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.

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

The Need: First and foremost the company needed to reduce turnover. At the same time they wanted to hire consistently better people without increasing their time or cost to hire. The company had tried several tools and programs to remedy the problem but none had proved successful.

The Solution: As the first step in developing a hiring solution the Prevue Consultant worked with the company to identify the employees who best represented the profile of a top performing Collection Agent.  The selected employees were invited to take all three Prevue Assessments, namely the Prevue Abilities Test, the Prevue Interest Inventory and the Prevue Personality Inventory.  At the same time four of the company’s best supervisors were invited to complete an online job survey that asked specific questions regarding the demands and expectations of a collection agent.

Both the testing of the top performing employees and the completion of the job surveys were administered online using the Prevue Assessment System.  Once completed the assessment results of the job incumbents and the surveys from the supervisors were analyzed to provide a Prevue Job Fit Benchmark for the collection agent position within this company’s unique environment.  This benchmark defined the preferred profile of abilities, interests and personality traits of a collection agent.

Typically a Prevue Job Fit benchmark is used by a customer to identify the best or most ideal candidate for a job opening and is quite specific or restricted. As with many high turnover positions the types of persons who perform well in the collection agent position are more diverse. In these cases the benchmark is used more for screening than selection. The company needed to identify and screen out applicants who were not likely a good fit to the demands of the collection agency position or the company’s work environment.

The Prevue consultant therefore widened the benchmark for most of the abilities, interests and personality trait measures that are addressed by the Prevue Assessments. At the same time, those measures that were proven to be more significant predictors of top performers were identified and emphasized in the company’s hiring process. Although this modified benchmark qualified a higher number of applicants it was effective at distinguishing those who did not exhibit a basic level of job fit.  This approach enabled the hiring manager and her recruiters to focus their limited time and resources on those applicants who were more likely to exhibit the attributes that are typical of top performers. Thus the company was effectively using the Job Fit benchmark to identify poor fit applicants before devoting time to an in depth review of those applicants’ resumes and conducting interviews.

The company implemented a policy to test every applicant and interview only those who exhibited an 80% match to the benchmark.   Further, the hiring manager and her recruiting staff used the Interview questions provided in the Prevue Selection report to focus quickly on areas where an applicant might be challenged by the demands of the position.

This revised screening and interviewing process resulted in reduction of the turnover rate for the position to 31% in 6 months. After 2 years the collection department had reduced their turnover to less than 20% and attributed the implementation of the Prevue Assessments System as one of the major contributors to this success.

Written by: Mike Campanella & Ken Danderfer

June 6, 2011

Although not extensively promoted, a software career planning application of the Prevue Assessments was introduced in North America as early as 1995 under the Career Mapper brand. A UK version of Career Mapper was developed in 2001 supported by the UK Occupations 2000 job taxonomy, a significant improvement over the earlier North American version. Online testing was developed for the UK version in 2003 but required the use of Career Mapper software to generate a report. Career Mapper was merged into the Prevue family with the introduction of Prevue for Careers in the UK in early 2009.

A new North American version of Prevue for Careers is to be designed in 2011, prompted in part by the success of the UK version, but more significantly by some very exciting new Prevue research and development work that will be brought to market in 2011. The Prevue psychometricians have been mapping the scales of the Prevue Assessments to the relevant domains of the O’NET Job Content model. This research will ultimately enable the development of valid Prevue Benchmarks for every occupation in the O’NET-SOC Job Taxonomy starting with the 1000+ occupations that are currently available. Although this research was initiated for the purpose of developing a valid and reliable Prevue Benchmark Library for screening and selection applications, it will be obvious that the use of the Benchmark Library is a slam dunk opportunity for matching career seekers to the 1000 + occupations in the O’NET-SOC job Taxonomy. Not only will Users be able to identify their best job match prospects, they will have immediate access to extensive information regarding the requirements and demands of any position in the Taxonomy.

If you would like more information on this subject or would be interested in acting as an advisor in the design of the new North American version of Prevue for Careers, please send us a note to that effect at support@prevueassessments.com.

We hope all of you are looking forward to 2011 as much as we here are at Prevue Assessments. Prevue for Careers is only one of several developments we’ll be working on through 2011. We hope it will ultimately be recorded as a watershed year for everyone in the Prevue family. We extend our best wishes to all of you for a healthy, happy and productive 2011.

Written by Ken Danderfer
December 10, 2010

• Assessments are job suitability tests that are given to job applicants either online or in pencil and paper format before they are hired or promoted.  Assessments are also used for coaching, training and team building activities.
• To be most effective, the assessment should be designed to specifically test for qualities or attitudes that are important for the job by comparing the applicant to a benchmark of the knowledge, skills, abilities and behavior required in the job.
• Tests are based on valid principles of psychology and should be designed and developed by occupational psychologist with expertise in job profiling and test design. Such persons are referred to as Psychometrists.

Q&A

1. What kinds of small businesses find these assessments most helpful? (e.g. size of company, industries)

A: The heaviest use of testing is for the following types of jobs;

• Managerial/supervisory at the entry and mid levels of management
• Technical professionals like programmers
• Sales
• Customer Service
• Call Centres

2. What is the average cost of a new hire for a small business?  This would be based on research you might have done in support of your service.

A:  Cost to hire data is generally only collected by larger companies that have a recruiting department or by recruiting firms. Smaller companies tend to focus more on cost of turnover. In other words, what is the cost of a bad hire? I’ve commented on this subject in question # 5.

3. What problems or challenges do assessments resolve for small business?

A:  Testing is generally focused on two aspects of job performance. The first and most simple is “Skills testing” to measure knowledge on subjects like software programs. The second and somewhat more mysterious is “Job Fit testing” to match applicants to the demands or preferred behaviours of specific positions, usually measured by abilities, interests and personality tests (the Prevue Assessments are Job Fit Assessments).

There is an old saying that “people are hired on skills and fired on fit”. Skills testing assure the candidate actually has the knowledge required for a position while Job Fit testing provides information on whether the candidate will be comfortable addressing the demands of the position in terms of things like ability to assimilate new information quickly, conscientiousness, interest in working with people, capacity to deal with stress, etc.

4. How expensive and time-consuming is it to get an assessment prepared?

A:  With the advent of online testing in the 1990’s the time required to administer a test to job applicants has been reduced to minutes. The cost of testing is usually dependent on the volume of tests used by an employer, and depending on the types of tests that are used and the amount of support required or requested by the employer.  Prevue Distributors may also charge a consulting fee.

5. How many hires or how long do you expect it would take for the assessments to pay for themselves in saved HR costs?

A:  We expect our Prevue Assessments will more than pay for themselves from the first hire made with the use of assessments. Most turnover is caused by lack of job fit – things such as the inability to close sales, reluctance to make sales calls, failure to make timely decisions, failure to complete and deliver reports, failure to show up to work on time. Information from valid and reliable job fit assessments can provide insight into the characteristics that cause these behaviours.

Cost of turnover has been proven to be at least 30% of an employee’s annual salary and anywhere up to 100% of that annual salary, depending on the extent of recruiting and training costs that are related to the position. So if you can reduce turnover by even as little as 5 to 10%, the cost of testing the best 2 or 3 applicants for a position is pretty cheap relative to the return – and that ignores the cost and interruption to the performance of the manager and fellow workers.

6. How do you think the assessments would help an immigrant business owner (or someone whose first language is not English) to improve their business?

A: This is tough one. Although the concept of typing people based on intelligence, personality and interests goes back almost as far as recorded history, modern business testing was only borne in WW II through the efforts of the English and the British to place people in military positions where they would be most effective. Thus most test development has, until recently, been based upon a white English speaking population. That situation and the use of assessments have however undergone significant change over the last 25 years with the introduction of testing in virtually every corner of the globe. Thus, we at Prevue Assessments have developed and validated versions of our Prevue Assessments in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and Arabic and are scheduled to complete translations to German, Russian, Mandarin, Polish and Japanese.

Testing is definitely finding a market in all cultures and languages so there is no reason why immigrant business owners should not take advantage of these tools in whatever language they or their job applicants prefer.