A few years ago, the buzz around pre-hire assessments seemed to be losing some of its luster. With hiring accelerating at a rapid pace, many organizations seemed more concerned with sourcing strategies that reduce time to fill and less interested in assessing candidates based on the right fit for their organization. During previous periods of economic growth, talent acquisition professionals were left scrambling with the task of bringing candidates in the door as quickly as possible. As a result, the criticality of pre-hire assessments often went ignored. Fortunately, the game has changed and we are noticing a tremendous uptick in the pre-hire assessment market. As we slowly enter a period of economic recovery, identifying and attracting quality of hire is now a strategic priority for any best practice organization. Organizations will only achieve these goals with a pre-hire assessment strategy that is based on a set of pre-defined competencies and leverages best-in-class technology. The challenge is selecting those providers that are highly validated and scalable to meet the individual needs of the customer.
What are some of the key differentiators when considering some of these providers? Below are a few examples of how some of the leading pre-hire assessment providers are helping organizations identify the right fit:
1. Moving Assessments Upfront. One of the greatest challenges facing organizations today is resume overload. We can’t seem to hear enough about the endless number of candidates applying for the same job, yet few organizations have found a viable solution. PeopleAnswers providers an assessment solution that helps organizations manage candidate flow by moving assessments to the front of the recruitment process. Companies such as Radioshack can now sort candidates by position before sourcing begins. During the holiday season, Macy’s received approximately 280,000 candidates in a four week period. After moving the assessment process upfront, they were able to cut down on the number of interviews.
2. Simplify the Process. Previsor has created custom solutions to help companies predict future performance including industry specific solutions (healthcare is one example) and the launch of At Home Agent Solution. Last month, this leading assessment provider announced a self-service assessment platform, Professional Edition, to help companies of all sizes assess candidates in minutes using a large library of individual tests. This web-based solution allows customers to simply register, search the library and purchase tests.
3. Competency-Based Assessments. Despite the large number of assessment providers in the market today, few providers have a strong competency library. SHL is an example of one provider with an extensive competency library that can help link pre-hire and post-hire assessments to every area of talent acquisition and talent management. The universal competency framework is used by over 15,000 customers worldwide.
Pre-hire assessments are a critical component of any integrated talent acquisition strategy. We will be addressing this topic during our IMPACT conference in two weeks in St. Petersburg, Florida. I hope to see you there!