A STRENGTH-BASED APPROACH TO SEARCH AND SELECTION

“Organisations don’t create value; people do” – Bode Olutunbi

Having a strength-based approach to search and selection enables organisations unleash individual, team and organisational performance. Organisations are a combination of several complex and adaptive human processes, and an organisation will succeed only if the right people are in the right roles. The hiring process is key to ensuring this.

A strength-based approach to search and selection takes into consideration the individual's innate strengths and intrinsic motivations and not just their technical skills and competencies. It focuses on matching individual strengths with the strengths required in the role. Research has shown that employees who are managed via a strength-based approach deliver a higher level of performance than other employees. A strength-based approach broadens the scope of talent assessment from experience and current skills base to relating the strengths required for a role to an individual's personality preferences, finding out what drives them and how they will be motivated on the job (Source). According to Marcus Buckingham, knowing an employee’s strengths enables you focus on their work more effectively and also helps create a more engaged, higher-performing team, that yields a more satisfied workforce.

Strengths-based search and selection enables hiring managers to ask the right questions during the interview process and to determine which candidates are a good fit for the job. This also affords the candidates the opportunity to be more transparent during the recruitment process. By assessing the qualities that would make these candidates excel on the job, organisations are able to create comprehensive job descriptions and conduct more effective interviews.

Some of the questions to consider when conducting interviews in a strength-based search and selection process include:

·        How do you define success?

·        What do you enjoy doing the most?

·        What drives you?

·        What comes to you easily?

·        What do you find difficult to do and why?

·        What is one accomplishment that you are the most proud of, and why?

·        What is your greatest inspiration?

These questions provide greater insight into a candidate’s strengths and reduces the possibility of having pre-meditated answers.

A strength-based approach provides several benefits to organisations and the candidates by bringing about increased organisational performance, improved efficiency and employee engagement, a diverse and inclusive workforce, a conducive work culture, and improved employee retention within the organisation.

The focal point of a strengths-based search is to reveal the intrinsic motivators and natural talents of the candidates, as opposed to looking at the candidate’s competencies alone. By deploying Management Drives, organisations can identify what motivates a candidate and what their unique capabilities and strengths are. These drives determine how they will apply their knowledge, skills, and competences. To find out how you can use a strength-based approach in your search and selection process with Management Drives, join us for our upcoming Management Drives experience event. Click this link to register now.