Staffing issues are something we all deal with as business owners. It isn’t easy to hire the right people, but the difference having a strong team will make to the success of an organisation is huge.

I know in my business it is always a challenge when it comes to hiring a new staff member. Recruitment is not a process we enjoy.

If you have ever placed an advertisement you know just what I’m talking about. In response to our latest ad we received hundreds, yes hundreds, of applications. We are getting better at separating the wheat from the chaff. Some make it easy when their experience and qualifications bare little or no resemblance to the criteria we’ve given. 

Even after we went through the process and narrowed down the applicants to those we wanted to interview, there was still the pressure of getting it right. Hiring the wrong person can do so much damage to a business, and to a team. We wanted to avoid as much stress as we possibly could. We wanted someone who was a great fit.

One of the tools we have come to rely on is the use of personality profiling.

Over the past three decades the use of personality profiling has become more prominent in the recruitment process. It can give employers a little insight into how well a candidate will fit into an organisation. We decided to give it a go after hiring someone who was perfect on paper but the reality was that they would never fit in with our team, their approach and work ethic was on a completely different page. It created quite a disruption to our workplace, we wanted to avoid that happening again.

There are a number of different profiling tests available but in general they will all offer insight in a number of areas. We prefer the DISC model and use it to give an indication of the following two areas that are important to us:

How well the person will fit the job.

If a position available has primarily data based tasks then we would be looking for someone with attention to detail rather than someone who is sociable and outgoing. That personality would be much more suited to a receptionist type position for instance.

How well they will fit in with the team.

This ranks higher than skills for me. There are many things we can teach a new person, but we can’t train them to fit in. The impact of bringing in the right, or wrong, person into your team can be significant.

Since we began using profiling in our recruitment process a few years ago we have noticed a better result with those we hire. Like most things, profiling is not infallible, and we don’t take the results as gospel, but we do find it adds a helpful dimension when we are hiring.  

I would certainly recommend giving it a try.

About the Author: Alison Vidotto 

Alison is a published author, professional speaker, CEO of Vidotto Group, trainer and business owner. She has a passion for leadership and development, both within herself and others. Through Alison's working experience of the Australian 1992 recession, the Global Financial Crisis and Brisbane's 2011 floods, she has developed a real world understading of potential hardships businesses face and the need for strategic planning to survive and grow through tough times.