Internal Assessment Goals

The primary goal of internal assessment is to identify the employees who will be the best choices in terms of meeting the organization's staffing goals, which usually include high job performance and enhanced business strategy execution. Identifying the job candidates who would be the least optimal choices is also important in informing layoff and downsizing decisions. In fact, removing poor performers can be more important and valuable than identifying good performers.

Table 1 lists several important goals organizations have when assessing internal job candidates.

Table 1. Goals of Internal Assessment

• Maximizing fit

• Assessing accurately

• Maximizing return on investment

• Generating positive stakeholder reactions

• Maximizing fit

• Assessing accurately

• Maximizing return on investment

• Generating positive stakeholder reactions

• Supporting the firm's talent philosophy and human resource strategy

• Establishing and reinforcing the firm's employer image

• Identifying development needs

• Assessing ethically

• Complying with the law

• Enhancing the firm's strategic capabilities

• Informing downsizing decisions

• Informing restructuring decision

Maximizing Fit

Why are some very talented people considered bad hires, despite their high skill level? The answer lies in the many ways in which people need to fit within an employment opportunity to be a successful match. One goal of assessment is to maximize the degree to which the person fits the job, workgroup, and organization. We next describe several dimensions of fit.

Person-Job Fit. Person-job fit is the fit between a person's abilities and the demands of the job, as well as the fit between a person's desires and motivations and the attributes and rewards of a job. Effective staffing enhances the degree to which an employee meets a job's requirements — and the degree to which the job meets the individual's needs. Because the most important staffing outcome is usually the employee's job performance, person-job fit is the primary focus of most staffing efforts. From the organization's perspective, if it has an opening for a production supervisor and the new hire is not an effective supervisor, then the staffing effort cannot be considered successful, regardless of how many other positive staffing outcomes are achieved. In organizations that are growing rapidly, the scope of any job expands quickly. To prepare for this, Google tries to hire people who are "overqualified" for the position they are being recruited for, who can handle expanding job duties, and who are likely to be promoted multiple times.

From the employee's perspective, if the new job does not meet his or her financial, career, lifestyle, and other needs, then the match also is not ideal. An individual motivated by commissions and individual performance-based pay is not likely to be a good fit with a job based on teamwork and group rewards. Similarly, an individual who does not enjoy working with people should not be promoted to a supervisory position. It is not only important to consider the fit between an individual's talents and the job requirements, but also the fit between an individual's motivations and the rewards offered by the job. Research suggests that successful person-job fit leads to higher job performance, satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intent to stay with the company.

Just as new hires need to be able to perform the jobs for which they are hired, employees need to perform their new jobs and effectively work with their new supervisors and co-workers. Due to union contracts or company policy, some organizations tend to promote employees because of seniority rather than because they would be the best fit with the open job. Although experience and seniority tend to be somewhat related to job performance, the relationship is not always strong and there is no guarantee that the most senior employees are the most qualified or appropriate for the position. Accordingly, relying solely on criteria unrelated to the job at hand, such as seniority for staffing decisions, often does not lead to optimal person-job fit.

Person-Group Fit. In addition to the fit between the recruit and the nature of the work, the fit between the recruit and his or her potential work team and supervisor is important. Person-group fit (or person-team fit) is the match between an individual and his or her workgroup, including the supervisor. Good person-group fit means that an individual fits with the goals, work styles, and skills of co-workers. Person-group fit recognizes that, in many jobs, interpersonal interactions with group members and teammates are important in accomplishing the work. Employees must be able to work effectively with their workgroup or teammates. Person-group fit leads to improved job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intent to stay with the company.

Because teamwork, communication, and interpersonal competencies can be as critical to team performance as team members' ability to perform core job duties, person-group fit can be particularly important when hiring for team-oriented work environments. At Men's Wearhouse, CEO George Zimmer rewards team selling because shoppers want to have a positive total store experience. The company takes team selling so seriously that it even terminated one of its most successful salespeople because he focused only on his own sales figures. After firing the salesperson, the store's total sales volume increased significantly. Individual characteristics such as personal goals that are consistent with those of the group, and skills that complement those of the rest of the members, are particularly important to assess in environments in which work is done in groups.

Person-Organization Fit. Person-organization fit is the fit between an individual's values, beliefs, and personality, and the values, norms, and culture of the organization. The strength of this fit influences important organizational outcomes, including job performance, retention, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Some organizational values and norms important for person-organization fit include integrity, fairness, work ethic, competitiveness, cooperativeness, and compassion for fellow employees and customers.

Research has found that person-organization fit has a strong positive relationship with job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intent to stay with the company, and has a moderate impact on employee attitudes and citizenship behaviors such as helping others or talking positively about the firm. It also has a modest impact on turnover and tenure, but little to no impact on meeting job requirements. Despite the potential overlap between person-job and person-organization fit, research suggests that people may experience differing degrees of fit with the job and with the organization. If you imagine someone who is a...