The challenge

Executive search companies have the difficult task of finding the right candidates for a given role and then choosing between those qualified candidates to find the right match.

The difficulty lies in distinguishing between equally good, on paper, candidates and making the right hiring decision. In addition to the functional knowledge and competencies, the chosen candidate has to fit into the existing team and their values align with those of the company. Not to mention the plethora of biases and gut feelings associated with any hiring project.

Timo Jäntti, Chairman of the Board, Taplow Finland, likens the process to looking for needles in a haystack. The difference is that earlier, with a bigger magnet, you could easily find the needle, but today when everyone has learned to look equally strong in LinkedIn and other professional platforms, they are looking for more robust hay from the same haystack. For Taplow, that solution is Wisnio.

The solution

With Wisnio, Taplow found a solution that helps choose between candidates and predicts how well a candidate will fit into the team they are going to be part of.

Wisnio’s suite of decision tools analyse teams and help with minimising bias to make better-informed hiring decisions through data and talent analytics.

• Team analysis tools - Based on behavioural science theories on values, personality, and competencies, team members complete a series of online surveys and review their Team Profile to learn more about their colleagues' traits, motivators, and core competencies.

• Structured hiring tools - The Hiring Dashboard brings transparency to even the most complex hiring process by giving a clear overview of shortlists, Candidate Profiles, and candidate evaluations based on the job-specific requirements with a range of hiring decision tools.

• Personal Profiles - Users complete the personality, values, and competency surveys to finish their Personal Profile, where they'll find detailed insights into their behavioural strengths, key motivators, and top competencies. 

The result

Taplow uses the Wisnio platform at every step of the hiring process. As the first step, the management team goes through the three-step Wisnio online assessment (~25 minutes). 

These tests are used to better understand and assess the team in terms of personality, values, and competencies, and to find out what the team is great at and in what directions they need to evolve.

This results in a Team Profile that combines the team’s competencies, values, and personality maps:

Example team values map

Top candidates follow a similar process with their results compared in real time against the team to uncover how they fit into it:

While skilled direct search consultants can make civilised guesses when meeting people, Wisnio augments their skills by bringing science and data into high-stakes decision making. “Wisnio is a decision support tool that brings unbiased data and highlights areas of potential concern”, adds Jäntti.

In addition to direct search, Taplow uses Wisnio to analyse teams in the M&A process. The management teams of both the acquiring company and the acquiree are analysed to evaluate and understand the composition of both existing teams and develop the best possible management team for the merged companies.

The use case for Taplow’s venture capital clients is similar. They use the analysis to better understand the management and boards of target companies to augment their decision making.

With Wisnio decision tools, Taplow Finland has all the tools necessary to tackle any hiring and team development-oriented tasks. Be it direct search, leadership team development, client M&A processes or VC funds looking to better understand the management of companies.