A primer on decision trees and their efficacy in recruiting talent
An average adult makes a whopping 35,000 decisions a day! Now don’t be alarmed by this seemingly improbable number. Most of these decisions are simple ones such as “What should I eat for breakfast today?” Or “Should I carry an umbrella?” A bad decision, in this case, might earn you indigestion or get you soaked but it will not have any long-term impact.
Some decisions can be costly, take for example when ABC rejected The Cosby Show only for the show to be picked up by NBC, who then went on to become the number #1 network in the country!
Decision Trees on Paper Napkins
Decisions you make at work – ranging from those about products or services to those about talent acquisition – tend to have a long-term impact. Corporate decisions require involvement of several people and departments and most organizations are now either remote or tend to work in silos. This is when a decision tree can play a key role. A decision tree allows you to define the various possible answers to your question. It allows you to weigh each possibility against the required outcome, along with the pros and cons. You can build your own decision tree with any tool that enables you to build charts and graphs. In fact, you can even build your decision tree on a whiteboard or a napkin.
These methods will require manual input especially if the possible answers are many and the right choice is dependent on many factors. In such cases, a manually-drawn decision tree becomes difficult to manage. It’s also more difficult if you have different stakeholders working asynchronously on the same problem.
Take a hiring decision for example – if you are a hiring manager trying to hire a crucial position such as VP of Sales, you will need to work with various teams and get their feedback before choosing the right candidate. Sometimes getting everyone on the same page to make a final choice can be the most difficult step.
A decision tree on a whiteboard or even on an excel sheet can help initially but then collaborating with the entire hiring team becomes the next hurdle. Hiring managers have to spend hours in different meetings to provide HR feedback. HR, who up to this point have no visibility on the Hiring Manager’s discussions then have to analyze the feedback to hire the right candidate. Once a decision is made, there is no visibility to identify if the hiring decision meets compliance standards. There is also no paper trail for retrospection or for future audits.
Sift the Truth Out!
So to summarize the problem – a reliable solution for unbiased decision-making is long overdue. Organizations often make ad-hoc decisions to be fast and efficient but this approach is actually flawed and inefficient, costing companies millions of dollars. The process of decision-making can be time-consuming, requiring several meetings, email exchanges, verbal feedback or evaluations scattered over various platforms and messaging systems.
The solution we offer is *TruthSift*, a cloud-based platform that uses a weighted graph algorithm to support objective, collaborative decision making. Developed by a Harvard Physicist, TruthSift’s patented algorithm engages users by building a decision tree. All pros and cons can be identified and discussed. Each input by a user has to be rated and TruthSift’s distinctive rating system ensures every rating is factored into the final decision making.
In addition, its open API allows TruthSift to be integrated with most existing systems, so you don’t have to replicate any effort.
TruthSift empowers you to make logical unbiased decisions based on facts. It gives you a centralized repository of all the decisions you make and a snapshot view of why you made that decision. The decision trees are truly impactful.
Clarity and Consensus — That’s what TruthSift brings to your recruitment decision making.
Contact us for a Demo.
