I remember when I was first introduced to CrystalKnows back in in 2016 – a DISC profiling tool that provides insights into the personalities and behaviours of my candidates and hiring managers – it was such an eye-opener, and it still is.
This tool is able to provide additional data points on my candidates and hiring managers before I even speak to them. It offers me clues to a person’s personality, and it also provides a confidence rating on its assessment. In addition, the tool is able to compare personality styles and informs you on their compatibility levels.
To illustrate, here’s a snapshot of my personality profile, which I thought was pretty accurate:
If I were a recruiter recruiting myself, I’ll be able to use this information to craft targeted questions to find out more about myself and also of any referees. This not only speeds up the hiring process but it also gives me the extra confidence when I am presenting candidates to my hiring managers.
To further illustrate, below is a personality comparison report between me and my business partner Simon Townsend.
If I were hiring Simon, this report gives me a snapshot of how our potential future working relationship would be like and helps me decide the questions to ask that will enable me to determine if he is the right person for the job.
Of course, CrystalKnows is not the only tool in the market that can help you enhance your hiring process. Other technologies such as Hiretual, SourceHub and RecruitEm have also made their way into the TA space and they are changing the way we recruit and manage Talent.
That is all very empowering, and it is easy to become addicted to these technologies (as I have), especially when they are able to provide so many additional data points to assist you in your decision-making process.
However, too much of something can also be counterintuitive to what you want to achieve. I came to realise this as I was trying to figure how best to use this information and what should I be presenting to my hiring manager.
Some of the questions I found myself asking were:
How do I explain this information to my hiring manager?
My thoughts are that these are valuable data points that can be used in the candidate selection process and they should definitely be taken into consideration. However, there is so much data available now and I find myself having to pick and choose what to share. I also need to be able to present them in a clear and succinct manner.
Do I show the hiring manager their CrystalKnows profile and overlay with the shortlisted candidates?
Yes I do. But this needs careful managing as it can be a little intimidating, particularly where the profile indicates areas for the hiring manager to improve. Again, these are data points that are definitely worthy of exploring.
Do I show my candidates the hiring manager’s CrystalKnows profile?
I do, as I think it adds value and it shows the candidate how the hiring manager thinks and allows them to picture their future working relationship.
Do I use this approach with all jobs?
No, I only use this for senior positions.
Should I look at whole teams and see how the person would fit and contrast?
I think this is a great Talent Management approach and worthy of exploring.
Ironic as it seems, instead of making it easier for me to decide who to recommend to my hiring manager, these technologies seem to have made it harder. But these are good problems to have as they make you more critical about the decisions you make and it will set you aside from your peers who are not using these technologies.
In today’s modern Talent Acquisition world, it is no longer sufficient to rely purely on information gathered from screening and interviewing candidates. Recruitment technologies like CrystalKnows and Hiretual can help to enhance your hiring process and you should definitely look into how you can apply some of them into your daily work.
Talent Acquisition (TA) is on the cusp of a new wave of innovation and the 12th Australasian Talent Conference will be shining the light on it – say hi to Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). Find out more.
