Putting the right person into the right job is a cornerstone of workforce stability. It is a very difficult part of the puzzle however. A much easier task is to avoid putting the wrong person into the wrong job. Ironically, the vast majority of hiring practices and selection systems have focused on the first strategy. The second has been assumed to be a natural byproduct of hiring the right person. Unfortunately, experience has often proved this thinking to be disastrously wrong.

To understand this, it is helpful to consider that the population of candidates for any job consists of three categories or levels of performance. There are, of course, the STARS that everyone is always seeking to hire. There are also a group of satisfactory, although not exceptional performers, the OKS. The third group consists of OOPS, those individuals who simply are not capable of acceptable performance regardless of the circumstances.

Virtually every hiring program, every testing instrument, every interview system, and every selection theory has promised to identify the top performers, the STARS. Unfortunately, there is no test so revealing that it can do so. There is no interview system with questions magical enough to do so. There is no method or theory brilliant enough to do so. Do such things ever work? Of course they do...occasionally, and often enough to make it seem as though it might be getting close to the answer.

The catch, and it is a big catch, is that while these concepts focus on the STARS, the OOPS slip through the door. This happens for several reasons. First, it is generally known what STARS look like; what they say; and how they act. It does not even matter that the factors may be erroneous, as long as the candidate can model them. Examples of this are companies that look for high grade point averages, varsity sports participation, certain kinds of experience, aggressive behavior in the interview, military backgrounds, or other false markers of success. Whether valid or not, the presence of one or more of these markers can often blind a company to less obvious signals of concern.

Today, assessment technology can virtually eliminate hiring the wrong person. It can screen out the candidate that is unlikely to be successful, regardless of training, management, or incentives. It does this by turning the process around, from one of selection to one of screening. Testing can positively identify the OOPS in any job. This leaves the company in the enviable position of having to choose from OKS or STARS. Well-run companies make money with OKS. They set records with STARS.

When recruiting for job candidates, think first of screening out those individuals who are unlikely to succeed. Look for reasons to exclude, first with processes such as drug screening, identity verification, newer job fit assessments, skill testing and brief initial interviews. Once the OOPS have been screened out, it will then be time to use the traditional methods to select the right person for the job from the remaining OKS and STARS.