"At EIT InnoEnergy, we are looking for people who fit our corporate culture and who can help our organisation grow. It takes good people to make a difference. The first step is self-insight. For example, we do not want our employees to simply follow all kinds of training courses. It starts with: how well do you know yourself? Where are your skills? That should always be the starting point. With Assessio's assessments we are able to discover all this," says Marco Verburgh, Talent Acquisition & Development Manager at EIT InnoEnergy.
At EIT InnoEnergy, we receive many open applications and we regularly receive recommendations for those who should be joining us. We are an important player in the field of green energy, which makes us an interesting employer for many people. But we are not only looking for candidates who meet the substantive requirements. They must also fit in with our organisation. At EIT InnoEnergy, we have grown very quickly and we have gone through many changes in recent years. You have to be able to handle that, so that is one of the things we pay attention to before we hire someone.
It is then important that these employees can develop and we naturally want to make sure they stick around. For that, good onboarding is key. This has been a problem in the past. We had a fair share of bad hires, and during the exit interviews it became perfectly clear our onboarding was not good. We were so busy scaling up that we failed at this level. In addition, our organisation is quite fragmented, which does not make it easier for new employees. But you don't want employees to leave after a year because they still don't understand the organisation properly or because they haven't seen line manager quite often. The job market is still tight, especially in the green energy sector, so employees can easily switch if they want. If you then have to hire, onboard and train new people, this costs a lot of money and that is a shame. Good onboarding is therefore essential. The line manager is key in this, but as an HR department we do need to facilitate this.
Marco Verburgh, Talent Acquisition & Development Manager – EIT InnoEnergy
We use Assessio's assessments for the entire employee life cycle. For recruitment, this means that during the application procedure, when there are around 7 to 8 candidates left, we administer a personality and intelligence test. We really see the results of these assessments as a supplement to the resume and the introductory interview. We schedule a feedback session with every candidate who has completed the assessments to discuss the results, even with the candidates we reject.
When we hire new employees, we use the results of the assessments as a starting point for their development. This starts during onboarding where we discuss the assessments; we see this, what about you, do you agree? And how can we change things for the better? We have online programmes for this, as well as one-on-one coaching and team projects. For example, we have noticed that people who are very good at communication and building relationships are often successful in our organisation. If the assessment shows that the new employee is less good in terms of building relationships, we will include this in his or her development process.
At EIT InnoEnergy, we also like to use self-awareness insights. They allow you to map the personal traits of employees to identify which behaviours are natural and which require more effort. Every employee in our organisation has access to this tool. We also point out self-awareness insights to new employees so that they can use this tool, in consultation with their line manager, to determine their objectives, which are the starting point for their further development.
In addition, every training programme starts with creating self-awareness insights. When employees let us know they want to follow a training course, we first ask whether they have already completed this assessment. From there we look at what someone needs. Training or education must of course also fit within an employee's career path and it must be interesting for us as an organisation. We also use self-awareness insights within our talent programme, using the so-called 9-grid model.
We have also made the leadership feedback tool available to all our employees, not just managers. With this tool, employees can receive feedback from others about their performance. We want this to become a permanent part of the performance cycle and the conversations that employees have with their manager about their performance. It is important that it does not become an HR party. As HR we can facilitate this, but employees must take the initiative themselves. It really has to come to life in the organisation.
The line manager has an important exemplary role in all of this. Self-awareness is a very important aspect here. That is why we also use the self-awareness insights tool in our leadership programme. We must recognise that we are all different, everyone is authentic. A diverse and inclusive team is often stronger than a team with all the same people. You can influence this in recruitment and selection and we try to do that. For example, by hiring more women in certain teams.
But of course this is beyond the male-female relationship. As a team, it is important to look at the personality of each individual, so that you can utilise everyone's talents. That is why we are also working on high-performance team journeys within EIT InnoEnergy. We also use Assessio's self-awareness insights tool as a starting point.
The most important result that Assessio's assessments have yielded for us is that we bring in people who fit our corporate culture and who can help EIT InnoEnergy grow. This in term has ultimate goal: a better climate. With good people we can continue to grow and make a difference. This applies to the entire employee live cycle, from recruitment and onboarding to learning and development and performance management.
Assessio's assessments are an important tool in this regard. Assessio's assessments are so user-friendly, which is convenient. You send a candidate or employee a link of the test and that's basically it. In addition, I think it is an advantage that Assessio, like EIT InnoEnergy, is a growing organisation. This allows them to exchange ideas, which benefits the service.
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