Ever feel like finding the right person to fill a position in the firm is like finding a needle in a haystack? Then once you hire that special one, you find they are not the best fit or they leave a year or two later? It can be frustrating, not to mention the high turnover costs which can often be upwards of 20% of a person’s salary. So how do we create strong teams and avoid costly turnover? One area to focus on is placing the right people in the rights seats by identifying the candidate’s skills, strengths and natural abilities.

At the Academy, we use a number of assessments to help us determine these critical areas before we make a final decision on a candidate. There is no fool-proof way to ensure you’ll always hire the right person who will love their job forever. However, with a few easy and cost-effective assessments, you can at least start with a much better understanding of the candidate and their natural strengths. Here are a few we use most often:

Personnel Profiling ProfileXT  is a comprehensive online assessment that measures how well an individual will fit into a specific job in your organization. It measures 20 performance indicators, thinking and reasoning, behavioral traits, interests and aptitude. We like this assessment because you can also create peak job performance models based on position, need or other employees’ assessments. By looking at other employees’ assessments you can identify key characteristics that you may want to duplicate or that will complement others on the team. So if you have a super star employee, you can use their assessment as a benchmark to compare future hires to.

StrengthsFinder 2.0 is a useful reference book that includes an access code to an online assessment. The assessment identifies a person’s natural abilities and strengths. We use this because it focuses on talents which can be fully developed, nurtured and utilized in the position. When team members are using their innate abilities, they tend to be at their happiest and most productive.

Kolbe A Index is another online assessment that measures one’s natural instincts in these areas: Fact Finder (how one gathers and shares information), Follow Through (how one arranges and designs), Quick Start (how one deals with risk and uncertainty) and Implementor (how one handles space and tangibles). What sets this apart from the others we mentioned is it identifies how an individual, based on their assessment, can get more done in less time when we leverage their natural tendencies.

We often use these assessments in tandem to determine if the position we are looking to fill lines up with and will maximize a candidate’s natural talents, instincts and abilities. Using these assessments helps us zero in on the complete person to create a strong, multi-talented team. They also identify the best ways to coach and mentor new hires to bring out their absolute best, which in turn, leads to less turnover in our organization.

What types of tools do you use to create a cohesive, productive and long-lasting team?

Susan Russel
Director of Member Services
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (800) 846-1555
www.aaepa.com