This means that job candidates are taking their job hunt to job search websites, which scour the internet for jobs based on the criteria the applicant dictates; much like how you do a search in Google. The traditional methods of posting job openings are quickly fading.

How a job opening is written becomes more critical than ever. Not only do you have a series of online job boards to post to, you need to make sure your content within the job posting relates to how people search. This is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization), meaning that you want to be the first thing that pops up with a candidate searches for a job. What your company might call a “Level 1 Programmer” would actually be searched as a “PHP Programmer”; or “Online Manager” is actually searched as “Web Development Manager”, as a few examples.

Is your company using the best terms to describe your job postings to attract the right candidate?

One sentence that really stuck out was, “You need to sell them on your company before you ever start running ads.” Being able to stand out from the crowd is just as important to your job postings as it is your brand.

Job hunters are still carefully weighing where they want to work. Yes, unemployment is still high, but along with that, employers are actually finding it more diffulcult to recruit certain positions. A report from SHRM outlines those details.

How your company is perceived by customers is important, but so is that perception by potential hires. Give them a taste of your company culture in your job postings. Draw back the curtain a bit and allow a candidate to see your company before they walk in the doors; it could save you both a lot of time.

For fun, we’ve found some creative postings that have caught our attention. Which one is your favorite?

The book basically states two big truths:

1. Life has distracted us from what we really want to do with our lives
2. We already know / have a network of people who are capable of helping us achieve our real dreams

I wonder how many of us waste so much time in solitude and worry planning out different requirements that are placed on us? I know there have been countless projects I’ve had to do where I didn’t even know the first place to start. As the 11^th hour approaches, a friend will ask why I look like a wreck, so I explain my circumstance only to have them reply “Why didn’t you tell me?! I know just the person/thing/resource you need!”

A Mashable article points out that 36% of employees found their job through a referral from personal or professional contacts, the highest scoring category they measured.

That position you need to fill or that job you need might not come about from a stranger or new networking contact, but from the people you are in contact with every day.

Another issue that Mr. Beaudine points out is that we either don’t ask for people’s help, or don’t know how to articulate what we actually need. The ability to clearly define what you’re looking for in a candidate/job is critical. For employers, we have options for you. For everyone else, maybe just asking someone you know for a job could be the start of something great.

More about ‘The Power of Who’: http://www.powerofwho.com/

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?

By Ken Danderfer

Last month’s newsletter article contributed by Ira Wolfe talked to the advantage to be gained from the use of Applicant Tracking Systems (“APS”). His article got me thinking about how I used to go through the hiring process; whether using recruiters, job boards or newspaper ads compared to using the Prevue APS Pro system for a recent hire.

We recently had a vacancy open that gave me my first opportunity to use Prevue APS in a real hiring situation. I decided to document my experience using the APS Pro and compare it to how we used to go through the 7 step in the Prevue Hiring Process.

I’m sure most of you will relate to many, if not all of my past hiring experiences and appreciate the newfound ease I experienced using Prevue APS Pro.

The experience has been broken up into 3 parts. Each step of the hiring process will be looked at by comparing the old way I used to hire, with my experience using the APS Pro.

PART 1: CRAFTING THE POSITION

Tell us about your experiences trying to figure out how to best post a job opening.

A: APS Pro is not updated live to reflect the data contained within your PrevueOnline.com account.  To refresh and update the APS Pro account to use the most current Position List available in PrevueOnline.com, you must sign into your APS Pro account at http://admin.prevueaps.com and click on Career Sites.  Select “Site Controls” and then use the “3^rd Party” tab.  Scroll to the bottom of this page and press “Save” to refresh the data shared between PrevueOnline.com and APS Pro.

Q: I have recently hired for a position that I had posted on my career site.  The posting was set to be open until the end of the month.  This job listing still appears on my career site.  How do I remove the listing?

A: APS Pro job listings can be taken down prior to the listing expiring.  Simply go to the Jobs tab in your career site.  Click “Edit” next to the position.  On the “Job Listing” page, scroll half way down the page to the area where the “Start Date*” and “End Date*” drop down menus appear.  Amend the date to a date prior to the existing end date.  Scroll to the bottom to “Save” the changes.  Changing the date will remove the job listing from your career site and all job boards that the listing was posted to.

Job postings may take a few days to be removed from job boards that the job was listed to.

With few exceptions, screening candidates has become a major problem for companies these days.  An oversupply of unemployed candidates and unhappy workers seeking employment or better jobs is clogging up inboxes and bogging down productivity.

The deluge of resumes, or what I have been calling the resu-mess, is a problem for small companies.  Often the small business doesn’t have a dedicated recruiter or HR manager which means that screening and interviewing candidates diverts attention away from other responsibilities.   Spending the time to screen dozens or even hundreds of resumes just isn’t possible.  Employee selection then becomes “first come, first served,” and quality and qualified candidates are missed.

Small business is not alone in this resu-mess. Large business is overwhelmed with applications and they too don’t have enough human resources and recruiting staff to manage the process, especially after the recession decimated their ranks.

Fortunately technology and automation has again come to the rescue.  No more is an automated applicant processing system too complex and too expensive for the small business.  Like the cost of almost anything involving technology, the convenience eventually becomes irresistible and the investment has an almost immediate return on investment.

While many vendors claim to offer applicant processing systems, all are not created equal.  Five features should be included in any system if the system is to do what the employer intends it to do – find the most qualified candidates quickly and accurately. To do this, I recommend this 5-point checklist for selecting the right applicant processing system.

1. Applicant dashboard.  A hiring manager or recruiter should be able to log into their company APS system and easily access a dashboard. The dashboard should show at a glance names of candidates and date of application, plus additional features I’ll discuss shortly.  By viewing this dashboard, the recruiter or hiring manager can quickly determine if current sourcing (Careerbuilder, Monster, LinkedIn, Craig’s List, employee referral, etc.) is working and make adjustments accordingly.
2. Screening Questionnaire: This is likely the second most important feature but biggest differentiator when comparing applicant processing systems – a means to quickly qualify and disqualify candidates. Many systems include the ability to ask qualifying questions. But few allow you to weight and rate the importance of each question. By including this function, managers can quickly scan the dashboard for applicants who scored the most points, narrowing down the candidate list almost instantly.

Management and HR can then agree to pursue applicants with a score above a specific number and pass on the others.  Imagine how much time an applicant processing system feature like this saves compared to opening and reviewing every application.

1. Disqualify candidates.  Specific questions to qualify candidates might trigger immediate disqualification. This feature, like the questionnaire itself, is the exception in many systems, not the norm. For example, let’s say the job requires licensing, a 4-year degree, or a willingness to relocate.  Despite an ad and job description that spells these requirements out explicitly, a company will still receive resumes from candidates who aren’t licensed, didn’t graduate, or won’t or can’t relocate.  This is a huge waste of time and pet peeve for recruiters these days.  An applicant processing system designed with the recruiter and hiring manager in mind will automatically disqualify candidates who don’t meet minimum requirements. (Note the “YES” under disqualified. Recruiters can then focus their time and resources contacting and interviewing only the most qualified candidates quickly and efficiently.
2. Status.  The system should also have a method to track the progress of a candidate through the selection process.  Examples of status levels might be DQ Phone (disqualified during phone screening) or Waiting for Info or Mgr Interview (candidate is scheduled for interview with manager).  A report can then easily be run to evaluate the status of each candidate in the selection process.
3. Applicant Notification. One of the most time intensive processes for human resources is responding to all the candidates.  An applicant processing system should include an email system that allows the employer to send out automated emails informing the candidate that their application was received, requesting additional information, reminders to complete a pre-employment test, updates on the selection process, and even messaging the disqualified candidates that they won’t be considered.

It has never been easier for people to apply for jobs.  High unemployment, rising employee disengagement, and lean human resource departments have only pushed companies to the brink of crisis when it comes to screening candidates efficiently, quickly, and cost effectively.  An applicant processing system can help turn the dreaded experience of recruiting a candidate into a routine, productive, and easily managed event.

Prevue has been a pioneer of both computer and online testing and scoring for almost 20 years. However, in today’s online world there is definitely no room for resting on one’s laurels. The speed of change in the development and delivery of job fit testing and all other aspects of HR management is breathtaking. Almost every day there is a new tool, a new competitor and new concepts being introduced to the world of HR management. The Prevue business strategy and product offering will therefore be evolving as follows to keep abreast of this fast changing landscape:

• Basic Business Direction: Prevue will move from its former focus on the development and sale of Prevue Assessments to delivering comprehensive HR management solutions or systems that include the valid and reliable Prevue Assessments as a cornerstone. The primary focus will be on the development of online tools and facilities for the Prevue Hiring System described below because that has historically been the largest market for Prevue Assessments. Attention will also be given to the development of facilities that support the other stages of the employment life cycle, namely coaching, career planning and succession planning through alliances with third parties who are focused on these aspects of HR management.

• Prevue Assessments System: Prevue Assessments and their use in the hiring process will continue to have top billing in the Prevue product offering. They are after all our major asset and our core competency. The ongoing development of Prevue Online and the Prevue Assessments System will continue to evolve both as a stand-alone offering as well as a component of other HR management solutions like the Prevue APS offerings and the Prevue Hiring System described below.

• Prevue APS: The first major step in implementing the new business strategy has been the introduction of applicant processing systems (“APS”) that are powered by Prevue. You’ve no doubt seen evidence of this initiative with the quiet introduction of the Prevue APS Pro product over the last 6 months. The reception of this product by clients has been very positive. Active promotion of APS Pro will commence in the fourth quarter of 2011 following completion of upgrades that have been prompted from experience in working with the beta version of this product. The longer range plan calls for adding the following additional APS to better service the following markets:
  • A simpler less sophisticated APS designed specifically for small businesses.
  • Integration with larger enterprise APS that are available through companies like Taleo and HR Smart for larger companies who are users of Prevue Assessments.
  • Industry specific APS offerings with customized facilities for recruiting, screening and selection.

• The Prevue Hiring System: The Prevue Hiring System is founded on the following seven step Prevue Hiring Process:
  1. Job Description/Job Analysis Development
  2. Candidate Sourcing (sometimes referred to as Job Posting or Recruiting)
  3. Applicant Screening
  4. Testing/Assessment
  5. Interviewing
  6. Evaluation (Background and Reference Checks)
  7. Selection Decision and Job Offer

The Prevue Assessments System and the Prevue APS offerings are the first major components of the Prevue Hiring System. The Hiring System will be developed in several successive versions with new tools and services being added to automate all seven steps in the Prevue Hiring Process. The first version has been initiated by the integration of Prevue Assessments into Prevue APS Pro to automate aspects of steps 2 through 4 of the Prevue Hiring Process. There are many online tools that will be added in future versions such as skills testing, background checks, reference checks, and interview systems, some of which will be developed by Prevue and others through alliances made with third parties.

• Job Description Builder: The next major component of the Prevue Hiring System that is now under development is the new Prevue Job Description Builder. Job Description Builder is an online job analysis facility for developing Job Descriptions and Prevue Job Benchmarks for any position. It will provide a tool for addressing the very important first step in the Prevue Hiring Process, a step that is often overlooked or poorly addressed by most employers. This product utilizes research that started in 2008 to map the scales of the Prevue Assessments to the O’NET Job Content Model developed by the US Department of Labor and will ultimately provide a Prevue Benchmark Library for the more than 1000 positions in the O’NET-SOC Job Taxonomy.

• Prevue Alliances: We recognize that many Prevue Users and Distributors use Prevue Assessments for aspects of HR Management beyond recruiting and selection. Coaching, training, career planning and succession planning applications are all markets for the use of Prevue Assessments, as well as providing extra value to those who use Prevue Assessments for screening and selection. We intend to expand the offerings in these areas primarily through alliances with parties who focus on aspects of HR management that are beyond our specific expertise in job fit assessments and the hiring process. Such alliances have already been successfully established to support the Prevue Assessment System and in designing and developing Prevue APS Pro.

Although we appreciate the new Prevue business strategy is ambitious we know it is manageable and assures a bright future for the Prevue product offering. The response from Prevue Users to the implementation of the plan that started with the introduction of Prevue APS Pro and the www.prevuehr.com website has been very encouraging. We will however need the support and participation of the worldwide community of Prevue Users and Distributors to make all this happen. We trust we will have your support and we look forward to receiving your feedback on the new components of each of the new Prevue HR systems as they are introduced.

Written by: Ken Danderfer, Prevue HR Systems Inc. August, 2011.

Activities are a major component of PrevueOnline.com, which is your administration site, which communicates with www.assessmentstation.com where candidates take their assessments.  Generally, the activities bring together the assessment scope and the position scope, to determine how many assessment sections you want the candidates to complete and which assessment sections you wish to view when the candidates have completed the assessment.  Activities then communicate to www.assessmentstation.com to indicate which sections that site should allow a candidate to access.  Without association to an activity, your candidates may receive a message on the assessment website indicating that they have completed all of the necessary assessment sections, although this may not be true.

Activities also a number of functions to be carried out, such as allowing self-registration, categorizing candidates, indicating which report package you will pay for after candidates complete the assessment and which assessment scopes to use.  It also allows you to customize the emails that are sent out from Prevueonline.com.  You may customize the invitation email, status notification emails and report emails.  You may also use the Activity to establish which reports you wish to view later, so that the status notification email can include hyperlinks to the PrevueOnline.com reports you wish to view for each candidate associated to a particular activity.  If required by the Activity, the reports can also be emailed to the predetermined recipients indicated within the Activity.

Question: Are our assessments set-up to send an invitation email to the email address entered for the candidate?   I used my own email address to send myself the candidate’s invitation, but I never received the email.

Check the Email Message History page, located under the Administration column, to determine how emails are being sent out.  If the emails are going out from info@prevueonline.com the site is using the System Standard Email address.  This is the system default email address and it could be going to your junk mail.  If not, then it may be blocked by your mail server since it is a server generated email and you will need to ask your IT department to safe list this.

It is also important to check your candidate list and note whether the candidate has a last invite date listed next to their name.  If there is no last invite date displayed, this means the candidate was not added to an activity and no email was sent out from PrevueOnline.com.

Generally, this could mean that the candidate was likely added using the New Candidate Page, and an Activity was not selected using the Activity drop down menu.

To send an invitation to an existing candidate, go to the Prevue Wizard; choose an activity from the drop down menu and then click on “Choose from Existing Candidates”.  Find your candidate in the list on the left, highlight the name and add the candidate to the Selected Items side.  Once the Candidate appears in the list on the right side of the screen, click OK at the bottom of that page to return to the Prevue Wizard.  On the Prevue Wizard page click “OK” again at the bottom to send out the email.

As for the confirmation page, there is no way to see that information again without using the Prevue Wizard and inviting the candidates again.  You can obtain the candidate login details by going to Candidate List, clicking the magnifying glass next to their name, and reviewing the summary at the top left.  You may also review the Email Message History page to see exactly which emails were sent and to which email addresses.

Confirming the Value of Assessments

• Aberdeen research into the use of talent assessments over the last four years has shown that assessments are an incredibly valuable tool in the hiring, development and future planning processes in an organization. Organizations using assessments saw on average 18% more of their organizational goals achieved and 15% more of their new hires achieving their first performance milestone on time. (Aberdeen)
• The data gathered demonstrates again and again that as powerful a tool as assessments are in improving hiring decisions, when combined with a process for ongoing assessments throughout the talent lifecycle, they become even more valuable. (Aberdeen)
• Despite a still-tepid hiring climate, spending on assessments rose about 20 % in the US last year to between 1.5 and $2 billion annually (Workforce)
• The biggest reason organizations use a personality assessment comes down to job fit. Skill is important but skill is something you can teach.(Aberdeen Group)

Current Goals for the Use of Assessments

• Organizations are looking to assessments to help them make better selection and development decisions. When an organization invests in hiring it is not only looking for the skills required today, but to also meet the challenges of the future. (Aberdeen)
• Top performing organizations place more value on assessment data for more decisions than average or poor performing organizations. The major area of difference is that top performing organizations use their assessments to help them understand the future potential of their workforce. (Aberdeen)
• There is continued but slow movement in thinking that assessments should be an engaging experience for the applicant (Dr. Handler) – but that appears to be more talk than action. Although 80% of organizations say they are conscious and concerned about the candidate’s experience in applying for a job with their organization, less than half that number are taking steps to monitor applicant reactions (SHL)

Ideas on How to Make Better Use of Assessments

• The use of assessments for pre-hire boosts performance on several key metrics, but using them for post-hire boosts performance even further. The primary post-hire areas where top performing organizations commonly use assessments are: (1) Onboarding; and (2) Career and Succession planning.(Aberdeen)
• Top performing organizations use multiple assessment tools for specific employee groups and decision points but the top three are (1) behavioral based personality assessments, (2) skill-based assessments, (3) cognitive ability assessments. (Aberdeen, Workforce & SHL)
• A large majority of best-in-class organizations have automated assessments into their recruitment process, integrating them with their career portal and applicant tracking or processing system. This automation is yielding impressive performance improvements in key hiring metrics including improved hiring manager satisfaction and greater reduction in both time and cost to hire. (Aberdeen)

Interesting Trends

• The use of remote testing (on home computers) continues to increase with over83% of professionals indicating they allow candidates to test remotely (SHL)
• Testing via mobile devices (smart phones and other handheld computers) is emerging slowly but is expected to increase significantly in coming years.
• Social media is being used to advertise job openings and source candidates by an ever growing number of organizations. Of those organizations who are using social media in the recruitment process over 1/3 use social media to contact prospective candidates through networking sites such as Linked In and 30% use social media to source or locate candidates, essentially using social media as an advertising medium. (SHL)

If you would like more information on these studies or if you have questions on how the use of Prevue Assessments products relate to these study findings please contact your Prevue Assessments representative or support@prevueassessments.com.

Article contributed by: Kenneth J. Danderfer, Prevue Assessments. July 2011

References:

• Assessments 2011, Mollie Lombardie, Aberdeen Group, May 2011.
• Trends in the World of Pre-Employment Testing for 2011, Dr. Charles Handler, February 3, 2011.
• 2011 Global Assessment Trends Report, Sarah S. Fallaw Ph.D. & Tracy M. Kantrowitz Ph.D. SHL Previsor (Link to Report)
• More Companies Go With Online Tests to Fill in the Blanks, Ed Frauenheim, Workforce Technology

Book review  contributed by Dona Plewis of Grasslands Group

The inside cover of this book aptly summarizes why the topic of staffing assessments is important, what the reader can achieve from the book, and how the book is organized. This book review will provide a narrative of the key points I gleaned from reading the book.  As the book is written so clearly, many of the statements or paragraphs below are direct quotes, starting with:

“People are not your most important asset.  The right people are.” Jim Collins, Good to Great¹

This premise begins the introduction to Hiring Success and is supported throughout the entirety of the book.  With the multiple types of staffing assessments on the market, finding a book that clearly, decisively, and extensively discusses every aspect of staffing assessments in a non-technical manner is refreshing.

Why do we use assessments?  Ultimately, the reason is to improve performance outcomes which are measured through improved employee retention, increased productivity, better customer service, and the chance to achieve higher sales revenue.  For an organization to be effective, they require people with diverse attributes and skills.  If an assessment is used that places all candidates into one mold, that will negatively affect operations.  Hiring departments need a tool which allows them to focus on hiring candidates whose mix of skills complement each other.

One phrase that struck me was “the choice to give or deny someone a job is not a trivial decision”.    Every hiring manager is looking for the answer to “if I hire this person is he/she going to do what I want him/her to do?” and “will they remain on the job long enough to justify the costs related to recruitment and training”?  They seek a way to answer these questions and look to assessments to provide the answer.

The author very concisely covers many of the common criticisms of staffing assessments.  He also discusses the various (13) assessment methods and gives recommendations on what assessment methods to use.  One comment he made about Method 9: Localized Scoring – is that assessment results are only meaningful if they provide information that allows us to accurately predict whether some candidates are likely to be more or less effective than other candidates who might be hired.  This method (9) involves norming and criteria validation and optimization – this is one of the key areas where Prevue Assessments are aligned with the recommendations set out in the book.

We all know that assessments should be used whenever the value they provide by increasing the accuracy of the hiring decisions outweighs the costs associated with using them.  As the final hiring decision is made by people, assessments only work if they are being used appropriately and consistently.  There is a chance that, once implemented, the turnover rate of the company may increase in the short term as new employees are assimilated into the organization.  As the company fills vacancies with the new employees, the work environment will shift and the high-turnover rate will become the retention rate.

In organizations of all sizes, the difference in value of a great hire and the cost of a bad hire is apparent.   The financial value of this high- versus low-performing employee is referred to in the book, as “the performance variance”.  Assessments prove to be most valuable when they are used to select candidates for positions that have high levels of performance variance.  That said, if companies have a high turnover rate for jobs with low performance variances, assessments can provide substantial value.

The final chapter discusses the principles of implementing staffing assessments into a Company’s hiring process with examples listed on processes for entry-level and professional level positions.

With approximately 25% of the world’s six billion people being employed, the author contends that if they end up working in the right job, it will have a profound effect on every aspect of their life.  Unfortunately, suboptimal staffing decisions create job failures.  With the correct use of a staffing assessment and the Internet access, companies have a variety of choices to improve their odds of making good hires.  The question isn’t whether staffing assessments work but how do we get more companies to take advantage of the value?  This book stated its goal to be to ‘help companies hire people who are more likely to succeed in their jobs’.  If more companies read this book and take greater advantage of the benefits of staffing assessment tools, the author states that the results will be a happier workforce  – resulting in more production, satisfied customers, increased profitability, a stronger economy and, ultimately, a more stable world.

^1. Collins., J (2001). Good to great: Why some companies make the leap…and others don’t. New York:HarperCollins.