Welcome back for Part III of our eQ blog series on elite talent!
As we were discussing yesterday, the benchmarking process serves as an opportunity to realign each position with the most up-to-date strategic business initiatives for your organization. The team will clarify why the job exists and how it fits into the company’s strategy going forward. As key accountabilities are defined, weighed and prioritized, a clear picture emerges. The behaviors, values, personal skills and task preferences required for success in the position can now be used to screen a suitable candidate. An additional outcome from the process is that benchmarking may also close past accountability gaps between positions that gave rise to recurring efficiencies in communication or productivity. It’s important to assess the existing team against the benchmarks produced so that any gaps in the current team can be accounted for when planning for new positions, training or succession. Once jobs are benchmarked, the critical competencies and attributes required for each job are used as guidelines, both for hiring and for training high potentials to excel.
There is quite a big distinction between a benchmark and a 'good' benchmark. It’s best to err on the side of caution with this one and put a lot of time and effort into developing good benchmark standards. Otherwise you run the risk of missing the mark on your initial goal of selecting elite talent. Without good benchmarks, there’s a big chance you will fall very short of elite.
Please join us again tomorrow for Part IV of the eQ blog series Selecting Elite Talent. Tomorrow we go a step beyond benchmarks, into the world of The Assessment Sciences.
