Have you ever wished you could clone an employee because they excelled at their job? While cloning might be a stretch, you can get pretty close using occupational performance benchmarks and behavioral analysis tools in your hiring process.
Occupational performance benchmarking is akin to replicating success. By analyzing the behavioral dimensions of your top performers, you can establish a benchmark for excellence.
For instance, if you assess the top 10 salespeople at ACME Corp—those who are high-performing, highly satisfied, and have been with the company the longest—the analysis will reveal common behavioral traits. These traits then become the benchmark for hiring new talent in similar roles at ACME Corp.
PeopleKeys has over 40 years of experience in analyzing top performance data across various occupations. Through extensive consulting with large corporations, churches, and government agencies worldwide, we’ve developed best-practice behavioral benchmarks for hundreds of roles.
What is a Performance Benchmark?
A performance benchmark is a set of behavioral standards, based on outstanding performance, longevity, achievement, and job satisfaction within a given job role. The benchmark becomes the “ideal” candidate and “the bar” for the requirements of a particular role.
How is a Performance Benchmark used in hiring?
A Performance Benchmark becomes the standard or bar that is set for all incoming candidates for the same or similar role. The Benchmark helps a hiring manager filter candidates that best fit the benchmark for the particular role.
Are Performance Benchmarks legal in hiring?
Yes, PeopleKeys benchmarks are legal for hiring, EEOC compliant, and legally defensible as one of the factors in making a hiring decision. However, there are many other variables to consider when selecting a candidate. Occupational performance Benchmarks should be considered in the overall selection criteria, but not the only deciding factor.
Can success be predicted in hiring?
This is a critical question for anyone involved in the hiring process. While hindsight often provides clear answers, foresight can be much more challenging. Effective hiring managers leverage every tool at their disposal to forecast success. Although education, experience, references, and accolades are valuable, they only tell part of the story. They can't fully predict a candidate's fit with the team, their role, corporate culture, attitude, job satisfaction, longevity, or productivity. This is where predictive hiring and behavioral analytics come into play.
Behavioral benchmarking, when used effectively, is a powerful tool for predicting success. It offers significant insights into potential performance, given the growing success of predictive and behavioral analytics in today’s hiring landscape. Predictive hiring has become a billion-dollar industry and is rapidly becoming a standard practice in competitive markets worldwide.
How does PeopleKeys use Performance Benchmarks?
Currently, PeopleKeys has hundreds of standard performance benchmarks generated from best practices in many common occupations. Download a PDF short-list of available PeopleKeys Occupational Benchmarks here.
PeopleKeys can set up performance benchmarks for four assessments. The below assessments represent the 4D Report for predictive hiring. These assessments will give a hiring manager the most comprehensive four-dimensional view of a person’s personal preferences, strengths, limits, and characteristics with over 1,440 data points for comparison.
PeopleKeys has the capacity to set benchmarks for the following assessments:
- DISC Personality Assessment – Analyzes Personality Dimensions
- TEAMS Assessment – Analyzes Work Team Role Dimensions
- Values Assessment – Analyzes Work Values Dimensions
- BAI Assessment – Analyzes Life Passions and Motivators
What does a Performance Benchmark look like?
Once a benchmark is enabled within your PeopleKeys account, each candidate that takes an assessment will be evaluated against the benchmark. This is shown in two ways:
1. In your PeopleKeys Account Dashboard:
The PeopleKeys dashboard shows each candidate with a Green, Yellow or Red symbol (think of a stop-light):
- GREEN = “Go” or meets the benchmark
- YELLOW = “Proceed with caution” or just outside the benchmark
- RED = “Stop” or outside the benchmark, and ask more questions
2. In your PeopleKeys Report Graphs Page:
The graphs page of your hiring report will show the given benchmarks for 1 - 4 assessments on the same page. The above example shows the candidate’s DISC profile overlaid on the Benchmark. This gives the hiring manager a visual representation of each candidate and how they meet the given benchmarks.
How can I purchase and use Performance Benchmarks to hire?
If you don’t have a PeopleKeys Account:
Request your free, custom branded PeopleKeys business account here. An account representative will contact you to finalize the setup of your account and apply a benchmark for your position.
If you already have a PeopleKeys Account:
Contact our customer service department to request to add an occupational benchmark to your hiring report. Our team will help you determine your benchmark needs and apply the benchmark to your account. You may select from the many standard benchmarks already available within our system, or apply one of your own.
