Once you’ve found the best candidate, how do you hold onto them?

Finding the right person for your business can be costly, whether it’s time or money.  It can be even more costly if you have to do it again because it didn’t work out – and they decide to leave.

Often you think you know the person you’re hiring, but do you really?

Most recruitment is based on someone’s CV. So you know about their experience, but you probably know little about the person.

Interestingly, data shows that a person’s past experience is a poor predictor of future performance in a role. Other personal qualities are far better at predicting success.

For us, once someone is in a role, one of the key things to their success is their motivation – whether they’re willing and able to turn up and go that extra mile, day after day  – just as they probably said they would do when you interviewed them.

However, if you don’t know what motivates someone, how do you know whether they’re going to be motivated in the role they are going to do with you? Equally, how can you know what you need to do to make them tick?

Understanding what motivates someone is actually quite hard. Simply asking people what motivates them doesn’t necessarily work. This is because of the difference between what people think someone else wishes to hear and what they really want to say. Pressure in the work environment or at an interview, for example, means that they may say one thing to keep the boss sweet, rather than wanting to say how they truly feel.

Also, just asking someone about what motivates them might not work because, simply, the person has never really thought about it or they might find it difficult to articulate what exactly it is.

Well, there is a solution. It’s called a Motivational Map.  It not only gives Motivation a ‘language’, it also can give you a measurement as to how motivated someone is in their job at any particular point in time.  How good is that!

It’s based on sound science and identifies that there are 3 key areas of motivation:

• Relationship Motivators – some people come to work to be with others
• Achievement Motivators – some people come to work to achieve results
• Growth Motivators – some people come to work to better themselves

Within each of these areas, there are 3 specific motivators. For example, in terms of Growth Motivators, these are:

• The Creator – those who are motivated by being innovative and express themselves creatively.
• The Spirit – those who are motivated by freedom, independence, making own their decisions
• The Searcher –those who are motivated by meaning, making a difference and doing worthwhile things.

You can use Motivational Maps either during the recruitment phase or at any stage afterwards.

For example, knowing that someone is motivated by wanting to innovate and express themselves creatively can help you to decide, at the recruitment stage, as to whether that sort of person will excel in a particular role. Equally, once in post, you can measure how motivated someone is in their role, or not, and how you might need to adjust things to motivate them some more.

Few people think about what exactly motivates them and, as important, what motivates the people that are around them – either existing employees or new recruits.

If you’ve found great people, make sure you don’t lose them. Make sure you understand what gets them out of bed in the morning and ensure that they get exposed to plenty of it.