If you’ve ever wished you could find the perfect candidate for an important role, you’re not alone; data shows that three out of four employers are struggling to find the talent they need.
What if you could understand a role so confidently that finding the right fit felt easy?
You can with a secret hiring weapon: job benchmarking.
What is Job Benchmarking?
Job benchmarking is the process of creating a profile of the ideal candidate for a position and then measuring candidates (and even existing employees) against that profile.
Most people know job benchmarking in the context of hiring, but it applies to so much more than that. You can use job benchmarking for:
- Role Design
- Succession Planning
- Professional Development
- Reskilling Education
- Internal Talent Pipeline Creation
What are the Steps in a Typical Job Benchmarking Process?
To better understand the power and potential of job benchmarking, it's helpful to hear from those who work with it firsthand.
“It’s a fascinating process,” Teresa Adams-Nault, founder of TheTalentMatchmaker, explained. “Benchmarking is not only repeatable, it’s scalable. The process provides internal mobility by looking at capabilities and finding the right match. It’s the most effective foundation for performance management.”
Here is a sample of what a typical job benchmark can look like in your organization. This specific example is for hiring; adjust for your purpose and team’s needs.
Work With an Experienced Coach or Consultant
Work with a trusted consultant with experience guiding organizations’ talent acquisition strategies. Your coach can help create a job listing and description, select the assessments to use in the benchmark, and get the right people working together to make the benchmark successful.
“It’s valuable to have an impartial perspective in hiring,” said Favor Larson, Director of Strategic Partnerships at TTI Success Insights. “By bringing in someone with expertise from outside your team, you’ll get the fresh perspective needed to find the right fit.”
Gather Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
Your team of SMEs can include the role’s manager, employees who previously held the role, the role’s direct report, and their future co-workers. Ensure that your SMEs discuss expectations of the role, digging into the purpose of the position by defining responsibilities and goals of the job.
“Job benchmarking is so impactful because it provides a validated way to profile a job,” said Bill Ratterman, President of Alinti. “It’s a robust process that helps create clarity about the talent needed in a position. It brings a different level of discussion by having people critically think about the exact talent they need and how to set them up for success.”
The SME group will review assessment profiles with the consultant, adding their perspectives to determine the ideal profile for the role. This is the job benchmark.
The assessments you choose are important. Using a combined assessment that measures aspects such as behavior, motivation, skills, EQ, and more is an effective way to get a clear picture of what success will look like in the role. (TTI calls this the multi-science approach.)
The shared expectation that comes out of benchmarking is valuable to everyone involved: teammates, managers, the hiring role, and the candidate. When a new hire starts their role, everyone working with them will have a clear understanding of what they need to do to succeed.
Have Candidates Take the Assessment
Remember that benchmarking is just one part of your hiring and talent acquisition strategy. It is most effective when coupled with other traditional hiring tools: reviewing resumes, screening applicants, and interviewing.
Once you’ve found your top candidates, have them take the assessment and compare their results to the benchmark.
Let your trusted consultant guide this conversation with the SMEs to determine next steps. You all might decide together that the benchmark is correct and the candidate isn’t the right fit, or you might decide that parts of the role you thought were fixed are actually more flexible.
The important thing here is the consideration and conversation. The deep understanding of the role’s purpose that comes from questioning and discussion is invaluable. “Benchmarking a position helps the internal team understand a candidate’s fit from a development perspective,” said Ratterman. “Using these tools creates an opportunity to ask questions you otherwise wouldn’t ask, particularly in the recruiting process and internal development.”
Review the Outcome with the Team
Gather your hiring panel or team to review the data collected throughout the process, including interview feedback, assessment results, and how each candidate aligned with the job benchmark. Discuss the strengths and gaps observed, and ensure consensus on the next steps.
Depending on your organization’s process, move forward with additional interviews or offer the job to your top candidate!
Utilize the Benchmark Moving Forward
Use the information within the selected candidate’s benchmark to support their onboarding and guide future development. Since benchmarking is valuable far beyond hiring, it can help with communication between bosses and new employees, team integration, and skills management.
By establishing benchmarking as a tool used for multiple purposes, your organization can create processes with a similar flow and a standardized approach. Gathering the same kind of information about each person will help ensure equality and fairness while creating an even playing field.
Use Job Benchmarking Responsibly
Job benchmarking isn’t the sole determinant of success in a role. Don’t disqualify a candidate if their assessment results don’t perfectly match the benchmark.
“Even if someone is a perfect match, it doesn’t mean they’re necessarily doing a job correctly,” Juan Kingsbury, Founder of Career Blindspot, cautions. “Just because you know how to play the saxophone doesn’t mean you’re hitting the right notes. The benchmarking process represents the notes on the page; it’s a way to guide you and hone your focus.”
For example, if a candidate has a close match in their behavioral profile (DISC), but has a different set of top Drivers (12 Driving Forces), stop and consider: How will their personal motivation play into the role’s success? Will they get what they need from the role? Do any of their passions contrast directly with the key responsibilities of the position?
Answering these questions will uncover new conversations about the role and bring important information to light. The right candidate might be different from what was initially expected.
Utilizing job benchmarking can improve all aspects of your organization, including your hiring process. By using objective data to define the specific needs, expectations, and success factors of a role, you gain a clearer picture of what a job role really looks like.
If you want to harness the power of benchmarking for your organization, TTI can help.
