We incorporate assessments into our hiring process and we sell assessments directly to companies. As you might guess, we are strong proponents of assessing candidates. Today’s ERE article presents an excellent explanation of what constitutes a “good” assessment.

It is a long article but definitely an interesting read. One topic we often discuss with prospective customers is benchmarking their top salespeople. We don’t do it. We benchmark the sale in that we define the parameters of a typical and ideal sale. This information leads to the job skills needed to succeed in the position.

Dr. Williams provides a clear description of the pitfalls of benchmarking top producers:

How does one define high-producer? By results or by actions that lead to results? It makes a big difference. Individuals in the high-producer group could have used different skills to get there. Some might be good politicians. Some might be very smart. Some might be taking credit for others’ work.

What about the confusion between correlation and causation? Just because ice-cream sales and shark attacks are correlated does not mean that one causes the other. Almost anything can be correlated, but not everything is causal. If you sort through enough garbage, you are likely to find correlations between cookie wrappers and hotdogs. So what? Your goal is to find a correlation between hotdogs and hotdog buns.

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From the Career News newsletter (sorry, no link-my emphasis):

And a growing number of employees have concluded that the best way to move up is to move around. According to international-employment-matchmaker Randstad’s latest World of Work Survey, more than half of today’s employed are searching the Internet for a better situation; yet most profess to be happy in their current jobs, despite a 41-to-60-hour work week.

A just-released study by the Conference Board confirms that almost three-quarters of job-seekers are pounding virtual pavement. They’re scanning Internet job boards like Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com and networking with friends, acquaintances and friends of acquaintances on sites like Facebook and its business-networking predecessor LinkedIn.

Most job hunters simply scout employer offerings on job sites, but significant percentages also post resumes and register for e-mail alerts of openings. And these aren’t necessarily unhappy campers, insists Harris Interactive, which conducted the Randstad study. “This year, we see the highest workforce morale in three years, mirrored by impressions of improved productivity and less pessimism about the state of the job market,” writes Harris Senior Vice President Deanna Wert. “These workers are looking to cash in on their skills,” adds Wert, “and are more likely to switch jobs than at any time in the past five years.”

Retention will be one of the most important sales management topics of 2008.

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When recruiting sales talent, we often get caught in the middle on one important topic. Timing. Sourcing a strong candidate who is looking to move at the right moment is a complex undertaking. Few salespeople will cash in their current job for blue-sky possibilities which is how most opportunities appear at the outset. As we approach Thanksgiving here in the States, the timing window shrinks.

With Q4 one third of the way complete, most salespeople have a good idea of how their quarter is going to finish up in terms of revenue and, more importantly, commission. On top of that, they probably have family time, holiday travel and time off already planned out on their schedule. Changing jobs now may interfere with some of those plans. These factors make the timing of a successful hire more difficult during the holiday season.

And there is another issue – how fast the hiring manager moves. Most hiring processes occur in the margins of the day. The sales manager is focused on growing revenue and hitting/exceeding targets. He or she does not necessarily place the highest priority on candidate hiring tasks. Often these activities are moved to non-sales times (outside of the 8 to 5 window), or they get pushed back. And let’s not forget that the hiring manager probably has the pressure of meeting their year-end revenue goals along with a busy holiday season.

So here we sit in the middle attempting to connect these two parties. The connection becomes more difficult when you include business travel, next-year planning/budget meetings and the ever-present customer surprises. It becomes a daunting task to move information at this point. Schedules, references, offers…all of these tasks become more difficult during the upcoming holiday window.

In terms of my sales manager days, I always found December to be a great time to onramp new salespeople heading into the new year. In order to accomplish this goal, I had to prioritize the time to work the hiring process. If you are hiring during Q4, I strongly encourage you to prioritize the hiring process during this time.

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