The real power of Saville Wave assessments goes beyond simply filling roles—they provide deep insight into a candidate’s skills, motivations, and leadership potential for long-term success. This article explores how Saville Wave can help you hire, develop, and lead top talent for current and future leadership roles. Discover how this tool reduces risk, saves time and money, and becomes essential to your strategy for building a thriving organization.

1. How Saville Wave Enhances Hiring, Leadership, and Development Decisions
2. Minimizing Hiring Risks: Data-Driven Insights for Leadership Success
3. Selecting the Ideal Board Member: A Real-World Case Study
4. Developing and Leading Talent for Sustainable Success
5. Real-Life Impact of Saville Wave in Talent and Leadership Development
6. Understanding the Cost of a Saville Wave Assessment: Is It Worth the Investment?

How Saville Wave Enhances Hiring, Leadership and Development Decisions

The Saville Wave assessment empowers organizations in three critical areas: hiring, developing, and leading talent. This comprehensive approach ensures companies select the right people and nurture and guide them to thrive in evolving roles.

Hiring the Right Talent: Avoid Costly Mistakes

A bad hire can cost your company 213% of the executive's salary. Saville Wave ensures you avoid this by providing deep insights into a candidates' skills, motivators, and stress factors, ensuring they fit the role and company culture. The real value is in the feedback session, where a behavioral interview shows how a candidate's profile aligns with your company's current and future needs.

Developing Talent: Unlock Growth Potential

Saville Wave doesn’t just help you hire—it also enables you to grow your team. You can create tailored development plans by identifying strengths and areas for development. This leads to more effective growth, improving retention and performance.

Developing Leadership: Spot Future Leaders

Saville Wave gives you the insight needed to identify future leaders. Whether promoting internally or grooming talent for higher roles, the tool reveals how candidates will tackle leadership challenges, adapt, and drive success as they take on more responsibility.

Identifying the right leaders is just the beginning. How you develop and support that talent determines whether they fill a role or drive your business forward.

In the following sections, we’ll dive into how the Saville Wave assessment works in practice—with real examples of selecting a new board member and developing existing talent.

You’ll see how this tool doesn’t just inform decisions—it shapes leaders who can adapt, lead with clarity, and deliver results. Let’s explore how to make every leadership move a strategic one.

Minimizing Hiring Risks: Data-Driven Insights for Leadership Success

As an HR leader, CEO, or board member, the pressure of selecting the right leader is immense. However, traditional hiring methods often fail to uncover the deeper insights that could guide you toward the best decision. That's where the Saville Wave comes in.

Why Saville Wave Insights Matter

In my experience, it's crucial to look beyond the obvious. Saville Wave offers a data-driven, comprehensive view of a candidate's competencies, cultural fit, and ability to meet future challenges. It's not just about filling a position; it's about finding someone who can grow with your organization and develop it further.

"The assessment is a great step of the process—not the only one and not the decision-making one—but the one that provides an understanding of somebody's competencies profile and how they fit the environment and the future challenges of the role."

The Hidden Risks of Rushed Leadership Hires

Rushing the hiring process can lead to overlooking key insights, like what motivates candidates or how they'll handle stress. Saville Wave helps you spot stress triggers and leadership blind spots so you can hire leaders who can thrive under pressure.

"It's not just about their current capabilities; it's about their potential to thrive and lead in the future."

The Ripple Effects of Poor Leadership Hires

A mis-hire doesn't just affect one role—it ripples across the organization. Missed targets, stalled projects, and frustrated teams can all stem from poor leadership decisions.

Selecting the Ideal Board Member: A Real-World Case Study

Selecting board members isn’t always straightforward, especially when you’re brought in during the assessment phase of an ongoing recruitment process. In one recent search, we assessed three candidates already under consideration. Here’s a breakdown of the key takeaways and how Saville Wave can help ensure the right fit.

Candidate 1: The Autocratic Approach

This candidate stood out for their independent decision-making and focus on results. However, they lacked an awareness of the necessary processes and structures, which is crucial in a diverse but conservative organization. Their autocratic style could alienate teams and undermine critical processes. This was a clear mismatch for the company’s needs, which required someone who could collaborate and foster an agile environment. Saville Wave would have helped identify these leadership style differences early on, preventing a costly mis-hire.

Candidate 2: The Senior Expert with Timing Issue

Highly experienced, this candidate seemed like an ideal fit on paper. But the timing wasn’t right—not regarding skills, but in life stage and personal expectations. While they had the expertise, the company’s current needs and the role’s demands didn’t align with what the candidate was seeking at that point in their career. Saville Wave can help uncover these timing mismatches by assessing a candidate’s motivations and long-term aspirations. Understanding when a candidate is ready for a leadership role can be as important as their qualifications.

Candidate 3: The Expert with a Process-Driven Focus

The third candidate was a seasoned professional with strong analytical and process-driven expertise. However, the company needed someone with a business development focus, particularly in agile, digital environments. Their experience optimizing existing processes didn’t align with the company’s innovative and forward-thinking needs. This mismatch highlighted the need for flexibility and adaptability, traits Saville Wave could have surfaced through its deep dive into competencies and future leadership potential.

The Key Insight: Assessment as a Confirmation Tool

While all candidates had undergone thorough interviews, the Saville Wave assessments revealed deeper insights that weren’t immediately apparent. The assessments served as a confirmation tool, highlighting potential issues like leadership style mismatches, timing conflicts, or competency gaps. They clarified whether a candidate truly fits the organization’s current needs and culture.

Sometimes, the assessments aligned perfectly with the interview feedback, reinforcing the company’s decision. In others, they acted as a reality check, revealing aspects that might have been missed during rushed interviews—such as hidden stress triggers or leadership challenges.

Developing and Leading Talent for Sustainable Success

Regarding leadership development, the process doesn’t stop at hiring. Authentic leadership evolves with the individual, and understanding how to guide that evolution is crucial for both the person and the organization. Promoting someone within the company is a significant decision—it’s not just about recognizing their potential but determining whether they are ready for the challenges ahead.

The proper development strategy ensures that your leaders are capable in their current role and equipped to tackle future responsibilities. This point is where the Saville Wave assessment becomes invaluable. It doesn’t just measure a candidate’s current performance; it provides insight into development needs, helping organizations identify the right growth path, whether that’s through coaching, advanced training, or targeted skill-building.

Key Elements for Developing Talent:

• Assess the Role: Understand the competencies and skills required for the new position.
• Identify Gaps: Use assessments to pinpoint areas where development is needed.
• Tailor the Path: Create a development plan aligning with the leader's strengths and the organization's needs.
• Support the Transition: Provide ongoing coaching and feedback during the leadership shift.
• Monitor Progress: Evaluate the effectiveness of the development plan and adjust as necessary.

Let me walk you through an actual case where this process played out.

Real-Life Impact of Saville Wave in Talent and Leadership Development

The Candidate: Transitioning to a Regional Marketing Role

We assessed a candidate being considered for a promotion from a local marketing position to a regional managerial role. The company needed to determine if she had the potential to succeed at this higher level. Instead of just looking at her skills, we used a Saville Leadership Impact Profile, which helped us assess her strengths and potential gaps in critical areas like:

• Problem-solving
• Delivering results
• Influencing people
• Adapting to leadership and change management

This comprehensive approach helped us understand how she would transition from managing local teams to overseeing a broader regional scope.

The Leadership Impact Profile: Identifying Strengths and Challenges

The leadership impact profile gave us a clear view of where she would thrive and where she might face challenges. Rather than focusing on areas where she was already excelling, we pinpointed:

• Where her existing strengths would align well with her regional role.
• The gaps that could hinder her transition, particularly in areas requiring strategic marketing skills.

It’s important to note that not every leadership skill is essential for every role. The key is ensuring that the critical competencies for success in the new position are present and well-developed.

The Assessment Results: Crafting a Development Plan

The assessment confirmed the company’s belief in her leadership potential. However, it also highlighted a gap in her strategic marketing knowledge, which needed to be strengthened for the regional role. This wasn’t a matter of capability but about enhancing specific areas to ensure she would excel in the new position.

The Decision: Postponing the Promotion

Based on the assessment, the company decided to postpone her promotion. They didn’t see this as a setback but an opportunity to develop her in key areas. The development plan focused on:

• Enhancing strategic marketing skills.
• Improving leadership capabilities.
• Developing communication, presentation, and relationship management skills to function effectively at the regional level.

Outcome: A Clear Development Path

This was more than just leadership development; it was about matching development needs to the competencies required for success in the new role. After around a year or year and a half of focused mentoring, she would be ready for promotion with a potent mix of leadership and strategic marketing expertise.

The Takeaway: Matching Competencies with Role Requirements

This case underscores the importance of understanding the specific competencies required for a new role and ensuring they align with the candidate’s abilities. The Saville Wave assessment provided the necessary clarity to design a tailored development plan that set the candidate up for long-term success.

By making this strategic decision, the company avoided the risk of a lousy promotion and ensured they were making the right investment in the candidate’s future. This approach saved time and resources and ultimately led to a successful transition.

Understanding the Cost of a Saville Wave Assessment: Is the Investment Worth?

Making the wrong hire can be far more costly than getting the recruitment process right from the start. Let's break this down:

The Hidden Cost of Bad Hires: How Poor Recruitment Impacts Your Bottom Line

Studies show that a bad executive hire can cost up to 213% of their annual salary. For mid-management roles, this could reach three times their salary. A poor hire impacts the salary, productivity, organisational culture, and the company’s long-term success. A bad hiring decision may cost up to $17,000 or more, quickly eroding your bottom line.

How much does a Saville Wave Assessment Cost?

Investing in a Saville Wave assessment is a proactive way to avoid these hidden costs. Here’s what you can expect:

• €1,200: For recruitment processes where interviews and behavioral assessments have already been completed, covering the individual profile report based on assessment results.
• €3,500 to €5,000: For more complex processes, such as leadership evaluations, organizational restructuring, or managerial audits in case of mergers. This includes an individual report plus a group report comparing multiple candidates, giving you a broader view of how each fits within your organization.

What affects the price?

• Quality of the tool: An internationally recognized tool with regularly updated data ensures your investment is worthwhile.
• Process: The depth of the process matters—assessments should include interviews, feedback sessions, and a personalized report created by an experienced consultant.
• Consultant experience: Consultants with 5 years or more of expertise using tools like Saville Wave bring high-quality insights tailored to your business context.

Why Invest in a Saville Wave Assessment?

While it may seem like a significant upfront cost, the return on investment is clear. The cost of making the wrong hire can be far more critical, affecting your business on multiple levels. Investing in a Saville Wave assessment ensures you make the right decision, particularly for leadership and vital roles. This investment helps you avoid the hidden costs of bad hires and sets your business up for success.

Ready to make smarter talent decisions?

With over 8 years of experience in recruitment and talent development using the Saville Wave Assessment, we can help streamline your hiring and development processes—saving you time and resources and ensuring you make the right decisions for long-term success.

Let’s talk about how we can support you and your team. I’m here to back you up and help you confidently move forward.

To your success,
Simona

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I'm the founder of BOC Institute, one of the renowned consulting agencies for international companies operating in Slovenia and South-East Europe.

I coach CEOs and top managers 1:1 worldwide. I'm here to save you time, energy, and money through your objectives, decision-making, and leadership development. I understand we can change the world one coaching session at a time!

Do you feel like having a call? You can reach out here and let me guide you from there.

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Simona Špilak www.simonaspilak.com