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Frustration with organizational decision-making is dubbed the missing piece in executive hiring, according to a study by Kingsley Gate.
"Organizations must move away from the standard, surface level approach to questioning candidates about decision making,” says Umesh Ramakrishnan, CEO, Kingsley Gate. “Digging deeper into significant moments of choice for candidates will uncover whether a potential hire can enhance an organization’s decision making. I have never seen that level of interviewing for a new candidate.”
From Kingsley Gate:
- Despite the essential role that decision-making plays in hiring senior executives, a survey reveals that 25% of senior executives did not explicitly discuss the topic of decision making prior to taking their current senior leadership role. Candidates who did discuss decision-making, however, are 1.4 times more likely to be satisfied, not only with decision-making elements of their role, but with their jobs overall, compared to those who did not. Dissatisfied executives are prone to bear costs on their organizations in a multitude of ways.
- Respondents cited company leadership as the most influential factor in improving their organization's decision making, followed closely by the introduction of new employees into the mix. These people-centric factors were ranked higher than technology, processes, data-analysis tools and even senior executives’ personal, self-reported impact.
- Senior executives who did not discuss decision-making before taking their current roles are 30% less satisfied with their current roles overall and 54% less satisfied with decision-making effectiveness at their companies.
- In addition to resigning due to dissatisfaction with how decisions were made at the company, a similarly high number of executives cited resigning or considering resigning due to not feeling empowered to make good decisions.
- Senior executives who are satisfied with decision-making effectiveness in their organization are 3.6 times more likely to report overall job satisfaction, compared to those who are not satisfied with their organization’s decision making. This statistic is relatively on par with how other elements feed into employee satisfaction, such as compensation and benefits, workplace culture, and career growth.
- Only 36% of senior executives assert that their personal decision-making style aligns with the style of their organization.
