The pressure to find good candidates in a skills-short market is forcing employers to look beyond their wish list and consider candidates they may previously have overlooked, but who could actually prove a better long-term fit for the role.

When candidates are plentiful, employers tend to focus on finding people who have had experience in the job area, even for jobs where the training time might be minimal. However, “experience” is actually a poor indicator of whether a candidate would be a good fit and high performer. Being forced to cast a wider net may inadvertently get employers a better candidate, as they will need to look beyond traditional measures of experience and instead consider natural competencies and attitude.
Employers need to remember that skills can be taught, and relatively quickly, if you have the right people with the right framework. But a person’s competencies are intertwined with intelligence and personality, making them the most crucial factor in indicating the potential contribution a person can make.

The Federal Government funded an extensive research exercise in 2002 to identify the critical factors employers look for in new staff. Eight characteristics were outlined and were named “employability skills”:

* Communication: how well does the person gets their ideas across to others?
* Problem solving: does the person come up with good solutions?
* Initiative and enterprise: are they a proactive person who can help the employer achieve their goals?
* Planning and organising: can they organise themselves and work in such a way that things get done?
* Team work: can they accept job diversity, work and motivate others?
* Self management: are they mature or immature? Do they get to work on time? Are they dressed and groomed appropriately?
* Learning: are they keen to find out how to do things better?
* Technology: do they have an understanding of the technology that helps drive the business?

Importantly, the research also identified one further factor that all organizations agreed was vital – a candidate’s ability and propensity to change. With many organizations not knowing what their business will look like in the next 12 months, let alone five years, it has become increasingly important to find candidates who will change and grow.

Recruitment based on the above competencies, rather than a skill-focused approached, allows for the right people to be selected for each individual organization as it indicates what they are good at now, their potential for development, how they are best managed and importantly, what retention methods will work to ensure employee turnover is minimized. Employee retention is crucial in the current climate, with a recent study conducted by Galaxy Research commission by Chandler Macleod’s CMyPeople revealing that 64 per cent of Australian workers are actively looking (or have their eye out) for a new job. Australian businesses and government agencies are responding to the current skills shortage with a plan to attract candidates from overseas for over 90 different types of occupations.

This is partly due to the fact that we don’t have the right people in the right jobs and, in addition, it seems most businesses have a limited understanding of the range of competencies available from within their own organisations. Most employers would be surprised to learn the range of competencies available within their existing teams. Given this situation, the ability to assess and measure competencies and match those to available roles is essential for accurate candidate selection and effective talent management.

The result of the Federal Government’s initial research into employability skills was the development by CMyPeople of a unique psychometric assessment. It assesses 36 competencies based on the core eight identified above , as well as overlaying a personality measure, to give an extremely accurate picture of a candidate’s fit to a set of job competency criteria. This scientific approach to assessing competencies provides employers with an additional tool to use alongside traditional interviews, to ensure that they are getting the best available candidate for the role. The silver lining of the current skills shortage could be that organisations will emerge with savvier employment practices and better long-term solutions for their businesses and their employees.

Kevin Chandler is executive director of Chandler Macleod