How often have you seen someone hired (maybe you were even the hiring manager) who had a spectacular resume, impeccable references, was top flight in the interview process, and failed miserably on the job? Most of us know of many, many examples of that scenario.

Terrible, Horrible, Awful

So what happened? Why are we as a culture so terribly, horribly, awful at hiring people? Most companies have developed in-depth, systematic processes for the hiring process. And these processes do many things very well-they ensure the company is following EEOC guidelines, they provide a uniform methodology for comparing candidates, they incorporate background checks, drug checks, and reference checks to be sure the company isn't considering hiring a known axe-murder. And interviews are really good for telling us if we LIKE the candidate.

While these processes generally weed out the embezzlers, the perpetually lazy, the resume over-embellishers, they do not look at all the important pieces of the candidate's mind. Specifically, most hiring processes overlook the cognitive part of the mind, the part of the mind that directly and reliably predicts what the person will and will not do.

Think about it. Wouldn't it be fabulous? To know, to really know, how the person will operate in a given position? And wouldn't it be even better to really understand the best way to manage that individual to be sure that the person will bring all of their energies and skills to the job every day? And wouldn't it be fantastic to realize-before you hire someone-that as great as they look on paper, they are not really suited for the specific job you need done at your company?

Imagine how much time and aggravation that would spare the entire team! Imagine how much money the company would save in reduced turnover, increased productivity, faster innovation, decreased absenteeism, etc.

This is not pie-in-the-sky thinking-the way to measure this exists today.

Three Parts of the Mind

There are three parts of the mind:

1. Cognitive- the thinking part of the mind- IQ, education, experience, skills, ability to learn, reason, etc.

2. Affective- the feeling part of the mind- values, personality, motivation, desires, attitudes, emotions, preferences, etc.

3. Cognitive- the doing part of the mind- instinct, drive, mental energy, talents, etc.

The interview process as we've come to know it does a reasonably good job of measuring two of these three areas. By reading resumes for skills, education, and experience companies begin to get a good handle on the cognitive status of the candidate. Through face-to-face meetings, good interviewers can get an appreciation of the personality, values, and motives of the candidate. Careful reference checks fill in many remaining gaps in these areas.

But the cognitive piece has been largely ignored until now.

Conation-the doing part of the mind-should be a critical piece of the hiring process. Using the Kolbe A and C Indexes™ we can now measure the cognitive requirements for the position and the cognitive profiles of the candidates. Why would you waste time interviewing someone you KNOW won't actually DO the job? You wouldn't if you knew. Using Kolbe Wisdom, you can dramatically increase the likelihood that a hire will be successful in the position, and save time, effort, and money by having a much more targeted and efficient hiring process.