New PI Worldwide Survey Reveals Majority of Organizations Believe Candidate Pool is Drying Up

WELLESLEY, Mass., July 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- PI Worldwide, a company that empowers businesses to truly understand what drives workplace behaviors, today announced the results from a recent recruiting and retention trends survey which looked at the way employers find, manage and keep their employees.  After polling human resource professionals at organizations spanning multiple industries (including business, finance, healthcare and manufacturing) the results revealed employers are struggling to find talent for open positions,  with 65 percent of small, 45 percent of medium and 40 percent of large companies saying that it is their biggest problem.

With the unemployment rate down to 5.3 percent, hiring and retaining talent continues to be a growing problem for employers. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that the average cost of a bad hire can equal between 25 and 30 percent of that hire's first year earnings – reinforcing that many organizations literally cannot afford to make a bad hire.

The survey data revealed that when looking to bring in new hires, most organizations are focusing on the expected areas of candidates' skills, experience, and education. However, companies of all sizes are not including "soft" criteria, such as personalities and behaviors, as part of their job descriptions. This means they are often not putting the right emphasis on equally critical areas (such as motivating drives) and an individual's characteristics that are important for success.  As a result, they are inadvertently narrowing their own candidate pools by concentrating on only the "hard" criteria.

"The survey data point to a growing need to supplement traditional thinking when it comes to selecting qualified candidates," said Mike Zani, CEO of PI Worldwide. "Today, most employers continue to rely on unstructured interviews and previous experience as the predominant method to determine fit. While these are important, insights from behavioral and cognitive assessments can be significantly more accurate in predicting how well a candidate will perform within a specific role, culture, and ultimately how well they will support strategic initiatives."

The data also uncovered reasons why employers felt some of their new hires were not a fit, and top reasons why employees leave their jobs. Additional notable findings include:

Recruitment:

• When asked why a new hire wasn't a fit, almost half said either because of behavior or inadequate skills (47 percent).
• Small businesses report candidate misrepresentation as the primary reason why new hires don't work out. However, they rely primarily on interviews and don't use cognitive assessments and knowledge/skills tests as frequently as larger companies.

Retention:

• Almost 75% of large companies have lost a top performer due to a poor performer.
• While small and medium businesses terminate poor fits, over 20 percent of large companies opt to do nothing.
• The data found that most companies look to retain and motivate employees through bonuses; however, compensation is cited as the number one reason for talent turnover.
• After compensation, the top reason given for why employees voluntarily left their positions was lack of career development, followed by poor job fit and conflict with a peer or manager.
• To download a copy of the full report, visit:  2015 Recruiting and Retention Survey

About PI Worldwide

Serving more than 8,000 clients across 142 countries and delivering solutions in 77 languages, PI Worldwide empowers business leaders to truly understand what drives workplace behaviors. With scientific validation and a 60-year proven track record, our proprietary Predictive Index® system functions as the heart of our behavior and skills assessments, people analytics software, and instructor-led management workshops. Business challenges big and small are no match for our unique approach to client education and knowledge transfer, which ensures swift adoption, direct ROI, and high impact on performance metrics. Each year, 2.5 million PI assessments are administered and over 7,000 professionals are trained in our workshops. Visit www.piworldwide.com to learn how our solutions can help you find and select the right talent, reduce employee turnover, develop managers and leaders, and increase employee engagement. 

For more information contact:

Karen Pantinas 
781-418-2413 
[email protected] 

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SOURCE PI Worldwide

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