According to a new study by Leadership IQ, a global leadership training and research company, 46% of newly hired employees will fail within 18 months. The reason: poor interpersonal skills.
The study found that 26% of new hires fail because they can't accept feedback, 23% because they're unable to understand and manage emotions, 17% because they lack the necessary motivation to excel, 15% because they have the wrong temperament for the job, and only 11% because they lack the necessary technical skills.
"The typical interview process fixates on ensuring that new hires are technically competent," explains Mark Murphy, CEO of Leadership IQ. "But coachability, emotional intelligence, motivation and temperament are much more predictive of a new hires' success or failure. Do technical skills really matter if the employee isn't open to improving, alienates their coworkers, lacks drive and has the wrong personality for the job?"
Murphy adds that hiring failures can be prevented if managers focus more on candidates' coachability, emotional intelligence, motivation and temperament. "Technical competence remains the most popular subject of interviews because it's easy to assess. But while technical competence is easy to assess, it's a lousy predictor of whether a newly hired employee will succeed or fail."
The three-year study compiled results after studying 5,247 hiring managers from 312 public, private, business and health-care organizations. Collectively these managers hired more than 20,000 employees during the study period.
