“There is nothing more costly than the wrong hire”
The Redstone Search Group Ltd (Redstone Commodity Search / / Redstone Private Banking Search) provides executive search solutions for the global commodities and private banking markets. Redstone helps companies in specialist sectors including energy, metals, wealth management, asset management and agriculture to recruit the right talent.
Redstone Search have been a client of RPX2, a Talent Optimization Consultancy and Certified Partner of The Predictive Index® since 2016.
Redstone Search strategically use The Predictive Index assessment tools and methodologies for all their internal recruitment needs, as well as for their employee development.
Jordan Lewis, Director of the Redstone Search Group, explains that above all a Recruitment Consultant needs to be personable. Consultants have to be able to collaboratively engage with clients and candidates, and build successful business relationships.
Their workplace behaviour is hugely important. Recruitment Consultants have to adapt to a wealth of different job elements ranging from cold calling over account management to research and sales. Being able to work in a team is also paramount.
The job requirements are multi-faceted, and it is therefore no mean feat to find the right person for the job! Redstone Search hire internal candidates who have no prior background in headhunting or recruitment. This makes taking up references and prior performance checks redundant.
Before using the PI Job Assessment™, PI Behavioral Assessment™ and PI Cognitive Assessment™, the company experienced the detrimental effects of some particularly disastrous hires at first hand.
The candidates looked ideal on paper. Their CVs were convincing with the right experience and training. They interviewed well.
However, it soon became apparent that the new hires did not fit well within the existing teams or the company culture. They simply did not have the right personality to successfully handle all aspects of the job.
Training a new Recruitment Consultant costs Redstone around £10,000 – not to mention the monthly salary expense. A new Consultant takes between 6 months to 1.1/2 years to fully settle into their role. By then, a significant financial and time investment has been made.
But to have to give up on an employee because they are the wrong person for the job is not just devastating. Team members are often left worried and unsettled when their new colleagues are asked to leave. It can also result in leadership skills being called into question.
Jordan Lewis also tells the story of employing a young lady looking to change her career from retail to an office-based position. During the interview, she demonstrated the right skills and aspirations. Redstone gave her the opportunity. After three weeks, she asked to leave.
“How could we have all been so misguided? Something needed to change!”
A client introduced Jordan Lewis to The Predictive Index’s people analytics tools.
They explained how the assessment results can be used to during the hiring process to determine whether a candidate’s behavioural needs and drives are a good fit with the job, the manager, company culture and the team, and whether they have the ability to absorb new information fast.
The Redstone Search Group knew that they had to find some way of to remove any natural and inherited bias from the interview process to reduce the number of costly wrong hires.
The Predictive Index offered a more objective and scientific method of assessing whether a person would be right for a job. This knowledge could then be used alongside interviews and CVs.
Initially, the tools were met with scepticism. Jordan Lewis did not agree with the way in which the PI Behavioral Assessment profiled his workplace behaviour. Until he showed the results to his wife who felt them to be entirely accurate! Redstone decided to give PI a try.
Jordan Lewis asked the young lady to take the PI Behavioral Assessment. It became instantly clear that her behavioural profile was entirely wrong for someone who was expected to pick up the phone to cold call without having all possible facts and background knowledge available to her. She had to perform tasks that did not sit well with her natural behavioural pattern.
Jordan felt the need to apologise to this lady. If this additional knowledge had been available to him during the recruitment process, Redstone would have never given her the job and avoided much heart ache.
The Redstone Search Group now diligently create a PI Job Assessment for every single position that they are recruiting for. This helps them to create the ideal behavioural pattern and cognitive score that a potential candidate would need to be successful in the job. They review and tweak the job targets when necessary.
They then ask each candidate to complete a PI Behavioral Assessment and a PI Cognitive Assessment. This process enables them to compare a candidate’s likely workplace behaviour and cognitive ability – the speed at which a person absorbs new information – to the respective targets set for the job. For instance, if the results show that a person is sufficiently fast-paced, team-oriented and diligent, they will invite them for interview.
More than 2000 assessments have been completed so far!
Using the objective people data that The Predictive Index provides to find out as much as possible about a potential candidate before they are employed has since saved Redstone from further costly hiring mistakes. It has also made the company a better and nicer place to work. Now Redstone really know and understand their employees.
The tools are also used to successfully build their teams, improve team collaboration and map team dynamics. They even ensure that the right people are sitting next to each other in the office to avoid unnecessary friction.
The Redstone Search Group are fully aware of the motivational needs of each person on their teams and know which part of their job each individual is naturally good at. They can then build an employee development plan around this. Their employees are happy and engaged.
“The only time we now have an issue with new employees is when we hire with our gut over using The Predictive Index”
“The Predictive Index helps you to understand people and relationships better. This can also be applied to members of your own family.”
Information provided by Jordan Lewis (Director of the Redstone Search Group Ltd)
Website: www.redstonesearch.com
Date: 24 March 2020