Today, high-touch leadership practices are a game-changer. As the pendulum has swung in favour of digital efficiency, the need for intimacy and connection has increased.
In the 1980’s, John Naisbitt* predicted that our workplaces would evolve to become more ‘high-tech’, while losing our ability to be ‘high-touch’. He was spot on. People are longing to be understood, heard and cared for as a whole-beings. Failing to shift to high-touch leadership practices could have concerning implications such as lower levels of happiness and productivity (partly due to low employee engagement), decrease in team collaboration, and the loss of critical talent.
More often than not, assessments are completed for recruitment and selection. Ideally, candidate assessment results should be discussed with them prior to these results being provided to the hiring manager. Never before have we experienced candidates engaging so authentically in our one-on-one assessment feedbacks: a safe space in which honest feedback is provided in a constructive and developmental manner, while allowing time and space for conversation and sharing.
Such high-touch engagements not only enable our consultants to bring depth of context to our business feedback sessions (while respecting confidentiality), but also allow for a 2-way selection process in which the candidate can reflect on questions such as: “is this job and organisation the right fit for me?”
Providing feedback to the business leader/decision maker(s) allows for carefully considered decision making in which there is an awareness of the individual’s strengths and gaps, as well as insight into how to lead and engage them to enable high performance. With hybrid working models becoming increasingly common, some may find that this fast-tracks insights that may otherwise take valuable time to unlock.
Even if not suited to the role in question, the conversation may bring awareness to other, more suitable opportunities within the organisation. Questions elicited may also form the basis of the final interview. For candidates who are appointed, this high-touch feedback forms a basis for ‘tailored’ onboarding and developmental discussions that feed the need for talent intimacy.
Going the extra mile and providing one-on-one feedback to both the candidate and business is a powerful way for an organisation to showcase a culture of growth, generosity, and care – the sticky factor that attracts talent to, and retains them within an organisation.
*Megatrends – https://lnkd.in/dMFvTf7V
To learn more about our approach to assessments – Assessment Services