Once COVID-19 passes, we can expect to see the job market erupt and significant changes in the way companies hire as a result. In this article, Brad Chambers, global head of talent acquisition solutions at BTS, discusses how a preemployment assessment could streamline the hiring process.
The coronavirus has transformed the U.S. job market. Millions of peopleOpens a new window are searching for work, companies with openings are seeing massive numbers of applicants, and recruiters must now screen candidates with minimal face-to-face interaction and savvy tech-driven tools. This should serve as a wake-up call for HR teams.
In this era of unprecedented job demand and reduced screening capabilities, it’s more important than ever to have a preemployment assessment tool in place that helps your company efficiently narrow down its candidate pool. One of the easiest ways to administer these assessments is by using technology to automate them: When fueled by technology, assessments run themselves, and organizations are notified when they have viable candidates. (Compare this to manual processes where hiring managers must sift through piles of applications).
These preemployment assessments can also take many forms – from multiple-choice questionnaires to simulation-based quizzes – but they give the same overarching set of insights about candidates:
- Who is the candidate as a person, and what are their behavioral tendencies (e.g., how does the candidate behave in certain situations)?
- What skills and aptitudes does the candidate bring to the table?
- What are the candidate’s attitudes, beliefs, and interests? What does the candidate want to do, where do the candidate’s interests lie, and so on?
This need for preemployment assessments will only grow over time. Although a relatively small handful of businesses are hiring now, many more are still conducting layoffs. As the pandemic winds down and eventually passes, however, countless companies will begin rebuilding their teams – and millions of candidates will apply for these open positions.
In such a congested climate, it’s unrealistic to rely on interviews as your first line of defense. Instead, a preemployment assessment can help your business ensure that only the best, most qualified candidates make it to the interview stage.
Optimizing Your Candidate Screening
Again, if you’re looking for a way to see whether your many job candidates measure up, the best course of action is to develop a robust preemployment screening assessment – but this is easier said than done. To ensure a painless experience, keep the following three tips in mind when developing an assessment for your organization. By putting in the extra work upfront, your efforts will pay off in the long run.
1. Take a tailored approach to preemployment assessments
Your preemployment assessment should not be “one size fits all.†A certain preassessment might work well at one company, but that doesn’t mean that the same tool will be a good fit for your organization.
Consider workers on a manufacturing plant’s floor. Specific manufacturing roles vary widely from one organization to the next. While a manufacturing worker at company A might often interact with computers and other types of technology to run assembly lines, a worker with the same role at company B might be more hands-on, connecting pieces or bolting parts down.
At every company, there’s a trade-off regarding broader tools that hint at a candidate’s potential fit within an organization versus more specific tools that give insights into a candidate’s mastery of skills and abilities needed for a certain role. Both can play a part in your overarching strategy, but you must first define what you’re trying to achieve with these tests.
To start, use a combination of internal and external research to develop your list of ideal attributes. One great way to do this is by conducting interviews and focus groups with current employees to get a good sense of how their skill sets and mentalities translate to success in their roles. Ask them to identify challenging scenarios they commonly encounter and the aptitudes they leverage to navigate each situation successfully. After this, you can do outside research to address any blind spots and gain a broader idea of how other companies position each role in their job descriptions.
2. Incorporate psychological science
To ensure candidates have the right skill sets for an open position, companies often focus their preemployment assessments on technical knowledge. Although it’s crucial to hire knowledgeable people, it’s also essential to ensure potential employees have the right psychological makeup. Developing questions that reveal a candidate’s mindset, personal philosophies, and long-term goals requires a certain level of scientific expertise.
Most companies look externally for help in this realm, as many vendors offer science-driven preemployment screening services. However, be sure to consider the type of science each vendor uses when browsing your options. Some lean primarily on computer science and artificial intelligence, while others predominantly leverage psychological science.
Click on each vendor’s “About Us†page and look at the team’s credentials. If the company is led by engineers and programmers, it likely uses algorithms and AI to drive its screening tools. If the vendor is led by industrial-organizational psychologists and other cognition experts, its tools are likely driven by psychological science.
Computer scientists are experts at building scalable black box tech solutions, but psychologists are experts in how people think and behave. The former can uncover associations, but the latter is better suited to help companies build great teams through rational, logical, and data-driven hiring decisions.
Remember that the optimal assessment is one that leverages both computer science and psychological science. The reality, however, is that this is only starting to happen in the assessment marketplace – but is certainly the way of the future.
Learn More: 4 Steps to Creating an Integrated Risk Assessment Model for Your Contingent WorkforceOpens a new window
3. Monitor, measure, and adjust
After putting a preemployment assessment system in place, you must continuously gather data, look for trends, and make modifications based on your findings.
Here, it’s not necessarily about the technology you’re using to monitor, but rather about having the right processes in place: This includes capturing data, coding it in order to facilitate analyses down the road, and then conducting analyses.
Usually, much of this data is captured in your organization’s human resource information system, but there’s occasionally a disconnect between how the data is captured and the questions you want to address. For example, if you want to know whether an assessment reduces voluntary turnover – but the HRISOpens a new window only captures turnover at a broad (voluntary and involuntary combined) level – there’s a problem.
Likewise, you might find that most candidates are misinterpreting one of your preemployment assessment’s questions, leading to an unnecessarily high failure rate. Alternatively, you might learn that you’re not asking the right questions because too many unqualified candidates are making it to the interview stage.
Preemployment Assessment Tools Must Continuously Evolve
Even if your results are great today, you can’t expect an assessment tool to stay relevant forever. Candidate populations will inevitably shift over time – and so will job demands and overall company culture.
The end of the coronavirus pandemic could spark the beginning of the most crowded and competitive job market we’ve ever seen. HR teams have their work cut out for them – especially considering the digital obstacles that stand in their way. This is not a time to panic and sacrifice your hiring standards.
Instead, strengthen them by implementing a preemployment assessment. Design your solution around unique traits that drive success within each role at your company. Be sure to cover every base, from psychological temperament to technical know-how. Then, remain vigilant over time. Study your results and continuously adapt.
Huge changes are on the horizon, and the job market is about to erupt. Is your company ready to hire the best of the best? Putting the right tools and technology in place now could make all the difference later.
Do you think preemployment assessment will streamline the hiring process when more jobs are created? Share your thoughts with us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window .