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Resource

DevelopmentGroup, Inc.

Creating Effective Organizations Through People

HIRE RIGHT - COMPETENCY MODEL-BASEDCANDIDATE SELECTION AT AURORA WATER
By Richard L. Gerstberger
TAP Resource Development Group, Inc.
Denver, CO

As Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, one of the most impressive corporate value creators in recent history,
put it in 1998, “Setting the bar high in our approach
to hiring has been, and will continue to be, the single
most important element of [our] success.”

T he 2018 Global Leadership Forecast asked 1,000
C-level executives worldwide to choose from 28
issues to identify the ones they expect to command
their attention for the upcoming year. And though
serious issues like ‘outdated/insufficient infrastructure’ and ‘cyber-security’ may be in consideration,
the top two are: ‘developing “Next Gen” leaders’ at
64% and ‘failure to attract/retain top talent’ at 60%.
This research clearly indicates the urgency andimportance of choosing top talent and effective
leaders to position their organization for successand sustainability.

Good hires are the capital of every organization.
Hiring mistakes not only seriously affect operational
processes and the productiveness of employees, butalso cause significant loss of trust in management
and the bottom line. According to The Work Institute’s 2018 Retention Report, it costs employers
33% of a worker’s annual salary to hire a replacement if that worker leaves. Replacing supervisory,
technical, and management personnel can cost from
50% to several hundred percent of the person’ssalary according to Society for Human Resource
Management in 2017.
Organizations increasingly lost new employees
in 2017, as 40% of all turnover last year is attributed to employees who quit their jobs in theirfirst year of employment, up from 34% in 2016.
Moreover, first-year turnover is at the highest
point in the past eight years. The rise in firstyear turnover is a sign of the job market, as employees can easily go elsewhere if a job doesn’tmeet their needs and expectations.
- Retention Report, Work Institute, 2018.

With the unemployment levels at a 50 year low, it’sa job seekers market, so attracting and selecting theright candidate is more important than ever. TAPResource Development Group has long championed
an integrated approach to workforce hiring anddevelopment, and it all begins with competencymodeling. As we’ll illustrate below, Aurora Water
has incorporated competency modeling as part oftheir strategic planning process to stay ahead of thecurve and prevent time-consuming and costly mishires.

It seems to reason that an organization cannot effectively tackle any other challenge without getting theright people in the right roles all driven towards aninspired vision and plan to get there. Each andevery hire becomes a crucial piece of the tapestry
woven into a company’s capabilities, performance,and brand. And an integrated talent management
strategy aligns with the organizational goals andcreates a more engaged, skilled, and productive
workforce, all traits that lead to measurable impact.
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COMPETENCY MODELS

1. Aurora Water’s leadership team completes an instrument that asks what leadership and management
behaviors are most important for success in the specific position based on the job description and alignment with organizational strategy.

A well-thought out identification, or modeling of
the behaviors or competencies required for a given
position is very helpful to an organization. Modeling leadership and management competencies inparticular, helps the organization identify and understand the specific behaviors required for particular positions or types of positions such as Supervisor, Superintendent, Division Manager, etc. As Aurora Water found, it aligns with their strategic planand serves to set the stage for expectations. This has
proved beneficial to the hiring team and the applicants as they move through the selection and hiring
process.
It's critical, at these high level positions, that we
get someone that's going to have some longevityand leadership intelligence.
-Dan Mikesell
Director of Operations, Aurora Water

Dan notes, “It’s basically an extension of the leadership effectiveness analysis, which we were alreadyusing in developing our leaders, but now we can use
it for the major hiring decisions within the utility…
to be able to get a good understanding of a candidate's tendencies, where they spend their energy andwhere they spend their time in the multiple leadership traits. And it allows us to evaluate where thosecompetencies are based upon where the utility feels
those competencies should be.”2. A workshop is conducted for the leadership team
to discuss the results from the instrument, the position’s job description, and any other data that may
be available related to the position. Based on the discussion, a Leadership Competency Model is prepared that is specifically related to the position beingfilled. Figure 1 presents a sample competency model
for a hypothetical upper management position. The
competencies are ranked by primary (P) and secondary (S) importance. (Figure 1 below)

COMPETENCY MODEL-BASED
SELECTION PROCESS
Aurora Water is the 59th largest utility in USA with450 employees, 320 of which are in operations. Aurora Water is a cost of service utility consisting of
two enterprise funds: water and wastewater and themission to enhance and protect the quality of life
for Aurora citizens by providing safe, dependable
and sustainable water, sewer and stormwater services, today and in the future. They see their workforce development as an integral part of their sustainability pledge and have been working with TAP
Resource to implement leadership development using the Leadership Effectiveness Analysis (LEA)
processes for over ten years.

About 6 years ago, when looking at hiring a crucial
engineering leadership role, they decided to reachout to TAP Resource to begin implementation ofthe competency based hiring process. Dan says hethinks of it as a useful tool in the toolbox, “In today's world, leadership of the utility is critical.
There are a lot of critical decisions that are made ona daily basis and helping to understand how to hireand hire right is important. It's a good tool to use forthat.” The process consists of the following steps.
2This process is guided by TAP Resource and can bequite illuminating, as General Manager Marshall
Brown noted, “the process of going through an understanding of what our people in leadership position’s expectations are for a specific position thecandidates are applying for has also provided a lotof value. Making sure that we fully understand all
the expectations going in, and are able to then design the process to capture that understanding sothat it’s clear to the candidates. It helps avoid surprises.”

TAP Resource also provides expertise and perspective to help mitigate biases, ensure the right issues
are addressed, and the process moves along expeditiously. (Figure 2 below)

3. Then Aurora Water narrows the list of applicantsfor the position down to a short list of between threeand six applicants.
4. Each applicant on the short list is asked to complete the Leadership Effectiveness Analysis (LEA)
Self instrument in order to ascertain the energy andattention each short-list applicant applies toward the22 leadership and management behaviors that makeup the Competency Model.
5. Then, the LEA Self instrument results are reviewed by Aurora Water and TAP Resource, compared to the Leadership Competency Model, andspecific discussion areas identified for each shortlist
candidate. The results of this process provide aguide that enables the hiring team to customize eachinterview to provide information that will assist
them in determining the candidate’s fit with the position’s job description and with the Aurora Water’smission, vision and culture. (See Figure 2)

6. Final interviews are completed with the candidates using the individualized analysis developed instep 5 above, and a selection made based on a candidate’s ability to accomplish the requirements of theposition and on the candidate’s fit with the organization.
Marshall notes, “It puts a structure around the process that you go through for all your interviews. It
helps streamline and expedite it so that it's a little
more efficient. It also makes sure you’re having theright conversations with the candidate to see if
they're going to be a good fit for the organizationfrom their perspective and from the organization'sperspective.”

Dan, Marshall and the team analyze the answers
from the LEA Self instrument and have a facilitateddiscussion to come up with questions to help fill incontext. Dan states that while, “our intent is always
to develop our own (internal candidates) if possible,” the tool is especially useful with external candidates. “Oftentimes we can't assess a candidate in ahour, hour and a half interview, in and of itself. Because you're not able to explore those multiple leadership traits that are the most important for the job
in such a short period of time.” And for internal
candidates, it gives them an opportunity to discuss
the creation of a development plan even if they are
not selected.

The Competency Model-based selection process enables the hiring team at Aurora Water to more clearly select an applicant for a given position through aprocess that is aligned with the Job Description andthe needs of their organization for that position. This
process allows them to customize the hiring process3so that candidate selection is based more on thecandidate’s ability to apply the behaviors neededfor him or her to excel in the position, and assist inaccomplishing the organization’s mission and goals.
Marshall has experience with other tools but notesthat likes their current process best.
One the advantages of Tap Resource is thefamiliarity that Richard has with the utility
world and being able to translate this tool tothe water utility. There's a lot of value there
and we appreciate that value.
-Marshall Brown
General Manager, Aurora Water
This process is a crucial piece in Aurora Water’s
comprehensive workforce development and leadership succession planning. It clarifies the components of effective leadership for the various management positions within their organization. The
Competency Model approach provides valuable information for people at different levels of Aurora
Water to understand the behaviors they might needto focus on in order to prepare themselves for higher-level positions.

Call us at (303) 561-3788
email us at info@tapresource.com orvisit us online at www.TAPResource.com
to make your organization more effective.

Marshall explains that when they use this tool, “thepeople we've selected for the positions have beenhappier and they've been a better fit for the organization. We find a lot of success in matching candidates with the expectations of the work. Both thecandidate and the organization have been happier inthe long term.”
Competency assessments are a valuable tool during
and after the hiring process. During pre-hire, organizations most often use them to improve quality ofhire and 76% of those that use them saw an increasein that metric when implementing a standard process, according to Brandon Hall Group’s 2018 Assessment Practices Study.
Leadership development – created in alignment
with business needs and focused on the correctcompetencies, skills, capabilities and attributes –can and does work. Organizations cannot afford towaste these opportunities with high potential candidates. There is too much at stake.
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