Getting the Right Candidate Takes More than Luck
This St. Patrick’s Day you can hope the luck of the Irish is on your side or follow a rainbow in hopes of it leading to the perfect candidate for your organization. But we all know, hiring decisions take much more than luck! One tool in the HR professional’s tool box is a pre-employment assessment or candidate profile. Pre-employment tests can help a company’s hiring process by increasing the likelihood of hiring candidates who will perform well on the job.
An effective assessment provides major benefits to a company, including:
Higher productivity
Increased employee retention
Improved employee morale
Reduction in costs associated with turnover (hiring and training costs)
Increasing the defensibility of the hiring process by using objective data
When properly implemented, pre-employment tests provide the most accurate means of predicting performance because they measure the candidate’s capacity to perform well at a particular job. Research has shown that cognitive aptitude tests, for example, are much more accurate predictors of job performance than job interviews and previous work history.
Having accurate data in front of you leads to more successful and efficient decisions. Improving the success rate of your selection methodology will lead to higher productivity, better employee retention, and a reduction of the costs associated with turnover. What an amazing snowball effect!
One study compared employees’ pre-assessment scores with their hourly sales volume at a clothing store. The employees who received high scores on the test sold, on average, $106.35 of goods per hour, while those who received low test scores sold only $83.27 per hour. Incorporating pre-employment tests into its selection process resulted in a 28 percent increase in sales productivity.
Once your organization has made the decision to include pre-employment tests in the hiring process, the next step is finding a partner to help design and implement a professionally developed and properly validated employment tests. Tests are an effective screening tool only if they measure the knowledge, skills, and abilities that will be required for a particular job. In other words-to be a valid predictor of performance, a test must measure job-related competencies and abilities. The test must also be EEOC compliant.
It’s also important to remember, the pre-employment test is just one piece of the hiring puzzle. It can give HR professionals additional (and accurate) data to make great hiring decisions. Other factors such as references, resumes and interviews are invaluable components to this process as well. When used together, the results are powerful. Increased productivity, retention, and a reduction of costs can have a major affect your organization’s bottom line and can ultimately change your business model.
March 20, 2012 - 12:32 pm
This blog is a great resource for those itnerested in more than simply checking the MY COMPANY USES PRE EMPLOYMENT TESTING on the annual corporate review form.While the NFL analogy is playful it makes a great point: taking the time to dig into and understand the data, being careful to select your performance measures (ideally ones that are really controlled by the incumbents versus those that are externally controlled) and then working with great statisticians to understand what conclusions you can draw from the data. Or not. As with most things worth doing, this is worth doing well. The question becomes, will HR professionals dedicate the time and effort to doing so.
March 22, 2012 - 5:48 pm
We are all familiar with the paeosnrlity test but if you are unfamiliar with Howard Garnder’s theory of multiple intelligences you can read more about them . Gardner’s philosophy is frequently referenced in educational theory when determining how students best learn new information.I was not at all surprised by my MB test. I am extroverted and social, I gather my information from observing (sensing) not self-reflection (intuitive), I trust reason and logic over feelings and I make decisions based on facts not personal perception.According to this test, I am an ESTJ or the Overseer which is defined as: responsible, logical, norm-following hard workers. Their efforts are carried out in a practical, structured manner. ESTJs trust facts and experiences more than theories. They are decisive, loyal, tradition observing individuals. They enjoy being the person in charge . Me? A desire to be in charge practical decisive likes structure who would have thought!No surprises here. I had to laugh that the career recommendations were: writer, researcher, teacher, editor and manager all of which are tasks in my current job.The MI test was more of a surprise. I did not think I was such a naturalist but then again it goes along with my perchance for gathering information from observation. And only a 10% in music, yes, that’s true too I can’t even whistle.