Behavioral analysis and ownership: emerging recruitment and retention trends

Recruitment and Retention Challenges in the Workplace

Even in the midst of a global economic recession, there are still companies and entire industries that competitively hire the best possible talent for their businesses' needs. Amidst this significant competitive recruiting and retaining activity, two dominant trends emerge. The intent of this analysis is to discuss these trends.

Recruiting Has Moved From Instinctual to Behavioral Analysis

The single greatest trend impacting retention today is the use of advanced behavioral modeling techniques that seek to find the ideal candidates for a given position based on their psychological attributes and innate strengths. What companies are after is finding the best possible match of the unique requirements of the positions they are hiring for and the skills sets, both from a purely professional level in addition to psychological one, that best fits with their organizations (Collins, 2007). Advanced Human Resources Management (HRM) systems also have the ability to define unique personality attributes and test candidates to find their overlap to the needs of the position (Kaliprasad, 2006). These advanced HRM recruitment systems also seek to capture the level of autonomy, mastery, and purpose that candidates have. These three attributes of a person's personality are excellent predictors of their ability to become proficient in a difficult and challenging career position (Starks, Brooks, 2009). What these HRM systems and the companies using them are also after is the propensity of candidates to engage in self-directed learning or as it is sometimes called, self-efficacy (Starks, Brooks, 2009). When this attribute is combined with other factors, new hires are capable of progressing rapidly through the initial learning curve of their new positions and also gain expertise in their roles quickly. In conclusion the use of intuition in hiring candidates is hit-or-miss, and the use of these advanced approaches ensure a higher level of success over time as they isolate critically important attributes and then evaluate candidates based on their alignment to them (Starks, Brooks, 2009).

Retention Strategies Get Real