McKinsey & Company published a podcast this month and took a focused look at how businesses can make sure they organize their people and work for success. They talked about using AI, and assessments to look at the business objectively “getting the right people into the right roles” for faster return.

They McKinsey Senior Partners brought up assessments and how Artificial Intelligence and a shifting workforce has made them an integral tool for helping our decisions regarding placement. The Partners also discussed how leaders should spend more time thinking about critical roles and the skills needed in those roles. We have put more emphasis on financial capital and very little effort on tuning up our human capital.

The podcast mentioned how important it is to “get clear on the role”. This is a critical part of analyzing the work and the goals of the organization first. The next part is to assess, not only, new candidates but incumbents, too. Assessing current employees can be a tough sell in some cultures but I’ve seen the benefit. I worked in talent development at Zappos.com when we made moves to flatten the hierarchy and organize roles and role-holders around the work to be done. It sounds radical but the results can be next level.

Predictive Index tools (PI) have evolved to line up well with the need to be as smart with our human capital as we are with financial capital. PI has tools to assess strategic needs of a business and plot how, both, candidates and incumbents measure up against the needs that have been defined. When we talk about existing role-holders it’s important to remember that the people and skills that got us here won’t, necessarily get us there.

There are two things to note about PI assessments: they have a sample size of over 25 million and the standard assessment takes 5-6 minutes online. This gives leaders a valid and reliable assessment to match talent to strategy and initiatives. Contact me for your complimentary assessment to see for yourself.

Now is a great time to explore the goals and roles in your organization and assess the fit of your current talent and new candidates. Technology is replacing many human tasks at a quick pace. Businesses that analyze and capitalize on the things that humans do best, and then, put those people in the right jobs will dominate the market.