Dr John Sullivan Talent Management Thought Leadership
Having to work with disengaged employees is a major frustrater for managers/teammates. So, limit that frustration by filling your team’s vacancies with self-motivated new-hires.
First, the self-motivated (SM) produce the second-highest level of hiring impacts (after hiring top performers). Also, unlike quiet quitters and other disengaged toxic employees, managers and teammates find the self-motivated to be a pleasure to work with.
89% of new-hire failures result from poor attitudes, not a lack of technical skills.
A Quick Definition Of A Self-Motivated Employee
They are driven. So without interruption, they constantly put in a “110% energetic effort” without any prodding or promise of reward or recognition. As a result, the only motivator they need is “completing the work” to benefit the team, the customer, and/or for a higher environmental or societal purpose.
The Costly Business Impacts of Hiring Low-Motivation Employees
After years of researching the subject, I have found that working with low-motivation employees is an extremely common and costly problem.
A problem that, fortunately, is mostly preventable, provided that you tweak your hiring process so it can identify both low-motivation and self-motivated candidates. Below you will find a list of the top 6 most costly problems that result from hiring low-motivation employees.
- Attitude issues are the largest cause of new-hire failures – an overwhelming number of new-hire failures (89%) occur because of attitude issues and not a lack of technical skills. Incidentally, hiring top performers has the highest impact.
- Highly motivated employees are also likely to be top performers – research has shown that highly motivated employees are 2.5 times more likely to be rated as a top performer. Unfortunately, because they put less effort into their work, low-motivation employees are almost always rated as below-average performers. Their low performance hurts the team’s work quality, and it causes the team to miss deadlines. And, having to make up for their teammate’s low performance often causes other teammates to consciously decide to also produce less.
- Low-motivation employees frustrate their teammates, and that lowers morale – because low-motivation employees are often constantly whining. They frequently become a major distraction, and that eventually lowers team morale.
- Low-motivation employees increase team turnover, and may hurt future hiring – having a toxic employee on their team means that your good employees are “54% more likely to quit.” And when candidates interact with them, many will be less willing to join your team.
- Low motivation employees take up a great deal of a manager’s time – unlike the self-motivated, low-motivation employees require significant management time for coaching, prodding, and corrective action. This prevents their manager from doing more important things. In fact, managers often label self-motivated employees as “a pleasure to manage“.
- If they interact with customers, your low-motivation employees will hurt your sales and your brand – if your low-motivation employees directly interact with customers, they will immediately hurt your sales. And eventually, they will also hurt your product brand image.
Given the number of costly problems that low-motivation employees frequently create, it makes sense to screen them out early in your hiring process. Instead, prioritize all of the self-motivated candidates who have a history of maintaining a high level of motivation and energy.
There Are Two Categories Of Hiring Steps For The Self-Motivated (SM)
Once you have committed to hiring mostly self-motivated and purpose-driven candidates, you will need to revise your current hiring process so that it effectively screens out low-motivation candidates while simultaneously identifying and prioritizing self-motivated ones.
My recommended action steps are broken into two categories: 1) identifying your self-motivated candidates and 2) attracting more self-motivated applicants in the future.
Category I – Actions for assessing a candidate’s motivation level and whether they are self-motivated
If you go on the assumption that you already have a sufficient number of SMs in your applicant pool. You can skip directly to finding and using the most effective approaches for assessing which candidates are self-motivated. The top 10 assessment action steps that you should consider using are listed below:
Select motivated candidates for your interviews by searching their resumes/profiles – the motivation level of an applicant should be considered when selecting candidates that qualify for an interview. You can identify “indicators” of an applicant’s motivation level through the use of standard ATS or AI-supported searches of their resume and LinkedIn profile. These searches can frequently identify your highly motivated candidates by looking for the right keywords and phrases. Some of the most effective individual words that I have discovered include self-motivated, energetic, driven, enthusiastic, inspired, focused, stimulated, conscientious, committed, tireless, zealous, and hungry. Key phrases to search for include fire in the belly, strong work ethic, with little supervision, they took the initiative, they go the extra mile, highly engaged, hard working, and a self-starter. You should, of course, revise your search string continuously at least once a year.
Ask candidates to force rank their attitude components during their interviews – forget directly asking a candidate if they are self-motivated. Instead, during at least one interview, provide each candidate with a list of the desired components that make up a good attitude (like self-motivation, honesty, loyalty). Then ask the interviewee to rank the top five attitude components they feel most accurately dominate their attitude. And you should be concerned if being self-motivated doesn’t appear in their top three attitude components.
Ask a finalist’s references to list and rank their motivation factors – rather than directly asking references, “Is the person self-motivated?” Instead, ask each reference to list and rank their list of this candidate’s top motivation factors. And prioritize the candidate if their reference lists “the work itself” or being “purpose driven” among their top motivators. Be concerned when the reference has found that compensation, recognition, and/or career advancement are among the candidate’s top motivators. Coincidentally, also give the candidate priority if a reference lists them as a rapid learner or a data-supported decision-maker.
Ask each candidate to list and rank their own top motivators – during the interview, simply ask candidates to list their top motivators in rank order. Prioritize them if they list “the work itself”, being “purpose driven”, or being self-motivated as a top motivator. And be concerned if they list compensation, recognition, or career advancement near the top.
Assess how finalist candidates act outside of their interviews – because nearly everyone acts like they are highly motivated during the formal interview process. Add an “informal element” to your hiring process that is designed to catch candidates when they are off guard. This approach might include asking receptionists and support staff with whom they interacted to assess their attitude and level of motivation. Many companies set up informal one-on-one coffee chats with team members in order to catch them off guard in their normal behavior.
For referred candidates, ask the employee to rate their referral’s motivation level – if an employee referral becomes a finalist. Go back to the employee and ask them to honestly rate each candidate’s motivation level.
Use a peer interview to assess the motivation of finalist candidates –because the candidate’s future teammates have a great deal of experience assessing the motivation levels of recent hires. Peer teammates often excel at identifying a candidate’s attitude factors and flaws before being hired. So hold a peer interview with the team (without managers). And alert each team member in advance that, after the interview, they will be asked to anonymously rank the candidate’s motivation level on a 1 to 10 scale.
During their behavioral interview answers, look for what motivated them – when you ask a behavioral interview question related to a work situation. During their answer, look for indications of their motivation level. And specifically what motivated them during the event that they just described. Alternatively, at the end of an answer, directly ask them what specifically motivated them to act the way they did.
Give them an online motivation test – there are now validated online tests for identifying a candidate’s motivators and assessing the motivation level of candidates (Wonderlic is a well-known provider).
Look at their social media for indications that a finalist is highly motivated – because indications of a candidate’s motivation level won’t be limited to the workplace. You should also consider exploring a candidate’s social media to look for indications of high motivation levels in their volunteer work. And how they handle personal challenges that require high levels of motivation, like learning a language, finishing a degree at night, or running a marathon.
Note: You can learn more details about the broader process of hiring for attitude here.
Category II – Actions for attracting self-motivated applicants
If your regular sourcing channels and methods aren’t generating enough self-motivated applicants, here are some additional attraction steps to consider.
Make being self-motivated a job requirement – If you make being self-motivated a job requirement, list it in your job posting. Not only will you attract more self-motivated applicants, but you will also make it more likely that applicants will provide more evidence of their motivation in their resume and cover letter.
Targeted employee referrals are the best way to identify and attract SM’s – your own top-performing and self-motivated employees. Should you be your primary source for identifying and convincing the self-motivated to apply? So make it clear to your employees that a primary goal of your referral program is to attract the self-motivated.
Re-recruit your previous silver medalist candidates that were self-motivated – revisit the self-motivated finalists from your previous openings for this job. The fact that these finalists were self-motivated won’t change over time. But now that many months have passed, their skills and experience will likely have improved.
Attempt to boomerang your past self-motivated employees – because being self-motivated doesn’t fade over time. You should also consider the boomerang rehiring of your former employees, who you already know were self-motivated. You might also allow these former employees who can’t return to your company to make referrals to other qualified, self-motivated people whom they know and recommend.
Target Internet sites that cover this job’s relevant higher purpose – if your open job is clearly purpose-driven. You should also consider placing your job posts on popular Internet and social media sites devoted to that higher purpose.
Final Thoughts
And finally. Because few managers and recruiters have calculated the great economic value that comes from replacing your departing nagging disengaged employees with self-motivated new-hires. You should be aware that you won’t face much recruiting competition from the majority of your talent competitors. They haven’t yet learned to look for this highly valuable trait.
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Notes for the reader
This is the latest article from Dr. Sullivan, who was called “the Michael Jordan of Hiring” by Fast Company. Please help spread his ideas by sharing this with your team/network and by posting it on your favorite social site.
