The study was commissioned by the British Columbia Securities Commission, who surveyed over 3,000 youth aged 17 to 20. The key finding: the average respondent expects their salary to be $90,735 within 10 years. To put it another way, the average 20 year old expects to make 3 times the average income of a current 29 year old, by the time they reach 29.

Where did these unrealistic expectations come from? I remember being in my early 20′s. I put a few dents in my credit rating. I also never really had anyone sit down and go over budgeting with me until I was older. Goldengirlfinance.ca, who originally covered this report, give some great advice for ways to help youth understand finance.

What advice would/have you given to those on the cusp of starting their careers and looking to be high earners? Share in the comments below.

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?

Here are a few key stats they shared that we found very interesting:

• 85% of applicants are unfit for the job
• 55% of employees are dissatisfied with their job
• 46% of new hires leave within 18 months
• 30% of business failures are due  to poor hiring decisions

They also mention that by taking 2 hours between the job applicant and the hiring manager, you can increase your profit-per-employee by up to 2.5x.

Enjoy!

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?

Questions:

1. How Do Tests Help Businesses?
2. What Kinds of Things Do Tests Measure In Business?
3. Is it Legal To Use Tests in Hiring?
4. Why Do Companies Rely on Tests?
5. Do Tests Invade People’s Privacy?
6. Do Tests Prevent Qualified People From Getting Hired or Promoted?
7. Should A Person Be Hired or Promoted on the Basis of the Results of Tests Alone?

HOW DO TESTS HELP BUSINESS?

Business organizations use a variety of tests as aids in hiring, placing, or promoting employees. Tests can help human resource professionals find the right person for the right job as well as advance an employee along a career path that makes the best use of his or her talents and strengths. Tests can be also be used in putting together effective teams or work groups and in helping them to operate well together. Testing, when properly used, results in more motivated, productive, and satisfied workers and less friction and dissatisfaction in the work force.

WHAT KINDS OF THINGS DO TESTS MEASURE IN BUSINESS?

Employers sometimes use certain tests to help judge an applicants suitability for a particular kind of job or level of responsibility in other words, to match persons to the jobs for which they are best suited. Tests may also measure specific aptitudes such as mechanical skills or sales abilities, or characteristics such as trustworthiness.

Tests are also used to determine the training needs of organizations, their departments or sections, and employees. Test results can indicate whether individuals know how to do their jobs and which specific task need additional improvement. Human resource departments can use this information to target training needs and implement interventions that support increased productivity. Tests can also measure the effectiveness of training that has been conducted in the organization.

IS IT LEGAL TO USE TESTS IN HIRING?

Yes. Tests are just one of a number of procedures that have a legitimate place in making employment decisions. Certainly some kinds of questions for example, about age, religion, or other private and protected information may not be asked and tests used in hiring decisions must be designed with this in mind. But these concerns are not limited to tests. The same federal and state guidelines that apply to tests also apply to interviews, background checks, and so on.

WHY DO COMPANIES RELY ON TESTS?

Tests have several advantages over traditional interviews and other commonly used employee hiring and placement procedures. Tests are even-handed; they ask the same questions of everyone. Tests typically require less time than interviews, so they are more efficient in obtaining job-related information. Appropriate tests have been carefully screened to be fair and unbiased and not to ask for improper information. Tests allow the persons answers to be compared with hundreds or even thousands of other peoples answers to the same question under the same standard conditions. Finally, the decisions made from test results are based on research studies that prove their accuracy and effectiveness. No other procedure can make these claims.

DO TESTS INVADE PEOPLES PRIVACY?

It is possible that a misuse of a test could result in an invasion of privacy. For example, a clinical test intended for use in medical settings should not be used as a part of routine employment screening. But well-designed tests that are used for their intended purposes do not ask questions that invade a persons privacy.

Also it is true that people are sometimes unaware of what they are revealing about themselves by taking the test. However, taking a test is in many ways like answering questions during an interview. A person is equally unsure about inferences or interpretations made by an interviewer. The difference is that the questions on tests have been screened for fairness, are applied consistently to everyone, and that the resulting interpretations are based on research that has proved them to be reliable, fair, and valid. On the other hand, the opinions of an interviewer are just one persons views, however experienced that person may be, and interviewers can be distracted and influenced by prejudices of which they may not even be aware.

DO TESTS PREVENT QUALIFIED PEOPLE FROM GETTING HIRED OR PROMOTED?

Employment screening involves the selection of some people over others. Sometimes there will be more qualified people applying for a position than can be hired. A properly chosen test has an important place in selecting the candidate with the best fit to the position. Using other procedures without considering the results of a good test will tend to rule out more qualified people than will a procedure that includes an appropriate test.

SHOULD A PERSON BE HIRED OR PROMOTED ON THE BASIS OF THE RESULTS OF TESTS ALONE?

Even a battery of tests should not be the sole deciding factor in hiring or promotion. Properly used, tests are only one part of a process that includes other steps such as application forms, personal interviews, supervisor ratings, and background checks. Considered together, the results of these techniques can provide a more comprehensive picture of an individual to help an employer make the right decision for both the employee and the company.

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?

• 68% of companies surveyed have no executive team replacement strategy in place
• 52% expect to pay the upcoming replacement executives a higher salary, despite a probable drop in performance, compared to their counterparts

Those are some sobering numbers. Take a look at your current staff. How many do you think will be retiring or even moving on within the next 5 years? Do you have a succession plan in place?

Link to full report: http://bit.ly/xba24y

A 2011 study published by SHL confirmed that although over 80% of companies believe candidate reactions to the hiring process are important, less than half of those companies do anything to monitor candidate reaction and even fewer actually use the metrics they do collect. We reviewed the study in a previous post.

So let’s look again at why it’s important to be concerned about the candidate’s experience with the job application process. Amongst other things a poor candidate experience can lead to:

• Increased candidate dropout – and more often than not it is the best candidates who are dropping out because they have their choice of jobs.
• Negative word-of-mouth exposure through the ubiquitous social networks and employer criticism sites like Glassdoor.com that discourages other job applicants.
• Impairment of the Company’s brand that ultimately reduces sales and discourages prospective customers.

As testing or assessment is part of the hiring process it deserves the same attention to the candidate experience as any other part of the hiring process – maybe more so because the testing step can be one of the more stressful steps in the job application process.

With all of this in mind we’re going to be adding new features in the coming months to the Prevue Assessments test administration site, to enhance the candidate’s testing experience. (www.assessmentstation.com):

1. Provide candidates with samples of the Prevue Assessment before they challenge the Prevue Assessments they have been assigned.
2. Develop FAQ for test takers to address the following subjects:
   1. What is the purpose of the Prevue Assessments and what do they measure?
   2. How are the results of the Prevue Assessments used?
   3. What can a test taker do to get the best results?
3. Upgrade the test instructions to address the most common issues encountered by test takers. For example we will repeat the instructions and add a new graphic to discourage test takers from using their keyboard instead of their mouse which can result in their test session being terminated.
4. Installing a chat facility at the test administration site to enable test takers to ask questions and make suggestions.

What has been some of the feedback you’ve received about the candidate’s testing experience?

After seeing mixed success rates in students that were accepted into the program and noticing increased student stress levels, Program Director Bette Wildgust, CRNA MS MSN, decided to take action.   She contacted Mike Campanella at Prevue HR to see how Prevue’s Job Fit Assessments could be transferred into her anesthesia program. Together, with the support of a number of teams, they developed a benchmark that indicates the traits of top performing students. The created benchmark was the result of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, from both the clinical and academic faculty, volunteering to take the Prevue Personality Assessment test.  Prevue, consulting with faculty, HR professionals and leading psychometricians, were able to analyze and determine what common factors existed amongst successful Nurse Anesthetists.

“Not surprising in the results, a person’s level of Stability proved to be the top indicator of future performance” notes Ken Danderfer, COO of Prevue HR. “What came as a bit of a shock to us was just how significant that measurement would be and how much it guides the coaching process.”

“Once a new student takes the assessment, we have instant access to a wealth of information that can take months to notice through observation and interviews alone” states Bette Wildgust . “With this data, we can provide targeted coaching to each individual student, to help ensure their success in the program.” Bette goes on to explain how her staff are learning more and more about areas that individual students may struggle with and are able to recommend adaptive behaviors to help the student cope effectively, keeping the student’s success paramount.

While Crozer Chester Medical Center/Villanova University Nurse Anesthesia Program has been the pioneering force behind this advancement in student on-boarding and coaching; they are enthusiastic about inviting other Nurse Anesthesia programs to investigate Prevue HR and encouraging schools to partner together and share findings.

To learn more about the assessment and benchmarking process and to order the system for your own program, contact Mike Campanella at 888.277.3883 x228 or email sales@prevuehr.com

Since 1996 Prevue HR Systems Inc. (formerly known as Prevue Assessments) has been providing companies with HR assessment and online recruiting systems. These systems improve hiring success and retention, increase the speed of hire and enhance employee development.

http://www.prevuehr.com/hr-tools/nurse-anesthesia.html

A: The candidate may have been archived or is disqualified due to the responses given in the screening questions of the application process.

Q: A candidate who completed the assessment appears to be in the Disqualified Candidate List.  How did the candidate become disqualified?

A: The candidate was likely disqualified by failing to give the required response to an essential requirement examined in one of screening questions.  The system would automatically tag the candidate as disqualified and he/she will not appear in your dashboard unless you choose to view the disqualified candidate list.  The dashboard displays only the qualified candidates by default.