Hiring a new employee is a task most executives look forward to with great anticipation but also with a certain amount of apprehension. On the one hand, the fact that the organization is hiring means that someone has left a position and needs to be replaced or, better yet, the company is growing and additional help is needed. In either case, you now have an opportunity to bring in “fresh blood” -- someone with new ideas, an enthusiastic approach, and the ability to help make possible even more growth. Bring in the right person for the job, all of this may transpire, and your dreams may come true. Hire the wrong person and you might be in for a real nightmare of an experience.

From a cost standpoint it’s difficult to put an actual figure on a hiring mistake, but by some estimates, it can amount to as much as two or three times the person’s annual compensation. Consider some of the numbers you can verify: the cost of advertising the position, the time wasted on screening and interviewing potential candidates, the money and time wasted on training and re-training, and the salary and benefits paid to an individual who is not performing up to expectations. These costs may be minimal, hardly even worth noting, compared to what may come next.

An employee that’s wrong for the job probably isn’t going to provide the productivity you need or the level of service your customers expect. Some of them are going to go elsewhere. You’ll lose their business…perhaps permanently. It gets worse. Morale may drop among other employees forced to work with the new hire and, their job performance may also suffer, which may mean an even further loss of customers and business. And, finally, it may be more difficult than you realize to get rid of the person that simply is not a good fit for the job.

So, considering that we’re in an employer’s market, with lots of potential employees available to help fill the open slots occurring at some companies, how do you go about finding the right one for your company? One solution that many employers are turning to is using systems that assess soft skills and workplace behavior (personality, values, team orientation) that can be correlated to actual job specific traits necessary for optimal performance. Some of the better systems are designed to accomplish a variety of tasks, including everything from pre-screening the applicants to assisting in developing the actual interview questions that target the key areas that will most likely be the areas that cause the greatest stress in the new work environment. Even if it is necessary to hire a candidate with less than a perfect match, targeted training areas can be identified that can now be addressed during the first few months of their employment.

Different companies offering workplace behavior or soft skills assessment systems for hiring have different approaches to the procedure, but a basic analysis probably will include the following steps.

Step 1 . The Assessment provider works with the company to identify key positions to be filled. Job descriptions are developed or reviewed for the positions. It is important that every position a new hire will fill have a complete and updated job description so that job skills and competencies can now be matched for each of the key tasks the employee will be expected to perform.

Step 2 . Since hiring assessments must be designed to measure traits specific to job performance, the next step is to correlate the soft skills and behavioral traits necessary for optimal job performance. For instance, an outside sales rep developing a new territory may need to be very comfortable thinking “outside the box”, be self motivated, driven, flexible, outgoing, solution oriented vs. process oriented, etc. However, a new hire for a telemarketing position may need to feel comfortable following scripts, using predetermined processes and procedures, be consistent, and stay within certain parameters for providing answers and solutions. Both positions fall under the broad heading of sales, but the behavioral and soft skills traits that will make each person effective and successful are diametrically opposite each other.

Step 3 . A test group is assessed to validate the job skills defined and to establish a benchmark for the behavioral traits and soft skill requirements that were defined for the positions needing filled. Soft skills consist of items such as teamwork, interpersonal skills (behavioral attitudes and motivators), work ethic/attitude (values-based motivators), time management and conflict management.

Step 4 . Once benchmarks are determined and actual job specific behavioral traits and soft skills are confirmed, highly validated assessments are used to now determine the applicant’s responses to questions that will allow the employer to pinpoint the candidate’s strengths and limitations in these key areas of job performance.

Step 5 . Potential candidates that meet all other job requirements may now be interviewed with highly targeted questions that address the ability or willingness of the candidate to complete certain key components of their job duties. The employer essentially goes into the interview process having information that would otherwise be difficult or even impossible to ascertain without the use of the hiring assessments specific to the workplace behavior and soft skills. These two areas of hiring cause the highest turnover ratio, but are the areas that are least identified during normal screening and interviewing processes.

Step 6 . The employer may wish to review the final hiring decision with the consultant, analyst, or firm that they purchased the hiring reports/system from. This will assure the proper selection process and target areas of training the new candidate might need to receive to ensure their potential is reached.

New online systems have been developed to take the complexity of these steps and reduce the process into a very manageable system that can be done remotely via phone and Internet. The better systems can be completely implemented in a matter of days or weeks since companies offering these services typically have large databases of workplace competencies and are well versed in all aspects of hiring and assessing personnel for job selection. And they work whether you’re hiring a few new employees … or a few hundred.

As an example, the American Water Works, a manager of water resources with 20 million customers in 27 states, Canada and South America , used a soft skills assessment system to assist in hiring 400 employees from thousands of applicants when it opened a new customer call center in Illinois two years ago. The center handles customer calls from throughout North America , ranging from requests to turn on service, to billing questions, to calls for emergency repairs of broken water mains. The giant utility needed to staff the call center with customer service representatives that were technically competent, computer-literate, highly motivated, service-oriented, and flexible enough to quickly and effectively handle a variety of customer requests. To complicate matters, the first employees hired would have to begin handling calls even as more people were being added to the staff.

The assessments were completed, employees hired and the call center opened, virtually without a hitch. From a cost and time standpoint, the goal was to get the center staffed and operational by providing highly accurate, user-friendly resources to assist in every area of hiring and related personnel issues after employment.

There is one more thing to look for when deciding on which behavioral and soft skills assessment system is right for your company. The better systems, like the one used by American Water, greatly minimize the need for outside personnel to come onsite and assist with the actual hiring. They not only make it possible, but highly feasible for any company to go online and quickly and effectively Hire Right the First Time.