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I can see the merits of this, but (scanning the front page) it looks like the primary tool for selecting candidates is a psychometric assessment. First of all

by shubb 12y ago

I can see the merits of this, but (scanning the front page) it looks like the primary tool for selecting candidates is a psychometric assessment. First of all this is only data driven if we can show that candidates who score well are actually good sales people. It is true that people with certain big four profiles for instance, tend to end up in sales. But are they more likely to be good salesmen? People with low intelligence or impulse inhibition tend to end up in prison, but are they effective criminals? This is an exciting first step - by gathering quantitative data about the roles that the candidates go into, and how they perform, you could build the model you need. You probably don't have it yet though. The other important thing is that different types of sales require very different people. Sometimes, sales people need to penetrate a market where contacts are important, and deals are huge but take a long time to set up. They need to be the kind of person who can foster long term relationships, and maintain long term personal relationships with people and organizations. Other times, deals are small, or relatively small, and what is important is volume. Maybe they need to rapidly create a shallow relationship, close the sale, and walk away. Maybe they need to cold call, and be especially tenacious in the face of rejection. I'd be fascinated to see you create a questionnaire or similar that identifies the right person for that specific role. What about administrating the tests to current employees, along with details from their bosses about performance. That way you could build a model of the kind of person who does well at that organization, at least generically.

baudehlo 12y ago
The important thing about the way we calculate things here is that there isn't a "scoring well". You might max out the scores on certain groups of answers and it won't get you the job because we're comparing candidates to the top performers, who likely won't max out those profiles - having a more balanced personality could be far more important. We have done some work pulling in Salesforce data directly so we can assess results - a feedback loop of sorts - once a candidate is hired we directly see the results of their performance. We aren't far enough along to publish results of that feedback loop though because all sales roles take a while ramping up. What about administrating the tests to current employees, along with details from their bosses about performance. That way you could build a model of the kind of person who does well at that organization, at least generically. That's exactly what this does.

by shubb 12y ago

baudehlo 12y ago

The important thing about the way we calculate things here is that there isn't a "scoring well". You might max out the scores on certain groups of answers and it won't get you the job because we're comparing candidates to the top performers, who likely won't max out those profiles - having a more balanced personality could be far more important. We have done some work pulling in Salesforce data directly so we can assess results - a feedback loop of sorts - once a candidate is hired we directly see the results of their performance. We aren't far enough along to publish results of that feedback loop though because all sales roles take a while ramping up. What about administrating the tests to current employees, along with details from their bosses about performance. That way you could build a model of the kind of person who does well at that organization, at least generically. That's exactly what this does.