Bad hiring costs UK businesses billions in lost productivity

Profiles of London Launches Most Advanced Human Capital Assessment Tools in the UK Market Profiles of London, the UK arm of Profiles International, has today launched
a suite of online assessment products designed to help solve the people problems that rob profitability and reduce efficiency and effectiveness in UK business.

According to fresh data gathered by the online HR assessment company, Profiles of London, two thirds of UK businesses now claim to use some form of assessment tool during the hiring process. However, current assessment
techniques are failing to deliver - with two out of three new employees likely to disappoint in the first year.

Furthermore, in the National Employee Survey from BMRB, two thirds of employees admitted that they would prefer to work somewhere else, with one in five (21%) actively planning to
leave their job in the next year.

Fred Hudson, CEO of Profiles of London, commented:
Making the right hiring decision can be a tough call, but relying on interview techniques and company checks alone have proven to only produce one good hire in four. Businesses may as well flip a coin - they''d have a
better chance of getting the right person for the job. Most hiring decisions are made in the first five minutes and as a result it''s all too common for an interviewer to be immediately impressed, then instantly depressed once
the candidate starts the job - research shows that 95% of job seekers are likely to lie on their CV.

He continued: Based on lessons learnt in the USA, addressing the hiring, retention and motivation of staff is central to improving a companies overall productivity. From our perspective, with the proper use of HR assessment
products, there is no reason why Britain should not be topping the European productivity league tables as opposed to lagging behind France and Germany and matching the US where productivity is 40 percent higher.

The arguments for using assessment techniques that measure more than just personality traits are compelling. According to statistics from Profiles, where face-to-face interviews alone are used to assess an individual, only 14 percent of selected candidates then go on to perform well in the job.
When personality traits are assessed, this rises to 38%. Add an abilities test to the mix and the probability of hiring the right person increases to 54%. Include a measure of a candidate''s overall occupational interests, and
the probability of striking it right improves to 66%. But when an integrated assessment is used, one that measures behavioural traits, thinking, occupational interests plus Job Match - cutting edge technology combined with empirical data that compares the candidate''s profile to those
of high performers in the same role - then the potential of hiring the right person rises to 75%.

Fred Hudson added: When you start to add up the costs to British industry that can directly result from a poor selection process - absenteeism, the cost of replacing or
retraining individuals, potential litigation - the question left to ask is how can businesses not afford to use the most comprehensive assessment programmes around to ensure a better fit of person each time?

Developed by a team of leading professionals and industry specific psychologists, Profiles'' online HR assessment products - which have now been used by over 100,000 individuals in 20,000 companies - have been designed to
provide a complete assessment of the individual. Profiles'' online HR assessment products are proven to significantly increase the productivity of business by reducing employee relations problems, employee turnover, stress, tensions, conflict and overall human resource expenses.