Science Can Dramatically Improve Hiring Results When Both Employers and Jobseekers Use the Predictors of Performance as the Basis for Hiring

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Apr 11, 2011) - Hiring processes generate shockingly sub-optimal results. Known scientific solutions are now available on a mass scale.

In spite of aggressive and high-cost recruiting programs, as well as hundreds of technology-based applicant screening and tracking solutions and the emergence of social networks to expand access to candidates, employers remain frustrated with the results of their hiring efforts.

Recruitment is falling down on the job. Fewer than half of new hires rate "good" or "very good" six months after hiring. Nearly half of new hires fail within 18 months. A year after hiring, 70% of hiring managers regret their hiring decision. About 2/3 of employees are to some extent disengaged in their work.

The causes of this discouraging outcome are closely examined and the scientific solutions that can bring dramatic and widely available improvement in hiring are explained in a new Working Paper, "Fixing Hiring Through Science" by Paul Basile, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Matchpoint Careers, Inc., developer of an online solution for scientific recruiting and job-person matching.

The sky-high costs of hiring missteps and the unmanageable volumes of applicants presenting themselves for open jobs represent just the tip of the hiring process iceberg.

"Nearly all but best-in-class companies rely intensively -- often exclusively -- on job posts and applicants' résumés to inform the hiring decision," argues Mr. Basile. "Not only are job posts and résumés often inaccurate, they lack the most relevant information: on-the-job behavior and fit within an organization. Résumés deal with past job experience and work activities: relatively poor predictors of future job performance.

"To hire is to make a prediction. Companies want an employee who will perform. Candidates want a job they will like and where they will do well. Only by assessing both candidate and job on the basis of the factors that have been proven to predict performance do we have a reasonable chance of getting the right people in the right jobs."

The lack of use of performance predictors in hiring, and the overemphasis on experience and skill, has led to the observation that companies "hire on skill, fire on fit." It is not skill or capability but "competencies" and preferences that determine fit. And fit matters: 81% of job failures are due to poor fit, only 11% to insufficient skill.

The Working Paper presents research and statistics to demonstrate conclusively that the best way to get fit right is to hire the highest performing future employee, not the best presented candidate. The key is to assess both job and candidate on the known factors that predict on-the-job performance.

About Paul Basile
Prior to Matchpoint Careers, Founder and CEO Paul Basile was involved in three other start-ups: an energy exploration and development company, a software-as-a-service business with outsourced learning management solutions, and a consulting firm providing culture change to corporate leadership teams.

Paul has been European President of DBM, a leading outplacement company whose main mission is helping people find jobs. He has been President of Asia-Pacific for SHL plc, a leading psychometric products and services company, head of e-business for Hay Group, and chief marketing officer for The Boston Consulting Group, Hay Group, and IMD. He also led marketing for Computer Sciences Corporation in Europe and was President of CSC France.

Paul holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, with Honors, from Princeton University, a Masters in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT and a Masters from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

About Matchpoint Careers
Matchpoint Careers (www.matchpointcareers.com) is a new, online venture that matches people and jobs using psychometrics, job profiling and social networking features to create the best possible job-person match: always based on the proven predictors of performance for that job.

For employers, Matchpoint Careers provides a shortlist of highly qualified candidates, with deep insight into each candidate's competencies, preferences and capabilities, showing why that person is a terrific match for the job. For jobseekers, Matchpoint Careers provides immediate self-knowledge and eliminates the frustration inherent in searching through myriads of job listings.

Matchpoint Careers is based on serious science and powered by SHL, the largest and most respected global people assessment company.

The Matchpoint Careers system is fast and exceedingly easy to use. It is scientific, validated matching done at scale, achieving or surpassing the results of best-in-class recruitment systems. The solution is free to jobseekers; employers pay a fraction of current recruitment costs.