Hiring the right person is no longer a matter of chance with Predikt-r’s unique platform

Many early childhood education and care (ECEC) service managers have experienced the frustration of putting time, effort and energy into sifting through resumes, trying to find a shortlist of people to interview, only to have someone who would have been perfect slip through their fingers because the process took too long. 

Likewise, many have experienced the disappointment of interviewing someone who looked amazing on paper, said all the right things at the interview, but failed to perform once placed in the role, causing the cycle to start all over again.

Not only does this process take a toll on the wellbeing and energy levels of a leader, it also has a financial cost too.

According to a benchmarking report from HireRight a staggering 85 per cent of people “fake it till they make it” on their resume, adding qualifications they haven’t earned, extending their dates of employment, or highlighting skills they simply don’t have.

Every “bad hire” not only costs a business nearly USD$15,000, but puts team morale,  productivity, safety, work quality and staff engagement on the line – not to mention the reputational damage someone less than ideal can do for a service and their occupancy levels.

While regrettable hiring decisions are common, they can be avoided. Considering the current and predicted workforce shortages in ECEC, getting the right person for the role has never been more important.

Find the right person and influence success 

Having the correct person in a position of leadership is crucial to the success of an ECEC service. When the correct leader is in place, there are positive flow on effects to team performance which drives occupancy growth and ultimately business performance.

Working with a large provider as a means of testing Predikt-r technology, the team’s collective expertise and the providers clear guidance created a collaboration that helped create an easy and efficient solution to optimise recruitment of Centre Managers and ensure that they are getting the right person every time.

Step one of this process was designing and developing a solution tailored to the ECEC sector. Predikt-r developed an online assessment tool to measure skills and traits of most value for Centre Managers, and then had a large sample of Centre Managers complete a customised online questionnaire creating a huge pool of valuable data on important hiring characteristics

Step two was to then use data science to give each manager one overall score plus a rating for each capability measured.  Using the other information collected about each manager, including centre occupancy (number of children enrolled compared with maximum capacity) and staff turnover, Predikt-r cross-referenced the results to pinpoint which capabilities most influenced a centre’s key outcomes.

Predikt-r’s customised assessment measured:

• Numerical understanding
• Leadership mindset
• Influence
• Customer centricity
• Building relationships
• Emotional resilience

Using the findings the Predikt-r team developed unique algorithms that can be used to filter candidates based on a set of proven capability characteristics and in so doing enabled a clearer understanding of the relationship between important operational metrics like occupancy and staff turnover with particular centre manager traits.

Indeed, it was then empirically proven that managers with higher overall scores in areas like numerical understanding and influence had higher occupancy levels and lower turnover.

Finally, there is now a “crystal ball” that allows services who are hiring educators, leaders and other personnel to predict how someone will perform in a role, and give insight as to who is the best possible candidate.

Not only does this save employers time, effort and energy, there are very real financial savings also. The end result of applying Predikt-r’s algorithms? Better childcare Centre Managers, better childcare environments, and concrete business results.

Predikt-r’s technology transforms the recruitment process, saving time and money while unlocking people performance.  It’s a radical step forward for psychometric assessments.

Finding these types of innovative solutions has earned Predikt-r a place at The Sector’s upcoming Innovation Forum. Come and see the team at the ECEC Innovation Forum and take a look at how Predikt-r can help you achieve better hiring outcomes using our state of the art technology and tailored hands on approach.