The value of values in selection

04 Iun 2013

Have you ever had a situation when a person is highly fit with the job but still leaves the organization within first 3 months? Or have you encountered people who are really leaving the culture of a company? People who are really motivated and feel good when they come to work to that particular organization?

There are companies that have a high turnover of personnel and others that keep this phenomenon under control.

Why all these happen?
One of the explanation stays in understanding the value of values both for individuals and organizations.

Senior leadership team’s values determine the organizational culture. Imagine a top team, a CEO who value high achievement, being always two steps ahead competition, who encourage career progression and high performance. The heroes in this company led by these leaders will be those people who are ambitious, over competitive, who strive to be number one and make an impact and a difference and who care about promotion. These organizations will encourage certain behaviors, certain working styles and will sanction people who are less interested in being competitive, or less interested in attaining high, tough, difficult targets and objectives.

If values are homogeneous at top management level tend to create a certain climate that reward and punish certain behaviors. Consequently, companies tend to attract and select a particular type of people. Those who are not in line with the core values of the majority tend to leave or to be pushed away.

When we select employees, beyond job fit aspects, it is crucial to have a look at the candidates’ values and how these match with organizational culture. People tend to stay longer and get more satisfaction in environments where they find a meaning. You can hire the best, most qualified candidate in the world, but if he or she isn’t a good fit for the job or the company, you’re looking at a risk.

The value of values is important when we think about individuals` satisfaction. Imagine a sales person that is capable to open new relations, network well, and interact efficiently with clients, but who does not like so much doing all these things he or she is capable of doing. Sounds like a paradox, but is a perfect possible conflicting configuration between what we can do and what we enjoy doing.

This sales professional will tend to have good performance in his or her role for a while, but they will be likely to disengage from this role after a certain while. So, when we thing about selecting people who are performing but also who will stay longer in a certain career the value of values becomes even more important. It’s a matter of whether a job supplies something I need to feel satisfied. If a candidate values commerce, for instance, a job as a financial analyst will probably fulfill his / her needs; a job as a graphic designer may not.

Candidates need to meet three basic criteria in order to be a successful hire. First, he or she needs to possess the technical skills and disposition to do the job well. Next, he or she must have the self-awareness and self-control to avoid derailing his or her career. Finally, he or she has to be a good fit for the company.

However, in a recent survey, researchers found out that only 36% percent of HR executives in a recent survey said their companies recruit for cultural fit, but 70% attribute a poor recruiting decision to poor fit.

A company can measure individual values and preferences that can explain cultural fit and career path of a person. Hogan Assessment provides a powerful tool MVPI (Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory) that can identify these core values and motivational drivers:

Hogan Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI) Scales and Corporate Culture

• Aesthetic – characterized by a self-conscious attention to style, appearance, quality, and good taste 
• Affiliation – practices and procedures designed to maximize social contact 
• Altruistic – cares about the welfare and wellbeing of the staff 
• Commerce – emphasizes profitability and cost containment 
• Hedonism – characterized by an ethos of work hard and play hard 
• Power – aggressive, competitive, and results oriented 
• Recognition – publicly rewards accomplishment, productivity, and apparent success 
• Science – characterized by an emphasis on the rigor and defensibility of plans, goals, decisions, and public statements 
• Security – concerned about errors, mistakes, leaks, and processes to guard against negative circumstances
• Tradition – typified by dress codes, rules, grooming standards, clear hierarchy, and reporting relationships

People are social creatures, so if they’re going to spend what amounts to half of their waking hours in a company, they want it to be somewhere they feel like they fit in, somewhere they find rewarding and personally fulfilling.

Madalina Balan is specialized in organizational psychology, psychologist, Managing Partner and Senior Consultant at HART Consulting. Madalina is certified in Hogan Assessment methodology since 2007 and the Master trainer for Romania and Moldova in this methodology. With more than 12 years` experience as a trainer and consultant in human resources, Madalina has managed various projects on talent management, selection and leadership development for manifold Romanian and multinational organizations.

HART Consulting (www.hart.ro) is on the local market since 2006, offering consulting services in areas such as: selection (ROI, internal benchmark studies, personality and abilities assessments), assessment and development programs for individuals and teams (Hogan Assessments, 360 feedback, A & D centers), organizational surveys, coaching, HR seminars. We are part of international networks Hogan Assessment Systems and CCi Surveys International and authorized distributor for Romania and Republic of Moldova for these diagnostic tools.