Selection and Succession Planning – How Do I Find the Right Person for the Job?

WorkPlace Big Five Can Be Used to Improve Your Bottom Line
September 5, 2018
WorkPlace-Big-Five-Uses
Uses of the WorkPlace Big Five Profile in Your Organization
September 23, 2018
WorkPlace Big Five Can Be Used to Improve Your Bottom Line
September 5, 2018
WorkPlace-Big-Five-Uses
Uses of the WorkPlace Big Five Profile in Your Organization
September 23, 2018

Selection and Succession Planning – 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. Can you relate to the following scenario?

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.

So, what happened?

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 never really 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 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 used the WorkPlace Big Five Profile and better understood Samantha’s personality (trait structure).

Using the WorkPlace Big Five Profile, Evoke Development can help you make better choices and minimize losses in selection and succession by creating targeted job profiles to enhance employee contributions to your organization. Candidates’ skills and traits can be matched against these profiles to identify the best job-person fit.