Hiring for the Amazing Race

Okay.  I'll admit it.  I am an Amazing Race groupie!  What a thrilling, vicarious experience to be part of for a few weeks each year.  Racing around the world for a million dollars!  Being able to show your true colors on national TV and not needing to worry about being nice or even humane to be the big winner.  Someone is always complaining or whining or just acting, well, stupid!  And occasionally there is a voice of sanity, but even that voice eventually seems to have its darker moments. I'd like to think it's the money that drives them to distracting us with their behavior and keeps us from enjoying the countries and exotic places they race to.  But I wonder if all of this is calculated during casting and then contributed to by editing in an attempt to drive up the ratings?  That's where my money is!

How many times have we seen this in the work place?   Someone is hired because of a certain flair or interesting background that someone in a decision making position believes will enliven and infuse the company.  Or someone gets selected because he/she  knows how to play the Application Game.  While both of these types of hires would make for good TV, neither makes for a smart ROI for your business.

Hiring the right person is as full of challenges as the Amazing Race. Hiring practices that utilize a set of guidelines that include extensive checks and balances  prove to produce winning results.  Screening with the best available assessments, objective reference checks and interviews most often results in consistently good team members, leaders and ROI.  

Behavioral assessments that utilize validated benchmarks allow your company to better understand the person being considered in relationship to the position for which she/he is being considered.  The best assessment packages, like the one offered by Reliant, also provide attitude scores, which can indicate potential issues with company values, and include developmental reports that can help with on-boarding and identification of leadership ability.  When used a part of a thorough application process, assessment information like this will allow you to identify your best real world racers. 

Being able to consistently identify the strengths you need in the person you hire for a particular position allows you to make better hiring decisions.  Better hiring decisions mean less workplace drama.  For my money, it isn't the winning whiner that the casting director chose for the Amazing Race who should get the million dollar prize. It's the person who knows how to utilize the best available tools in the HR world's Amazing Race who should take home the cash. 

Thanks for reading!

Denny Meredith-Orr

COO, Reliant