MODERN RECRUITMENT
Putting the accountability
before the hire
W
By Christine Khor
e all want our staff to have
high levels of motivation
and a strong sense of
accountability - and most successful
enterprises spend a lot of time trying
to instil these attributes in their
people. But what if the people you
hired already had these attributes
when they came on board? The
ability to assess the accountability
and motivation levels of prospective
employees is becoming an
increasingly important success
factor in the corporate recruitment
process, because it helps predict
how effectively a candidate will align
with your business strategy, culture
and performance objectives.
A symptom of misalignment
Typically, a lack of accountability
is a symptom of a misalignment
between the goals and motivations
42 ModernBusiness
June 2016
of a business and those of an
employee. Making sure that a
prospect is highly motivated and a
good cultural fit for your business
before they join your business
will help ensure they accept
accountability for their performance,
and significantly raise the probability
that they will be fully engaged,
highly productive and stay for the
long haul. The effectiveness of this
approach, however, relies on the
ability to gain a full understanding
of the candidate - which is when an
expert recruiter really comes into
their own.
Gaining further insight
Along with performing psychometric
assessments - which can be
very effective in determining
a prospect’s skills, motivators
and thinking style - a competent
recruiter will also employ proven
behavioural interview techniques
to gain further insight. As part of
a carefully structured interview
approach, a good recruiter will ask
candidates specific questions about
their key motivations, personal
values, attitudes and behavioural
characteristics, and validate their
answers by asking the same
questions of their referees. This
combination of quantitative and
qualitative assessment, combined
with third-party verification, enables
us to build an accurate picture of
the ‘person’ behind the ‘candidate’,
and establish their true potential
for performance, accountability and
sustained cultural alignment within
the hiring organisation.
The value of values
So how else can employers attract
and retain skilled, self-motivated and
accountable talent? A good place
to start is to ensure you have welldefined values and a clear vision for
the future of your firm, and that you
are communicating these effectively
to prospective employees. When an
employee believes in your vision –
and is aligned with your purpose and
values - they will do everything they
can to help you achieve it, including
applying their best skills, going the
‘extra mile’ and holding themselves
accountable for their performance.
In other words, they will do the job
because they want to, not because