The hiring process and human resource management in Barbados needs an overhaul, says Profiles Caribbean Inc. chief executive officer Peter Downes.
He said it was critical that prospective employers check the past of applicants but also predict what was likely to happen once that applicant was hired.
“The traditional method of hiring the right people has presumably got to change,” he said.
“We normally would look at the person’s application, their résumé, and conduct an interview. Well, what I am suggesting is a different approach; you need to still continue to do that . . . but I want you to add another dimension which will help you to make the right decision. That dimension is called job match – that is, trying to predict the future.
“You have looked at the past through the person’s résumé; we have conducted the interview, which is the present. And that new dimension really is trying to predict the likelihood of success of a potential candidate that we are going to bring on,” explained Downes.
He was making a presentation at Hilton Barbados last Friday during the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados’ (ICAB) continuing professional development seminar on international business update 2012.
Downes said while interviews alone would have resulted in about one in every seven people being hired, adding more dimensions such as testing personality, abilities and interests and matching to the job “would probably get three out of four people being successful”.
Saying that businesses were operating in “very open and unprotected markets” as the world changes, Downes said employers should change their hiring process to suit.
He said the cost of doing business was more expensive now, so employers should look to restructure human resources.
“The reengineering will probably take place at two levels and has started already: the legislative framework as well as the organizations in terms of processes,” he added, and the new Employment Rights Act addressed some of the key issues relating to hiring, among other things.
He said employers in Barbados made a number of “top mistakes”. Some of those mistakes, he said, were not having a complete plan in place, not updating recruitment strategy,
taking shortcuts in the hiring process, comparing candidate to candidate rather than candidate to job requirements, and confusing the quality of the interview with the quality of the candidate.
Giving tips on good hiring decisions, he said it was critical for employers to know the roles within their organization, hire the right people, and know the staff.
He also outlined the impact of bad hiring decisions.
“So this is something that you need to carefully look at. So what is the impact of a bad hiring decision on the bottom
line? You get sub-optimal performance, low output, added cost, and liability issues. But good hiring decisions on the other hand [equal] optical performance, high output, added value, and the person become an asset to your organization,” he said. (MM)
