Customer complaints increased, morale in the call center plummeted, Samantha’s interactions with others were short and curt, and no one wanted to be anywhere near her.

Upper management was shocked. Things were getting so bad, they even considered firing Samantha. They just could not understand what the problem was; Samantha had always been so nice.

Had the management team and organization leaders taken the time to analyze the job responsibilities and compare them with Samantha’s trait and competency structures, they would have realized that a supervisory role was simply a bad “fit.” In fact, once they talked to Samantha, they learned that she had actually never wanted to be a supervisor because of her tendency to take on everyone else’s problems as her own. She also had a very hard time disciplining staff members and keeping track of all of the additional responsibilities associated with a supervisory role. When all was said and done, she really preferred being an independent contributor.

All of this could have been avoided if the company had better understood Samantha’s personality (trait structure).

How do I find the right person for the job?

Failing to get the right person in the right job often results in lost time, money, and effort. Evoke Development works with you to minimize these losses by helping your organization develop profiles for key jobs. Candidates’ skills and traits can be matched against these profiles to identify the best job-person fit.

Contact us now for more information.