Why Do So Many Candidates Look Good on Paper But Fail in the Role?
Even the most impressive CV can lead to a costly mis-hire. Discover why good hires often turn out to be a bad fit, and what you can do to stop it happening again.
Why Do So Many Candidates Look Good on Paper But Fail in the Role?
Reading Time: 6 minutes
You review hundreds of CVs. You find someone who ticks all the boxes. Experience? Check. Skills? Check. Personality? Seemed great in the interview. But six months in, you are dealing with underperformance, disengagement, or worse, a resignation. Sound familiar?
If so, you are not alone. Three out of four employers admit they have put the wrong person in the wrong seat. And four out of five employees are disengaged or quietly quitting. In the UK alone, disengagement costs the economy £340 billion every year. That figure is not just staggering, it is unsustainable.
So, if these hires were “good on paper,” why did they turn out to be a bad fit?
The answer lies beneath the surface.
Table of Contents
Why Do So Many Good Hires Turn Out to Be a Bad Fit?
Let us think about horses for a moment.
Red Rum was one of the greatest steeplechase horses in racing history. You would never ask Red Rum to pull a cart of beer barrels. Just as you would never ask a Shire horse to race in the Grand National.
Yet, when it comes to people, businesses do this every day.
They place individuals in roles that clash with their natural behavioural drives. These hires may survive the interview, but once the day-to-day demands kick in, they struggle. Eventually, they burn out, disengage, or walk away.
Why does this happen? Because we are still hiring based on surface-level observations.
We see someone’s experience, qualifications, and how they behave in an interview. But we rarely understand what drives them, what they need to thrive, or whether they truly align with the demands of the role and the culture of the company.
The Iceberg Problem: What You Miss When You Rely on Interviews Alone
Behaviour is like an iceberg. At the top, we see knowledge, skills, and how someone presents themselves. These are observable. But the bulk of what matters lies below the surface—values, motivation, and core behavioural drives.
This is where most hiring processes fall short.
Traditional interviews assess what a candidate has done and how they act. They don’t tell you why they behave that way or whether that behaviour will persist under pressure. The Predictive Index helps bridge this gap by providing insights into someone’s underlying drives and needs.
And here is the catch: needs are not just preferences. They are non-negotiables. When unmet, these needs create strain. Over time, that strain leads to burnout, frustration, and disengagement.
Misalignment Starts with Misunderstanding
According to research by Tasha Eurich, 95 percent of people believe they are self-aware. The truth? Only around 15 percent truly are.
That means most of your workforce, and perhaps even most hiring managers, are working with flawed assumptions about themselves and others. This gap in self-awareness creates blind spots during recruitment and within teams.
Here is a practical example.
Both I and my colleague share a drive to survive. We both need food. But I prefer picking up groceries at Waitrose, especially if I have guests. He swings by a fast-food outlet, because he has two kids and spends his evenings playing taxi to football and tennis practice. Same drive. Same need. Completely different behaviour.
You cannot predict someone’s fit based on how they behave alone. You have to understand what drives them.
Explore the transformative impact of The Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment™ in enhancing hiring accuracy, team dynamics, and leadership effectiveness. Learn how this tool offers deep insights into workplace behaviors, driving smarter decisions and fostering a more productive and harmonious work environment
The Predictive Index: Seeing the Full Picture
The Predictive Index gives hiring managers and business leaders a complete view of the person in front of them. Not just how they appear in an interview, but how they are wired to work.
It captures this using three powerful behavioural profiles:
- Self: This is how someone naturally behaves. It reveals their core drives and needs. This is who they are when pressure hits or when nobody is watching.
- Self-Concept: This shows how someone believes they need to behave to succeed in their current environment. The greater the gap between Self and Self-Concept, the more effort it takes for someone to maintain their current behaviour.
- Synthesis: This is how others perceive the individual. It is the shadow they cast at work.
When the Self and the role are well aligned, people work in flow. When there is a mismatch, they experience strain. That strain might not show in the first few months, but eventually, it does.
The Real Cost of Getting It Wrong
From Guesswork to Confidence: A Better Way to Hire
Final Thoughts
In Partnership With Humanostics
360 Talent Solutions Ltd is an Associate Partner of Humanostics® , a PI Certified Partner authorised to use the science, assessment software, and curriculum of management workshops of The Predictive Index.
In partnership with Humanostics, we provide companies access to the assessment tools provided by The Predictive Index.
Take the 6-minute PI Behavioral Assessment™ today. Once you have completed the 6-minute assessment, I will send you a Full Behavioral Report by Predictive Index.
How Can We Help
From supporting the growth of leading pharma companies over the past 10 years, I have learnt that when it comes to predicting future performance, technology is key:
- Education, years of experience, and references all have low predictive value. Yet, we rely on these for screening early in the recruitment process.
- Cognitive and Behavioural Assessments, have much higher predictive value, and when combined with interviews, provide the most effective method for predicting future performance.
For me, hiring without the use of psychometric assessments is like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing … and no picture on the box. It’s not fun, it takes longer, and when you are almost finished, you realise you have pieces missing.
Take the assessment today and start measuring more to improve your recruitment.
If you are interested in learning more or are ready to incorporate behavioral data into your recruitment process, please contact me today, I will be happy to help.
Let’s get started!
Dave Crumby
Founder at 360 Talent Solutions
Certified Predictive Index Practitioner
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