Targeted Selection Training

Targeted Selection® Targeted Selection is the most proven and accurate behavior-based selection system in the world. Thousands of leading companies from every type of industry have used it to hire and promote millions of people. DDI introduced the system in 1974 and has been improving it ever since.

Today’s Targeted Selection offers the latest in selection technology coupled with flexible and effective interviewer training to help your organization:

• Clearly identify the competencies needed for all key positions.
• Build the interviewing skills and confidence that lead to more accurate selection decisions.
• Increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your selection process.

System Overview How Targeted Selection Works Targeted Selection works by honing in on the three processes crucial to successful hiring and promotion: 

1. Identifying the right selection criteria through job analysis,
2. Gathering pertinent candidate information
3. Evaluating the information gathered and making an accurate decision.

1)  Identifying the Right Criteria

Successful selection decisions are based on using the right selection criteria. The first step of Targeted Selection is to identify those criteria, what DDI calls dimensions and what some organizations call competencies, through job analysis. Job analysis is the basis for Targeted Selection’s effectiveness, accuracy, and legal credibility. Job analysis involves determining what activities make up a job and what skills and abilities are required to per-form those activities. Job analyses can be accomplished in a number of ways, using your resources or DDI’s as you desire.

2) Gathering Candidate Information

The second part of a successful hiring decision depends on effectively gathering complete behavioral information for each candidate. Targeted Selection accomplishes this task through interviews using custom interview guides, simulations, and assessments of motivational fit. Interviews are the primary source of candidate information, so your selection system is only as good as your interviewers and the techniques they use.

Targeted Selection training teaches your interviewers the importance of gathering complete behavioral data. They develop a variety of key interviewing skills by watching positive models, completing exercises, practicing data-gathering and evaluation, and receiving feedback from trained instructors or coaches. Once trained, interviewers are able to gather complete and relevant examples of the skills, knowledge, and motivations that candidates have demonstrated in past or current situations.

Interview guides are easy-to-use tools customized to your selection needs. Each Targeted Selection interview guide is based on the dimensions identified through job analysis. A variety of interview questions are available for each dimension, and interviewers select the most appropriate (or create their own). Targeted Selection is most effective when multiple interviewers are used, and interview guides make it possible for interviewers to cover all the critical selection criteria easily while avoiding redundant overlaps.

Simulations, an optional Targeted Selection component, are brief, easy-to-evaluate exercises that give interviewers the chance to observe candidates performing in situations typical of those they would encounter on the job. Simulations are especially beneficial for people who are changing careers or just entering the workforce because they allow them to demonstrate relevant abilities, even if they haven’t had direct experience in the target position.

Motivational profile assessment is an important component of Targeted Selection that helps you determine not only if candidates can do the job, but whether they’ll want to. If a candidate has a good motivational profile, he or she will gain satisfaction and enjoyment from the tasks, challenges, or people associated with a position, emphasizing the characteristics of the work itself rather than extrinsic motivators such as pay and benefits. Hiring people who like their work and the work environ-ment have obvious benefits, including reduced absenteeism and turnover, and higher morale and productivity.

Targeted Selection includes DDI’s Motivational Fit System software—a unique set of automated, research-based tools to help your organization identify potential areas of satisfaction and dissatisfaction quickly and easily.

3) Evaluating Candidate Information

The final part of the Targeted Selection process involves thorough analysis and integration of all candidate data gathered by all interviewers. Before sharing information about a candidate, interviewers individually rate each targeted dimension. Then all interviewers meet to exchange and integrate behavioral data using a systematic process. This organized effort enables everyone involved to efficiently share behavioral data and make an informed selection decision.

What Targeted Selection Includes

• Professional, easy-to-follow manuals are used extensively during training and make excellent references back on the job.
• Award-winning videos include engaging exercises and realistic examples of right and wrong interviewing practices. Multiple versions of data-gathering and data-evaluation videos are available, including those for team members, team leaders, salespeople, customer service representatives, and other professionals. Benefits of Targeted Selection Cost Savings The cost of poor selection decisions quickly adds up. Consider the upfront expense that goes into filling an open position, including advertising and recruitment costs, time spent arranging and conducting interviews, and candidate travel and lodging. Now think about all the negative long-term cost implications of hiring the wrong person:
• Dollars wasted in training and development. 
• Decreased productivity and increased errors while a poor performer is on the job.
• Lost opportunities—sales that aren’t closed, processes that don’t improve, objectives that aren’t met.
• Poor morale as others struggle to pick up the slack. 
• Dissatisfied customers who may not give you a second chance. Targeted Selection helps you avoid these costs by teaching you how to consistently hire and promote top performers. When you do, turnover drops, individual and group performance improves, and your organization builds a strong and agile workforce that can solve problems, change with the times, and meet organization wide goals. Accuracy Because Targeted Selection focuses on gathering meaningful, job-relevant information from candidates, interviewers are able to select people whose skills and motivations accurately match job requirements. Every interview is designed around the target job, and interview guides help you zero in on the most important information about a candidate. Decisions are made based on candidates’ actual past performance and demonstrated skills and abilities, rather than on personal “gut reactions” or candidate speculations about how they plan to perform on the job. Flexibility With Targeted Selection, you can tailor your selection process to meet specific organizational needs. Use it to hire or promote. Tailor it for a single unique job or for broad job categories—the choice is yours. You determine interview parameters such as how many interviewers to use, how long interviews will last, and what they will include. Additional selection tools, such as tests and simulations, can be easily integrated. Efficiency Targeted Selection saves time and effort every step of the way.

Interviewers know how to:

• Focus on the most critical job dimensions.
• Get the most out of time spent with a candidate.
• Spend only minimal time preparing for an interview. 
• Eliminate unnecessary overlap with other interviewers.
• Take comprehensive notes quickly and easily. 
• Efficiently evaluate and integrate candidate data with other interviewers.

Legal Credibility Targeted Selection helps your organization meet legal guidelines for fair employment practices. Interviewers are trained to gather only job-related (legal) information that reflects a candidate’s abilities and motivations. Targeted Selection methodology eliminates inconsistent selection criteria and minimizes the impact of individual biases, assumptions, or preferences. Multiple interviewers, planned questions, behavioral simulations, and Targeted Selection’s unique interviewing techniques help you avoid areas of inquiry that might violate employment regulations.

Targeted Selection also provides specific guidelines for interacting effectively with disabled candidates to explore with them their ability to perform the essential functions of the position.

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Have you ever lost a candidate you really wanted and wondered why? The impressions people gain during the interview process are extremely influential in their employment decisions and how they talk about your organization to others. Targeted Selection helps your interviewers make a positive impression on all candidates—whether or not a job offer is made. Results Research supports Targeted Selection’s effectiveness. A major U.S. producer of baked goods showed that high Targeted Selection interview ratings correlated with top on-the-job performance 93 percent of the time. A sales organization used Targeted Selection to reduce the turnover rate of its sales representatives by 44 percent, while a major hotel chain decreased its turnover by 25 percent.

Thousands of leading companies, including more than 100 of the Fortune 500, use Targeted Selection to hire and promote millions of people. To learn how your organization can put its proven techniques to work, please call your DDI representative.