How important is chemistry when hiring your next C-suite leader?

A few years ago, the Cass Business School at the University of London undertook an extensive study that looked at why people can sometimes fail to make the right first impression in high pressure situations, such as job interviews. Their findings led them to conclude that the reason is because of ‘impression mismanagement’ – a term they coined to describe the way in which seemingly savvy and confident people can often fall into certain common traps that see them come across as exacerbators of the truth, braggers, and even deliverers of back-handed compliments.

So, how important is it to be aware of these traps and to what extent does the chemistry between candidate and executive hiring manager influence the outcome of an interview?

If you have been involved in appointing senior roles at any stage over the last 10 years or more, you won’t have escaped references to ‘people analytics’. Far from being a fad, people analytics is a proven way by which organisations extrapolate the data they hold on current and past employees and use this to provide tangible insights that enable them to evaluate candidates on those attributes associated with the organisation’s most successful hires. In fact, it is estimated that around 70 per cent of organisations use some form of people analytics today.

However, data has its flaws. According to a report conducted by Deloitte, fewer than 1 in 10 (9 per cent) of business leaders claim to fully understand which insights can effectively predict future performance. This is not because the data itself is flawed; rather, the reason appears to point to a much simpler explanation: people.

Researchers at Northwestern University looked into this some more. They deduced that while ‘people’ analytics does indeed provide invaluable information that can support better hiring decision making, ‘relational’ analytics play an arguably more important role in the process.

During the search and selection process, an executive search firm will benchmark prospective candidates against the specific requirements of the role that their client is looking to recruit for. Critical to this is the ‘getting to know’ the candidate element of the process. From gaining an understanding as to whether the individual’s personality is the right ‘fit’ for the organisation’s culture or not, to seeing if their career ambitions, aspirations, and motivations are in sync and can mutually serve each other well, the best impression any potential employer can have of an individual is determined not by a computer algorithm but by active engagement and rapport building on a one-to-one basis.

That said, it would be remiss of us to suggest that people analytics should be consigned to the annals of HR history. On the contrary, it absolutely does have its place in the C-suite hiring process. After all, the Deloitte study found that those who maximise its potential enjoy 82 per cent higher profits over a three-year period than those who don’t – one cannot argue with the bottom line.

However, the relational aspect provides employers with a very different impression of a candidate. It empowers them to split the talkers from the doers, the hyperbolists from the go-getters, the cautious from the brave, and the traditionalists from the game-changers.

People really do buy from people. While investing in great recruitment technology platforms is absolutely a sound move, it should never be seen as a panacea to the recruitment challenges that organisations face. Data is powerful, but chemistry can tell you so much more about an individual. Marry the two together and you have all the makings of a sound hiring strategy.

The Maranello executive search team have more than two decades’ worth of experience in helping some of the most innovative, fastest-growing and largest organisations across Europe and beyond. Our success as a business is entirely the result of consistently delivering positive hiring outcomes for our clients. Can we support you?