If you’re like most acute care hospitals, your new hire success rate is about 50% despite your best-intended gut read of the candidate slate.
That’s not a very good metric, and it runs across industries because the failure is attributable to a vulnerable hiring process, not a specific industry.
According to a three-year study released by Leadership IQ in 2015, 46% of newly hired employees will fail within 18 months, and only 19% of those who survive will be deemed an unequivocal success. Which means of all new hires, 35% are meh.
The study contributors were 5,247 hiring managers from 312 public, private, business, and healthcare organizations who hired more than 20,000 employees collectively during the study period.
How to improve these statistics?
Embrace the exodus from gut-based hiring to objective, predictive interview processes. After all, healthcare seeks evidence to support best clinical practices…why not apply an evidence base to interviewing practices to add predictability to a hire?
Here’s a best predictive practice, and it’s catching on globally: the “working interview.” You only want to run the top two or three finalists through this end-stage process. It’s time consuming, so reserved for the “down-to-the-wire” decision.
A working interview is a simulated, or “sandbox” environment where the candidate is asked to display a skill, solve a problem, or create a strategy so you can observe their ability to meet the requirements of the position. The simulation helps you determine if the candidates have the business, communication, and soft skills for success in the role.
Although a relatively new concept at the executive level, don’t worry about candidates shying away from a predictive simulation. A-player candidates relish the idea of displaying their skills in real time, while average performers aren’t as eager. Take reluctance as a flag. A lack of enthusiasm for a simulation may indicate your open position is above the candidate’s current competency level.The working interview is an invigorating addition to an executive interview palette to ensure the person you hire truly meets your technical and soft skills requirements. A resume, traditional interview, or front-door reference check won’t give you this degree of assuredness of a successful hire.
