While it’s clear that some of the Blues Point team are more devastated than others about the news of One Direction’s (hopefully temporary) split, we wondered what recruiters and hiring managers could learn from it. 1D, of course, were put together by Simon Cowell during a reality TV programme – hardly a recipe for long-term success in the music industry, you might think. But Cowell knows his stuff and in the last five years the lads have achieved global success and multi-millionaire status.
So what’s gone wrong? Well, first there was the departure of Zayn Malik, who insisted he wanted to be a normal 22 year old for a while, but instead has signed a solo recording contract. And now the other four have decided they too would like to pursue solo projects. Ironically, if all of them were actually pulling in one direction, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
That’s often an issue for hiring managers – how do you build a team for the long term that functions well, and in which every individual feels fulfilled, motivated and happy in their jobs, and consequently doesn’t end up doing a Zayn? High turnover of staff can have a serious impact on your business – there’s nothing worse than investing time and training in employees that don’t stick around.
At Blues Point, we have various tools at our disposal that can help hiring managers to ensure that the team functions well, and the individuals in it feel motivated. Using Thomas International PPA (Personality Profiling Assessment) and Motivational Maps, we can learn much more about prospective new team members than we could ever learn from just an interview. Using the PPA you can establish whether applicants have the right behaviours for the role. Motivational Maps provides insight into what personal motivators are most important to your existing team members, and how motivated they are in the job that they are doing. It will also highlight areas in which there could be conflict, as two team members whose motivations are at odds with one another may clash. PPA and Motivational Maps allows you to work with your team to get the best results – sometimes a very small change in the working environment can help an unmotivated employee to become a motivated one, but you can only make that change if you know whether, and why, they are feeling unmotivated.
As for the 1D lads, let’s hope they find what they are looking for, either as solo artists or as a team. If it doesn’t work out for any reason, we’ve got a spot open at Blues Point for a recruitment resourcer and personally I think Harry Styles would make an excellent colleague…
To talk to one of our consultants about using Thomas International PPA and Motivational Maps in your recruitment process, call us on 01283 530923.
