Posts Tagged ‘pre-employment testing’

January 3, 2012

Maren Hogan of Red Branch Media on Candidate Experience

I had an opportunity to speak with Maren Hogan of Red Branch Media regarding the candidate experience. In particular, we spoke about the candidate rejection process. Maren offers three great suggestions. Click PLAY to hear Maren’s recommendations, then scroll down to read more.

Candidate as Consumer

Either directly or indirectly, your business may touch the candidate from a consumer or customer perspective. Maren suggests we treat each candidate much like your marketing function would: have good communication tools and methods in place, keep track of who you have in the pipeline and reach out to them. Each interaction provides and opportunity to create a brand positive candidate experience. Examine the messaging; the continuity and reactions candidates have to how your recruiting process impacts their perception of your organization.

Earlier this year, the first Candidate Experience Awards were presented to a few organizations that take the candidate as customer issue quite seriously. In addition, a Candidate Experience Monograph was drafted to provide some guidance on this topic. Additional information can also be found here.

Support Career Search Objectives

Maren suggests HR professionals must not impede the candidate’s career pursuit with vague, misleading or lack of communication. Candidates want to use their time and effort well too. They do not want to be strung along. Give the candidate a No, to free them up to pursue other options. I wrote about the candidate’s act of hope and possible desperation with each Apply Now click. Be sensitive the candidate’s situation.

Engage Fewer – Reject Fewer

What is the right amount of candidates? There is no mathematical formula for that. However there are some resources to consider. Maren suggests the use of pre-employment tests or assessments. These tools are extremely beneficial with high applicant to hire ratios. You can read more about these resources on our main web page of on this blog. Maren also suggests focused and effective use of social media.

Candidate pools or communities can be created with a range of social media resources. To reduce the broadcast approach to sourcing, investing time and energy engaging potential candidates through social media can reduce the number of candidates you may need to engage to find a good fit. And the benefit of fewer candidates is fewer rejections.

Candidate source can also be analyzed with pre-employment assessment results. This can help refine sourcing effectiveness by examining both the yield – hires per source, as well as competency profile by source. Armed with this data, sourcing strategies can hone in on talent pools that drive up recruiter efficiency, improve quality of hire and reduce the number of candidates that need to get the rejection message.

Thanks to Maren for sharing a few ideas for improving the candidate experience. If you would like to explore improving your candidate experience, give us a call or drop us a note.

December 13, 2011

Measure Twice, Cut Once – It is all about job-fit

Sage advice to the trades suggests an accurate fit can be achieved by taking the time to measure, and then to take a second measure to verify, before making the cut. Two measures increase the confidence in and accuracy of the cut. Following that guidance helps reduce waste and rework when crafting a fine object. The same holds true building a workforce that achieves superior results. Using a multi-method pre-employment assessment allows you to measure twice or even seven times within one candidate experience, to help determine job-fit.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

I have worked in the trades and the joke about the advice above is – I cut it twice and it is still too short! Well intended and skillful recruiters sometime take a pipeline full of candidates, cut it twice and still make job-fit hiring decisions that miss the mark. Measurement to support job-fit decisions is critical.

Job-fit is complex. I have never sat across the desk from someone who said, “Our jobs are simple, people don’t need to bring much to be successful here.” In fact, even in entry level jobs, the variables that drive success are complex and can be difficult to objectively measure. Jobs with complex demands require rigorous evaluation methods, methods that measure twice and cut once.

Measure Twice

A common practice in the use of assessment is to administer a combination of a personality or work style questionnaire and a reasoning test. This is a simple form of two measures. The unfortunate and common outcome is poor accuracy and the ‘cut’ can be ‘off the mark.’ Candidate job-fit is far more complex than a test score and diverse high-to-low ratings on a number of personality traits.

Multi-method pre-employment assessment integrates an assortment of evaluation types to deliver a whole-person examination of diverse knowledge, skill, traits, characteristics required by the job demands. Multi-method assessment makes it possible to obtain two or more measurements or evaluations of each job relevant performance domain. When attempting to predict candidate behavior across six to eight competencies, a well developed multi-method assessment can evaluate each competency with multiple measures, thus delivering a confident job-fit measure.

Multi-Method Measurement

Here are some common assessment types that can be integrated into a multi-method assessment.

Situational judgment – choosing among options on how one might respond to common interactions with customers or co-workers

Problem solving – accessing and considering information to address questions, resolve issues

Idea generation/brainstorming – recalling or synthesizing options for a given scenario

Work history – identifying job relevant career experiences, achievements, work habits and career management behaviors

Data analysis – computations, trend analysis, comparisons and drawing conclusions from various information sources

Diagnostic reasoning – applying rule-based logic to system analysis

Prioritization – evaluation and ranking of relative importance and potential consequences of work flow demands

Delegation – discerning appropriateness of and approach to assigning work to others

Multi-tasking – splitting attention among competing demands while performance complex tasks

Work style- comparative description of preferred behavior patterns

The elegance afforded by many of these assessment methods is the ease by which the content can be created to reflect or mimic the actual demands of the job. For example, a day-in-the-life of a manager may include working with operating statements to identify issue that need attention, coming up with a variety of ways to handle the action items, selecting action items to delegate to team members and being prepared to handle a variety of team member responses. A multi-method assessment can combine a series of exercises that present that entire sequence; Data analysis, idea generation/brainstorming, delegation, situational judgment.

Whole Person Job-Fit Profile

Whole Person Job-Fit Profile

The complexity and diverse range of job-fit attributes measured with this approach allows candidate results to be presented across a job specific competency model. This is done through the use of HR analytics and a scoring algorithm that weights and values candidate responses according to their relationship with actual on-the-job performance.

In addition to obtaining the evaluation information, the candidates are invited to step into the job and get a glimpse of what it is like to handle the work flow. The assessment can become a form of realistic job preview.

Pre-employment testing has evolved a great deal in the past few years. The web has provided a format for delivering a highly engaging and robust multi-method assessment experience. If you value accurate job-fit, it may be time to explore how a multi-method pre-employment assessment could support your recruiting and hiring process.

Call (888) 485-7633 or write to set up a demonstration.

Measure twice, cut once to reduce staffing waste from your hiring decisions. The result is a workforce that delivers superior results.

Posted by: Joseph P. Murphy | December 13th, 2011
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, Tags: assessment Candidate Experience pre-employment assessment pre-employment testing realistic job preview | Posted in Candidate Experience, HR Analytics, I/O Psychology

September 27, 2011

Is Interviewing a Waste of Time? Ask Kevin Wheeler

Candidate Evaluation Time Well Spent?

In his recent post on ERE, Kevin Wheeler suggests interviews may be a waste of time. He poked the nest and stirred up some good interaction. He also suggests, that the use of more objective methods, such as simulations for pre-employment testing can improve the candidate evaluation process.

At the end of the day, the hiring decision is an act of personal judgment. The interview plays a big role in supporting that decision. And suggesting that companies abandon the interview will fall on deaf ears. However, the bigger question is what methods and criteria are used to determine who to interview. With high applicant to hire ratios, getting to the best candidates, the ones worth investing the high cost of interviewing, is a place to put some considerable focus.

A note about the gap between interviewing concepts and practices.
I conducted a survey with SHRM and in 2006 published a white paper The Use of Objective Candidate Evaluation Methods. (Non SHRM members may write me for a copy).

Here are some stats.
55% of respondents stated they use behavioral interviews that are based upon questions prepared in advance. 40% of respondents stated they do not conduct interviews with prepared questions. Kevin most certainly has his editorial comments pointed at this group.

When I explored further, and asked who uses behaviorally anchored rating scales and numeric summary of interview outcomes. Only 24% of respondents stated they use of this known best practice. This is the group that Tom Janz (see comment to Wheeler’s post) may be using to support his retort.

Another way to look at it is this:
Every company interviews (bold assertion) in their candidate evaluation process.
40% of companies begin with no preparation for what they want to learn.
76% of companies have no structured way to evaluate what they hear.

I think Kevin’s assertion has more generalized weight about the current state of affairs than Tom Janz’s point (see comment to Wheeler’s post) about results that can be achieved when interviewing is done exceptionally well. The process that Lou Adler teaches is a great example. Lou demands adherence to the process to get the results he purports.

Kevin’s bigger point is that there are better ways to learn more objective information about a candidate. And thanks to Tom Janz for the reference to the Virtual Job Tryout as one example (see comment to Wheeler’s post). At issue here is the professional/technical capabilities of practitioners in talent attraction and selection roles and their ability and desire to build rigor, selection science, and discipline into their practice. Kevin is inviting a shift to more thoughtfully developed and objective methods for candidate evaluation. When your process obtains better candidate data, you may be able to make better decisions.

Thanks Kevin.

Posted by: Joseph P. Murphy | September 27th, 2011
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, Tags: employee selection pre-employment testing selection science Simulations | Posted in General, Surveys

September 5, 2011

Virtual Job Tryout Demonstrations at Taleo World

Shaker Consulting Group will be conducting demonstrations of the Virtual Job Tryout for participants at Taleo World. You will see how we create a candidate experience as unique as your brand, an evaluation experience as challenging as your job.

This is our sixth year as a sponsor/exhibitor at Taleo World. It is a great opportunity for us to connect with our existing clients on the Taleo platform. It also allows us to showcase our simulation for pre-employment testing to other Taleo clients.

If you are attending Taleo World, stop in and see us at Booth 23.

If you would like to read what some of our clients are saying about the Virtual Job Tryout, check out this sample of testimonials. The decision support from candidate results enhances the recruiter experience. Your recruiters identify best-fit candidates faster and build a workforce that delivers superior results.

We look forward to seeing your in San Francisco.

Posted by: Joseph P. Murphy | September 5th, 2011
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, Tags: Candidate Experience pre-employment testing Recruiter Experience Simulations Virtual Job Tryout | Posted in Candidate Experience, Conferences, News, Recruiter Experience

August 4, 2011

Eight Changes in the Apply Now Element of the Candidate Experience

The Internet has changed the nature of the Apply Now candidate experience. Paste your resume here is a thing of the past for companies leading the wave of change in how candidates get considered for a job. Leading edge companies are creating an interactive online candidate experience. In this new format the candidate can learn more about the company and the job while the company can learn more useful information about the people applying for the job. This article will help you understand how to obtain the most value from the Careers page of companies deploying best practices for online employment applications.

1. The Resume is becoming less important.
Job seekers put a great deal of time and energy into writing resumes, often seeking assistance to create a good looking and great sounding document. However, research shows that about one third of resumes contain misrepresentations. Tell your career story truthfully, recruiters check the facts. Recruiters use word search technology to indentify resumes with specific skills and experiences. Technology puts resumes in “yes” and “no” piles based on the word search criteria. Unfortunately, people use different words to describe the same experience. And, resumes do not contain objective information that can fairly differentiate between candidates. As such, companies that are most concerned with advancing the best candidates are developing online questionnaires to quickly gather objective, fair, and consistent information about you. The resume is best used during the interview, to guide the conversation in a manner that uncovers the value your past experiences will offer in the new position. Given a choice of completing an online application questionnaire or pasting your resume, go for the online questionnaire.

2. You are a decision maker in the recruiting process.
Sometimes people get a few weeks into the new position and say, “I didn’t know this was part of the job.” or “This is not what I expected.” When people have that reaction, they have a tendency to begin looking for a new job quickly. In essence, they may quit before they even begin. To help reduce this reaction, leading edge companies are creating what is known as realistic job previews (RJP). This is not a job description. A RJP is a detailed and balanced overview of the job, describing both the exciting as well as the demanding aspects of the work. When you have more information about the position, you are better equipped to decide if the job is right for you. Look for buttons on the Careers page that say things like: Job Overview, Learn more about this job, Day in the Life, or other indications that more detailed information is available. A RJP often includes videos, or pictures of people on the job and audio files describing what people find rewarding and challenging about the work. Take time to carefully learn more about the job and make an informed decision about applying for the position.

3. Company culture impacts career satisfaction.
Each company has its own unique “feel”, it places value on certain behaviors and has a distinct management style. You may thrive in one culture and be stifled in another. Companies that want you to “fit-in” with their culture are providing an overview of their values, management style and performance expectations on their web page. Look for the sections on the web that are labeled: About Us, Who We Are, Working at ABC Co., Company Values. Be sure to look for information about career development, advancement, and what might be said about how they make working for their company a rewarding experience. Take time to learn about the company’s culture so you can decide if it offers the type of work environment you value.

4. Assessments add objectivity and fairness.
Almost 50% of companies use some form of pre-employment assessment to learn more about candidates. In most cases, this is a good thing. Assessment falls into several categories: 1. Work style or personality, 2. Reasoning or thinking ability and 3. Skills or Capabilities. Each of the three main types of assessments will be covered in more detail below. Because resumes are very subjective, and can vary so widely from people applying for the same position, assessment allows a more fair and consistent method for candidates to present themselves. There are well-developed standards for the use of assessments in employment practices and, for the most part, companies follow these recommendations, called: The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Methods. These guidelines come from the EEOC and state any testing, assessments, and even the questions used during the interview must be related to the demands of the job, and must treat all candidates fairly and consistently. In addition, the company has to show that the assessment does not discriminate against applicants. If you encounter what seems to be an assessment, it will typically begin with a thorough explanation of what you are being asked to complete. Take assessments seriously, they are your best opportunity to create a clear picture of your qualifications for the job.

5. Work style or personality is a strong predictor of job performance.
How you go about your work, or your preferred approach for handling the day-to-day demands of the job is often called your work style. Questionnaires have been used for decades to help people describe their preferred work style. In the last 10 to 15 years much has been learned about measuring people’s preferred approach to work. A work style questionnaire will typically present one or more statements and ask you to select the one that best describes you, or asks whether you agree or disagree with how it describes your preferred approach. The worst thing you can do when completing a work style questionnaire is to fake your responses or try to guess what the correct response should be. In work style there is no right answer. What is most important is to accurately and candidly describe yourself. Most companies will have conducted research on which work style characteristics relate to effectiveness and satisfaction in the job. If you have those traits, you may be more successful in the job than those people who have a different style. If you try to second-guess the answers, you may end up taking a job you won’t like, because it requires and demands a different work style than you naturally bring to a situation. This can cause stress and job burnout. When faced with completing a work style questionnaire – be yourself.

6. Each job has reasoning demands.
Solving problems, interpreting information, composing communications are just a few examples of how thinking ability is required on the job. Internet technology has made it easier for companies to present candidates with a sample of common thinking challenges faced in day-to-day work situations. In essence, companies that use this method can get a small sample of how you will respond to the thinking demands of the job and at the same time, you get a sense of the nature of the work. It can be quite helpful for you and the employer to see how effectively you are prepared to handle the thinking demands of the job. Reasoning tests may be presented with a fixed time for completion, such as 10 minutes. This levels the playing field a bit, in that on the job we do not have unlimited time, so the company gets to see which applicants get the most correct work done in the allotted time. If you find yourself at the beginning of a test of your reasoning capabilities, read the instructions carefully, take time to study the sample questions and then work as quickly as you can. If you have time left at the end, go back and see if you can complete any questions you skipped. Your score will most often be based on the total number of correct answers. When completing an assessment of your reasoning or thinking skills, work quickly, and accurately. Most are not pass-fail so don’t stress out if you miss some.

7. Knowledge and skills can be transferable.
Computer and software skills, technical capabilities and occupational knowledge are valuable resources you can transfer with you from one job to another. As a best practice, more companies are asking candidates to complete a skills or knowledge test as part of the application process. If you can apply your education and training to the job better than another candidate, the company will need to spend less time and money training you. You can prepare for an online job knowledge or skills test by taking time to review technical manuals, certification training materials and the proper procedures for job-specific skills.

8. Test Drive the Job with Simulations.
The multi-media nature of the web now allows elements of the job to be recreated in engaging, interactive exercises. You may encounter videos or audio conversations that stop and ask what you would do next, or how you would respond. There may be data entry activities which evaluate your speed and accuracy on working with data, computer database activities which examine how well you can navigate and find answers, or even prioritization and delegation exercises. These types of simulations for pre-employment testing teach you something about the job demands and often portray elements of the company culture. Being asked to complete a simulation is an indication that the company takes hiring decisions very seriously. The effort to develop company-specific simulations ensures recruiters are able to identify and hire the most qualified candidates. People who perform well on the simulation are very likely to perform extremely well on the job. If you encounter a simulation, treat it like going to work for a day. Give it your best thinking and your most sincere effort.

Summary
The nature of applying for a job is evolving. Using Internet technology, companies and candidates can learn much more about the degree of job-fit that might exist. The more comprehensive the application process, the better the quality of the hiring decision for both employer and candidate. As more information is exchanged between the applicant and the company, both parties are better equipped to make a sound decision. This leads to greater job satisfaction, higher levels of productivity and a more competitive organization.

Online applications are a big win for everybody. When you encounter a comprehensive online application process, it is most often a sign that a company is working hard to: deliver and exceptional candidate experience, increase the objectivity of the recruiting process, ensure all candidates are treated fairly, and improve the likelihood you will be successful when they offer you the job.

Best of success in your career pursuit!

Posted by: Joseph P. Murphy | August 4th, 2011
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, Tags: pre-employment testing realistic job preview Simulations | Posted in Candidate Experience

July 5, 2011

Pre-employment Testing Made Simple To Understand

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
~ Albert Einstein

Pre-employment testing is a measurement resource which can aid in the candidate evaluation process and support hiring decisions with objective data.

At a recent meeting to discuss our response to an RFP, the client stated; “We really appreciated how your proposal was straight forward and easy to understand. We can’t say that about all the responses we received, in fact, we had to read some of them three times to try and figure out what they were saying.”

If you are looking for someone to explain pre-employment testing or assessment in simple terms, call us.

We understand assessments.

Posted by: Joseph P. Murphy | July 5th, 2011
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, Tags: assessment pre-employment testing | Posted in General

April 1, 2011

Candidate Experience – Negative Impact of Technical Issues, Part 4 of 6

This is part four of a series connected to the Candidate Experience Monograph

We asked job seekers about the impact of career page technical difficulties. Specifically we wanted to know about the propensity to leave the application process, how much effort and time might be invested in resolving an issue and if the occurrence of technical difficulties created a negative brand impression.

Likelihood to Exit

Candidates want an easy to use experience. And the data suggest there is limited tolerance for poorly functioning features. They want simple and effective resume uploads, and links that work and are easy to understand. 59% of candidates are very likely or somewhat likely to exit before completing an application process if the encounter a page or process with frustrating or challenging functionality.

Technical Issues Trigger Exit Behaviors

Let’s look at it from a learning and administrative burden perspective. There are some major applicant tracking system (ATS) that have broad market presence. However, the candidate must register, create a profile, answer screening questions and perhaps complete some form of pre-employment test for every company where they apply. The candidate bears the burden of completing repetitive tasks, providing redundant information time and time again. After doing that a few times, it is easy to see why the effort-to-value balance can tip toward quick exit behavior. And a candidate’s experience with a significant lack of acknowledgment may contribute to a degree of non-committal behaviors.

It is important that every recruiter apply for the jobs they are filling, and do it from their home computer or a public PC. Only by sitting in the candidate’s seat can one fully appreciate what the candidate has been asked to complete. It is from this point of view that you will be in a position to assess the ease of your process.

Time and Effort

Stop and think for a moment about your own web navigation behaviors. How quickly do you bounce from one page to another, give up on a slow load, glace at a page and click away? Candidates are no different on the career page. Twenty percent of candidates will exit in less than a minute from a frustrating or troublesome web encounter.

Most Candidate Attempt to Solve Technical Issues

In a way, this rapid judgment is a measure of commitment to apply, degree of interest in a career with your company, and impatience with yet high expectations for a flawless process. It begs the questions – Were they serious candidates? Is it better they self selected out?

One to three minutes of effort can seem like a life time on a web page. However, 45% of candidates are willing to invest that amount of time to resolve a barrier to completing their job application. Over 30% of candidates are willing to invest even more. So it would seem the vast majority of candidates are willing to put time and effort into finding the way forward in their career pursuit.

Self-help, FAQs, on-line support may be the best way to help candidates work through the issue as only about 15% of candidates prefer calling technical support for assistance. So it seems there is self-sufficiency in the ranks of candidates. They want to be able to figure it out themselves. Therefore, having resources on your career page to support do-it-yourself trouble-shooting is important.

Brand Impact

Candidate’s associate your technology with your brand. Over 50% of respondents stated that encountering technical problems may cause them to look elsewhere. More importantly is that they stated they are Very Likely or Somewhat Likely to reduce their perception of your organization. A poor functioning career page creates a brand negative reaction.

Technical Issue Create Brand-Negative Impressions

The brand-negative impact of a poor web experience became so evident in a comment left by a candidate for one of our clients. At the conclusion of each Virtual Job Tryout candidates are presented a number of multiple-choice and open-ended questions about their experience. This comment reaffirms that candidates who apply at your organization are most likely applying at your competitor and they make observations about the differences.

“You guys need to talk with COMPETITOR, their process is broken, this was pretty cool.”

Brand management and those focused on delivering the customer experience speak of the Net Promoter Score (NPS). This is the response to the question: “Will you refer others, based upon your experience? Over 90% of candidates completing a Virtual Job Tryout state they will refer others. That feedback is evidence the pre-employment testing experience left a brand-positive impression with the candidate.

Consider asking your candidates, ALL of your candidates, about their experience applying for a job with your company. In 2008 I conducted a small candidate experience survey at Taleo World. At that time, less than 15% of companies stated they asked candidates for feedback on their job application process. Based upon the number of brand impressions made through the careers page, it only makes sense to get some feedback. And it makes a lot of sense to make sure your career page delivers a brand positive candidate experience. When you deliver a meaningful candidate experience, they will tell you. Your candidate testimonials will provide insight on how well you are meeting some of their expectations.

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Five, Part Six

Posted by: Joseph P. Murphy | April 1st, 2011
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, Tags: Candidate Experience pre-employment testing Surveys Virtual Job Tryout | Posted in Candidate Experience, Surveys

March 28, 2011

Alchemy and Algorithms – Recruiting by Ego or Evidence

Alchemy attempts to take common materials and transform them into something rare and valuable. I don’t think anyone has succeeded in this endeavor to date.

Algorithms Can Be Derived from HR Analytics

Unlike alchemy, algorithms can turn raw goods into gold. The raw goods can be candidate evaluation data and the gold is on-the-job performance. However, many recruiters have not invested in the data collection and analysis required to create an algorithm. As such, they make decisions based upon anecdote and conjecture.

Stock traders want to predict future prices and values of individual companies and broader indices. Recruiters want to predict future behaviors and on-the-job results of candidates. Algorithms are used by the best-in-class of both of these disciplines. And the results they achieve are documented by superior outcomes.

The reason both of these professions use algorithms is to identify meaningful relationships among complex data sets.

Variables that drive company performance and market fluctuations are complex. And, there is likely no doubt in your mind that variables which drive people’s performance are complex, very complex. In fact you might assert people are unpredictable. If that was really the case the workplace would be chaos. And that is just not true. There are some predictable elements.

Algorithms are special equations, expressly for the purpose of teasing out insights and conclusions from complexity.

When used well, the outcome of algorithms increases the probability of making a correct decision more often than not. An algorithm based upon pre-employment testing brings a sophisticated level of HR Analytics that can dramatically improve your quality of hire.

Algorithms were used to determine the premium for your auto insurance, your credit score, the offer you received for a vacation package, and the books recommended for you in on-line shopping. In each case two or more large data sets were analyzed to determine the nature and significance of relationship that exist between and among the variables.

Big Bucks for Equations.

In a current algorithm competition $3 million is being offered for the equation that takes large data sets of health care and lifestyle information and calculates the likelihood of an individual being hospitalized sometime in the future. The underlying assumptions are two-fold. You could be charged a higher insurance premium based upon your probable path to the hospital, or you could be given a specific preventative intervention to reduce or eliminate the necessity of being admitted for medical care.

Why a competition? The analysis and mental energy required to derive the equation is significant. Asking one individual to undertake the work may take a long time. A competition can attract the intellectually curious and competitively driven statisticians. Having a solution sooner than later is valuable.

How much would your organization pay for an algorithm that predicted your customer’s behavior? Or possibly a more accurate question is how much has your organization already paid in an effort to better understand and predict your customer’s behavior. Go ask your chief marketing officer.

Ego or Evidence?

Best-in-class recruiting professionals use algorithms. (We can introduce you to some of them.) Each hiring decision is supported with evidence. But, just like the challenge in the competition, developing algorithms require thoughtful effort. When I describe the process of developing a recruiting algorithm, I get two reactions. One says,”That seems like a lot of work.” The other states. “That seems like it can add significant value to our process.”

Algorithms are derived from analyzing large data sets. Three data sets are required for transforming recruiting raw goods into job performance gold:

Candidate Evaluation data – pre-employment assessment
Behavior/Competency Evaluation data – supervisor ratings
Productivity Evaluation data – objective metrics of on-the-job performance

Recruiting professionals working at the leading edge of candidate evaluation capture 200 to 300 data points from candidate evaluation. The data encompasses work history, work style and work samples.

Similarly, job performance, as defined by 100 to 200 data points from ratings and metrics for each individual provides a robust description of the complexity inherent in any job and the company culture in which it occurs.

When a recruiting professional embarks on capturing this level of data on their staffing process and its outcome as job performance they have the raw goods for the algorithm that predicts the future and answers the essential question – which candidates are more likely to be successful on the job. Working with this type of information delviers a very powerful recruiter experience, adding both efficiency and effectiveness.

Differentiated Workforce

And, that ability to differentiate among candidates is competitive advantage. Michael Porter the strategy guru at Harvard states competitive advantage comes from business processes which are difficult to replicate. In their book The Differentiated Workforce, authors Beatty, Becker and Huselid assert competitive differentiation comes from efforts that align jobs with strategic capabilities. (see page 10).

Using an off-the-shelf assessment, and generalized validity is defined as a ‘Me Too” strategy, one that is easy to replicate. An algorithm which predicts candidate performance in your organization is impossible to replicate. Call us to explore what it might take to transform your candidate experience into competitive advantage and a strategic business driver.

It’s not alchemy, it’s algorithms. And they really do turn raw goods into gold. Employees who perform at gold star levels.

Posted by: Joseph P. Murphy | March 28th, 2011
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, Tags: Candidate Experience HR Analytics pre-employment assessment pre-employment testing Quality of Hire Recruiter Experience | Posted in Candidate Experience, HR Analytics, Recruiter Experience

February 24, 2011

Patty Van Leer on Helping Candidates Make an Informed Career Decision

Candidates are decision makers too. Patty Van Leer of NAS Recruitment Communications understands that. I had a chance to speak with Patty at Taleo World. I asked her what we can do to help candidates make a more informed career decision. She offers three clear suggestions on what can be done to the candidate experience. Click PLAY below and hear what she has to say. Then scroll down to read more.

A good deal of the media in the talent space focuses on how recruiters and hiring managers make their decisions. Very little is directed at the candidate. However, Patty’s suggestions are grounded in core elements of best practices for selection system design. Let’s look at each of her recommendations a bit closer.

Provide a better definition of the job opportunity

Realistic Job Preview (RJP) is a structured, balanced, and candid approach for describing the job. Well developed RJPs portray the challenges and rewards, demands and satisfiers, expectations and opportunities both in the job and the company. When done well, RJP can contribute to an exceptional candidate experience and help the candidate make a more informed decision.

A well designed RJP serves two purposes:

Reduce unwanted candidate flow
Increase commitment and retention with new hires

RJP can help candidates achieve a deeper and more thorough understanding of the job. This will trigger a select-out reaction from a small portion of the candidate pool. Research suggests this might be in the single digits: +/- 5 percent. These individuals made a well informed decision that this is not the job for them and withdraw from the staffing process. This in turn reduces early turnover or false starts and saves a great deal of recruiter time.

RJP establishes performance expectations and defines in advance a range of demands that will be faced on the job. After the new employee honeymoon is over and the full brunt of performance demands arise, well informed employees say “I knew this was coming, it is not the whole job and they told me it was going to occur.” They also know those less rewarding or challenging aspects of the job will pass. The result is an associate that is willing to work through the tough issues and remain committed.

The negative consequence of UN-balanced or UN-realistic job preview is also two fold. The first is new hires who realize they have accepted a job they are not interested in either quit or perform poorly. The second is the ‘bait n’ switch’ reaction. New hires feel the company was not forthright in describing the opportunity. This undermines trust and also contributes to poor engagement and lower levels of productivity.

The proliferation of streaming web video and personal video technology has made it easy to create images and stories from the workplace. When done poorly the R in RJP is left off and the video becomes Hype, not Help.

Help Candidates See How They Fit the Role

A long standing and common recruiting practice is the workplace tour. What better way to give someone a taste of the job than a look around? This allows candidates to see the work station, feel the energy of the environment, observe and maybe interact with prospective co-workers. A tour however is a far cry from experiencing the job. Tours are also very time-consuming and may be disruptive to work flow.

Another long standing recruiting practice is the temp-to-perm hiring model. Individuals are given an opportunity to go through training, learn the skills and processes for the job. They provide a work sample over weeks or months to demonstrate their capabilities. If a new hire does not “work out,” they get terminated and a replacement is moved in. This remove and replace is actually a form of staffing waste and rework. If the new hire seems to learn well and perform effectively, they may get moved from contingent to full employee status.

This process is one of the most accurate methods of getting the best read on person-job fit. It is also one of the most expensive and lengthy hiring methods. One of the unintended consequences is a new hire perception that the organization is not well equipped to make hiring decisions.

An effective alternative to temp-to-perm evaluation can be a job simulation for pre-employment testing. An individual completes a series of exercises that mirror or even recreate a range of on-the-job tasks, demands, and typical interactions. Some simulations are more generic examples of job performance while other might be highly accurate recreations of elements of the job.

Simulations allow you to collect a broad range of work samples, work history, and work style data in about an hour. The results from simulations used for pre-employment testing can be almost as accurate as temp-to-perm methods of determining job-fit. Simulations by their nature give candidates direct feedback about job-fit, in part due to candidate reactions to the nature of the exercises. Overly complex, uninteresting, or under-challenging reactions can help the candidate make a more informed decision.

Explore Culture Fit and Hiring Manager Fit

Hiring managers have a lot to do with how culture is perceived and experienced in an organization. However, culture is bigger than any one individual. Culture is palpable, yet elusive. Companies work hard to describe their culture. Some companies are good at articulating and living their culture with clear intention.

Culture is driven by the behaviors that are valued and rewarded. As such, culture can be conveyed and evaluated through culture fit or values clarification and compatibility exercises. The mere act of discerning importance among a range of culture attributes is a powerful self-reflection for a candidate.

Candidates and recruiters/hiring managers can use the results from a culture fit exercise to dialogue along the lines of culture expectations, career motivators and fit. Hiring managers who are culturally self-aware and willing to candidly disclose their alignment with corporate values can provide the candidate with insights regarding their expectations for culture fit. That conversation can help a candidate make a more informed decision.

Career Change Motivators

In addition to the three factors Van Leer mentions above, providing candidates an opportunity to assess their underlying reasons for desiring a career change can foster a very dynamic dialogue. The Virtual Job Tryout can contain such an exercise.

Through a forced ranking process, candidates are invited to consider and contrast an inventory of job specific career aspirations and motivators. The result is a top down list of most-to-least desired outcomes from a career change. Recruiters can then use this prioritized list to explore and position the opportunity in relation to the candidate’s expectations. This gives both parties greater insights to making a well informed career decision.

If you are interested in learning more about how all of these elements can be delivered in a seamless and highly engaging candidate experience, call to talk.

Posted by: Joseph P. Murphy | February 24th, 2011
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, Tags: assessment Candidate Experience culture fit assessment pre-employment testing Simulations Virtual Job Tryout | Posted in Candidate Experience, Recruiter Experience, Videos

February 10, 2011

Do You Have A Talent-matician?

Kevin Wheeler wrote a great article on ERE asking about selection science and measurement. His is suggesting staffing professionals adopt better methods for candidate evaluation or assessment and make more effective use of HR analytics to link candidate evaluation data to business outcomes.

Here are a few questions around measurement discipline, the answers to which may be revealing.

Ask your CFO – “How much has been invested in the data capture and analysis system you use to report EBITA?”
Ask your EVP of Sales – “How much has been invested in the data capture and analysis system you use to report daily sales performance?”
Ask your EVP of Manufacturing ; “How much has been invested in the data capture and analysis system you use to calculate process yield?”
Then ask your EVP of HR (self) – “How much has been invested in the data capture and analysis system you use to create a differentiated work force?”

In every case, for Fortune 1000 companies, the answer to the first three will be hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions of dollars. Unfortunately the answer to #4 typically pales by comparison. Why?

I have never sat with an executive who stated their organization was just like their competition. In fact, great pride is expressed in how their people, their products, their services are different than others. The work that true talent-maticians (I just invented that) do is using HR analyitics in quantifying, to the degree possible, the human variables that contribute to those differences. That requires, rigor, discipline, experiment design, and time.

Michael Porter of Harvard suggests competitive advantage comes from business processes which are difficult to copy. Authors Becker, Beatty, Huselid, in The Differentiated Workforce present a similar framework for evaluating HR practices that put forth a ‘Me Too’ or a Differentiated outcome. An example of this is the use of off-the-shelf assessments without local validation. By default the user states, we are willing to use a measurement tool developed for and by someone else and calibrated by another organization to provide data on our talent decisions. Sounds like a Me Too tactic. One path to a differentiated workforce is at least conducting a validation analysis on how the measurement tool (pre-employment test) is adding value to your decision process. The underlying premise is that a good assessment provides a degree of better data and therefore, better decisions. With in-house validation, you document the relationship between assessment results and business outcomes.

Without an in-house validation, the test is not calibrated to performance in your organization and outcomes are anecdotal. The practice that gives assessment a poor reputation is poor implementation.

In an earlier work by the three authors above The Workforce Scorecard, they document those organization hiring a higher percentage of employees with validated evaluation methods achieve higher levels of financial performance. Aon and SHRM conducted a significant piece of research in the mid 1990s that included a glimpse at staffing process outcome (out of print but avaiable from the research dept). Survey participants stated the most lacking qualities in new hires were defined as work style, and basic reasoning. Those traits or attributes can be objectively evaluated with a variety of pre-employment tests. Companies stating they were most satisfied with staffing process outcomes were using the most comprehensive candidate evaluation methods.

Companies hire engineers to solve complex measurement problems.
Companies hire actuaries to solve complex measurement problems.
Companies hire statisticians to solve complex measurement problems.
Companies that know their competitive advantage comes from their people hire industrial organizational psychologist to solve complex measurement problems in staffing. These folks are the talent-maticians.

Even if you do not measure variables that provide insight to performance potential, performance variation exists. In fact you hired your best performer and your worst performer with the same evaluation process. In manufacturing terms that is known as performance variation and is marked by upper and lower limits. You see, staffing is a business process with a yield to measure and manage. To do that requires data capture and analysis.

However, enter another piece of data. It has been known for some time that a structured interview extracts better candidate evaluation data than an unstructured interview. In a survey on Use of Objective Candidate Evaluation Methods I conducted with SHRM (write for a copy), very fascinating evidence of interview practices emerged. Only 55% of respondents stated they use behavioral interviews with questions written in advance (an intentional discovery process). When asked if the interviews were supported with behaviorally anchored rating scales (a method to discern an effective response from an ineffective response), only 24% of respondents stated this practice was used. Staffing practitioners are largely ignoring known practices which at the simplest level produce better outcomes. Implementing assessments requires the same rigor the CFO expects from data capture and analysis in financial matters.

In some jobs, learning more about what factors contribute to retention can add signnficant value. However,most companies do not even measure and track the cost of early turnover. In a survey on Staffing Waste I conducted with SHRM (write for a summary), only 8% of 636 respondents stated they track and report the costs of what I call False Starts – new hire turnover that occurs in less than 120 days. The analogy would be a head of manufacturing that does not measure defects and scrap rates. Manufacturing is held accountable for managing the yield of that process. In my paper Staffing Waste: Identify it, Measure it, Reduce it, a range of examples for applying measuremen- based process improvement to staffing is offered. You can read it here

Yes Kevin, the future of staffing practices will include more measurement, more science, more accountability for understanding and managing process yield. There are exceptional methods to evaluate candidate-job fit. It can be measured, it can be analyzed and it can contribute to the bottom line. However, the practice leaders are already out there, doing the work right now.

For one example kook at the 2010 ERE Award winner KeyBank. They reduced staffing waste in one position by over $1.7 million in one year by bringing science and measurement rigor into their staffing process. They were able to add objective candidate evaluation in a manner that measured candidate-job fit. The retention and gains in a range of job performance metrics are impressive.

We have many more examples of how talent-maticians drive economic impact from staffing process improvement. To explore the scope of opportunity you might have, see our ROI calculators.Call me. We can discuss your opportunity.

Posted by: Joseph P. Murphy | February 10th, 2011
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, Tags: assessment employee selection HR Analytics pre-employment assessment pre-employment testing selection science staffing waste | Posted in General, HR Analytics, I/O Psychology, Surveys

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