Employers are routinely making bad decisions when hiring staff, which is severely damaging productivity, new research has revealed.
A survey by people assessment company Talent Q has found that poor recruitment practice has led to a fall in productivity equivalent to £2,400 a year for every worker placed in a role without being properly assessed.
Results showed that 44 per cent of employees were not selected using personality assessment, while 24 per cent were not chosen through the use of aptitude tests. The findings were processed on the basis of the ‘cast iron’ effectiveness of assessment, and then combined with Office for National Statistics salary data.
Steve O’Dell, chief executive of Talent Q, said: “Organisations are often employing people based on little more than gut feel, even though it’s by far the worst recruitment technique. All the studies show that if employees use assessment to check whether someone has the right aptitude and personality traits, they get far better people and much better productivity.”
He added: “While many managers in HR are rightly focused on value for money and reducing costs, this can result in a loss of focus around the quality of hires.”
