Should Recruitment Business Owners Use a Dynamic Weighting Index?
The Dynamic Weighting Index is how recruitment business owners can ensure they follow the age-old wisdom…
Show! Don’t Tell!
You’ll usually hear this adage coming from English teachers and Creative Writing coaches, but weirdly it’s actually terrible advice that most of the great writers in history have happily ignored.
But for recruitment business owners…
It’s kind of our thing.
Sure, we always wind up with one or two candidates who are our favourites – the ones we think should be the front-runners. But because it’s the client who has to make the final choice on who to hire, we generally try to SHOW the client what makes our candidates special, without outright TELLING them who we think they should hire.
It’s a delicate balance, and one that is helped immeasurably by a DWI.
This is the fourth article in our series on recruitment tech and how to decide which provides a return on your investment, but this is the first in which, even if you’re an experienced recruitment business owner, you might not be familiar with the subject.
Dynamic Weighting Index isn’t something we invented but it’s definitely something we popularised among the recruitment business owners that use our i-intro® strategy.
It’s designed to allow recruitment business owners to present the candidate shortlist to the client in a top-level view that effectively summarises the employer’s view of the candidates.
There’s definitely a sizeable element of subjectivity to the strategy, but as we’re going to see, this is what makes it so valuable. Especially when hiring very senior roles.
if you want to close the knowledge gap between yourself, as the recruiter, and the decision makers…
This article is going to be something you never knew you always wanted.
(Yep, you didn’t imagine it, I just paraphrased a 90s Matthew Perry movie - which, incidentally, is a great example of the benefits of using show AND tell)
How do Recruitment Business Owners Use a Dynamic Weighting Index?
The employer rates each shortlisted candidate based on the different parts to their application such as their key competency question responses, video introductions, and behavioural assessment results. The employer can rate the candidate on each section, giving them a scoring on a sliding scale from “inadequate” to “outstanding”.
Percentage scores are then averaged out so each candidates’ ratings can be directly compared against each other.
The scores are compared in two columns: the first, shows the client their personal score for each candidate. The second column shows the team suitability score, which takes into consideration all of the decision maker’s scores.
Why should Recruitment Business Owners Use a Dynamic Weighting Index?
The decision-makers have a lot of information to sift through when deciding who to call to interview. A Dynamic Weighting Index provides a rough guide to opinions they’ve formed during the process and allows them to see, at a glance, who are the main contenders for the role.
It also shows exactly why a client gave each candidate the score that they did-which allows for better feedback to the candidate. One of the #1 complaints that candidates have about recruiters is that they don’t provide feedback. This tool helps you support candidates and be able to clearly explain why they did or didn’t land the role.
A Dynamic Weighting Index featuring, for example, five candidates, may prominently show that there is a clear front runner and two other strong contenders. The client can then opt to interview those three candidates, rather than spending unnecessary time meeting with candidates that are very unlikely to land the role.
Additionally, when used objectively, a Dynamic Weighting Index can make a significant contribution towards diversity, equality and inclusion. By inviting decision-makers to judge the specifics of each candidates’ contributions, rather than simply their CV, a more objective opinion can be obtained.
Is There a Wrong Way to Use a Dynamic Weighting Index?
The value of a Dynamic Weighting Index will depend greatly on how well the key competency questions have been chosen (CLICK HERE to read our earlier article on this subject).
Vague or irrelevant questions will produce a Dynamic Weighting Index table that is either of low value or one in which the candidates are rated too similarly to provide any useful points of comparison.
It's also important that everyone who contributes a score does so as objectively as possible. A contributor could easily massage the numbers to create a result that emphasises the candidate they favour, but this would defeat the goal of producing a clear comparison of the shortlisted candidates.
What’s the Most Effective Way to Use a Dynamic Weighting Index?
The Dynamic Weighting Index is useful for seeing the breakdown of why a candidate scores highly or poorly.
This is especially true when there are multiple decision-makers. Making a hiring decision by committee can be challenging and a Dynamic Weighting Index has the effect of focusing the discussions and helping the client reach a decision more quickly.
One of our clients, Caitlin, was hiring a senior role for her organisation when she realised there was a problem. There were completely opposite expectations within the hiring team, which of course will in all likelihood not result in a successful hire. The dynamic weighting index helped her team come to a consensus about what kind of candidate they really wanted to join their business.
How Else Can Recruitment Business Owners Use a Dynamic Weighting Index?
The latest version of the i-intro® system allows the client to make the scores of one or more of the decision-makers carry more weight when the average score is calculated.
For instance, the client may decide that the opinions of the owner of the business or the direct manager of the incoming hire should count for 50% of the average score, with the other two decision-maker’s scores counting for 25% of the average.
Critically, comparisons can be made between the opinions of the individuals and the opinions of the group.
This can reveal differences in expectations and priorities, and help the decision-makers with their deliberations.
Here’s another recent real-life example experience by an i-intro® client:
“After the i-intro® assessments were completed, the client had a clear favourite, but there were two other shortlisted candidates that I felt deserved a closer look and should also be called to interview.
“The client was reluctant because they favoured their frontrunner and didn’t want to waste their time or that of the other candidates.
“However, I was able to demonstrate, using the Dynamic Weighting Index, that while the group as a whole had identified a frontrunner, one of the key decision makers had actually marked one of the other candidates as the strongest.
“This information was invaluable because it revealed a potential difference in opinion on the type of candidate that was needed for the role, and allowed the decision makers to have a further discussion before proceeding with the face-to-face interviews.
“Especially with senior roles, it’s worth spending that little bit of extra time to identify and discuss these points because it increases the likelihood of the correct hire being made.”
Does a Dynamic Weighting Index Provide a True Return on Investment?
Yes. This is another example of recruitment tech with which time and cost investment is minimal, but the technology provides an impressive return. Including…
- Impressing the clients in terms of adding value to your service.
- Saving the client time by potentially reducing the number of candidates that need to be interviewed face-to-face.
- Identifying potential differences in expectations between the decision-makers.
- Giving the candidate the opportunity to be evaluated by more than just their CV
- Improving the accuracy of the hiring decision.
The above points are even more keenly felt during senior role campaigns, when extra diligence may be required, and the volume of data and assessment information for candidates may be higher.
Do you want to add a Dynamic Weighting Index to your recruitment service?
The i-intro® system allows decision-makers to add a rating to various elements of the shortlisted candidates’ profiles. These ratings are then compiled and automatically turned into a summary for the client to review (no messing about with Excel spreadsheets required).
The newest version of i-intro® also includes the balancing component so that, when multiple decision-makers are involved, greater weight can be given to one or more individuals.
This is all built into the i-intro® system which already includes video interviewing, key competency questionnaires and behavioural assessments.
But as mentioned earlier…
Sometimes it’s best to show AND tell.
If you’re a recruitment business owner and you’d like a free demonstration of i-intro®, including the Dynamic Weighting Index component, simply click HERE and book an appointment with one of our specialists.