ZRG Partners Launches Culture Fit Algorithm Tool
March 3, 2020 – ZRG Partners has unveiled a first-of-its-kind algorithm to predict culture fit for an executive hire. The feature will be released as an enhanced part of the firm’s digital hiring suite, the Zi Platform.
An unsuitable culture fit is one the main reasons new hires often fail. ZRG’s new Culture Fit Score is designed to help quantify and assess if a candidate and a company culture are a match. It considers three critical areas and eight specific measures in its proprietary algorithm that can assign a numeric value to a candidate’s experiences and personal assessment with those of the hiring company, said ZRG. Candidates are ranked against each other based on the numeric value calculated by the Culture Fit algorithm.
The Culture Fit Score provides meaningful insight into a candidate fit for a specific client’s culture, as well as indicate how quickly they can be impactful in a new role, said ZRG. The new tool will be included with executive search mandates at no additional cost to clients.
“Culture fit is the holy grail in hiring, yet you cannot consistently determine culture fit without a proper measurement,” said Larry Hartmann, CEO of ZRG. “We are excited to be a market-mover, setting the pace with new technologies and approaches that leverage our 20 years of data and learning. This helps ensure our clients make the best hiring decisions possible.”
Client Feedback
According to ZRG, direct experience matters. The company rates leadership candidates based on their knowledge and experience in working with firms that are similar in type (global corporate, PE-backed, or family-owned), size and stage (start-up, growth phase, or turnaround/recovery mode).
ZRG’s Culture Fit Score takes these factors into account while also including valuable third-party assessment data and highly insightful, curated client interviewing feedback, a critical element in getting a senior hire right.
“Considering a candidate’s history, assessment results, and interview feedback through our platform creates clarity to ensure great hiring,” Mr. Hartmann said. “When we can help our clients assess culture fit and make better informed decisions, we provide a huge competitive advantage in the fight for the right talent. Our ability to reduce the risk of a hiring mistake and facilitate consistent hiring decisions will change how forward-thinking companies address senior-level hiring.”
“Fit is everything,” said Wendy Murphy, global head of ZRG’s chief human resource officers practice. “Finding quality talent that uniquely fits the culture of our clients has traditionally been the art form of executive search. With the new Culture Fit Score, we can combine the great work we do in personally assessing a fit with a measured and quantified approach to culture. This is truly a game-changer in getting to hire right across an organization, and it will be scalable across the leadership spectrum for our clients.”
Better Results
ZRG Partners launched the Z intelligence (Zi) platform last fall. “The way companies work with executive recruiting firms to hire leaders has not fundamentally changed in decades,” said Mr. Hartmann at the time. “Meanwhile, every other part of the business world has embraced data, analytics and technology enhancement. Our new digital Zi talent hiring platform combines talent intelligence, candidate insights and process improvement to dramatically deliver executive searches quicker and with proven better results.”
ZRG described its Zi platform as a refined and upgraded digital version of the company’s Z score process that has been a key differentiator in the market for nearly two decades. Although the methodology is the same, the firm spent the last year developing this proprietary software that has proven to reduce the cycle time for recruitment by 30 percent with an increase in overall effectiveness.
The firm has specialties in global executive recruiting, innovative outsourcing and fact-based hiring. It has particular expertise in the following industries: aerospace, board services, consumer, cybersecurity and digital intelligence, education, financial services, healthcare, industrial, life sciences, nonprofit, private equity, technology, real estate and insurance.
“ZRG has been at the front of providing clients with data and analytics to drive better hiring,” said Mark Cummings, head of marketing for ZRG. “The next generation of digital executive search combines real time collaboration with our clients to not only enhance the speed and the results of the hiring process.”
“Executive search has traditionally been a slow process, yet our clients are cutting four to six weeks off the traditional executive search timeline by using our digital platform to change how hiring is done,” he said.
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media