The Tru Files - Assessments

The Tru Files - Assessments

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  e Tru Files ASSESSMENTS 3 4.0 TRU HEAT INDEX @BillBoorman and Sally Hunter
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  10 /02 EVENTS 8,000field of recruiting. 48 We scoured presentations and conversations from the last twelve months of TRU events to bring you the best forward-looking ideas in the ATTENDEES BIG IDEAS
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  ASSESSMENTS /03 HIGH-VOLUME,LOW-COST ASSESSMENTS WILL HERALD A NEW AGE OF CANDIDATE MATCHMAKING. THE NEW RECRUITING MANTRA: ATTRACT FEWER APPLICANTS.
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  ASSESSMENTS /04 Traditionalassessments—used by HR executives to screen job candidates—are typically developed by academics who may spend years designing, testing and validating psychometric and skills-based evaluation tools. Given the high level of investment, assessment companies charge a lot of money to administer these tests. With per-person fees as high as $2,000, traditional assessments are used for only a small handful of all candidates a company recruits. What’s more, because they are so meticulously designed, these types of assessments are created to last a decade or more without revision. And that’s a problem. The competencies required in many professions look very different today than they did five years ago. Consider the role of a pharmaceutical sales executive. The field now demands highly specialized medical knowledge, expertise with reimbursements and regulation, and consulting skills (compared to the greater emphasis on traditional sales skills seen a decade ago). Long-run assessment tools simply can’t adapt fast enough to keep pace with radically shifting talent demands. HR executives are on the hunt for new and better candidate assessment tools— particularly low-cost, front-end testing that screens all potential job candidates rather than a select few.
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  ASSESSMENTS /05 HRexecutives are on the hunt for new and better solutions—particularly low-cost, front-end assessments that can screen all potential job candidates rather than a select few. They also need highly efficient tests (e.g. boiling down a 400-question test into as few as a dozen key questions) that assess personality and cultural fit. And in highly specialized fields (e.g. software development), HR executives want to test whether candidates truly have the breadth and depth of knowledge they claim to.
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  ASSESSMENTS /06 Overthe last five years, the number of competitors in the market of low-cost, front-end HR assessments has expanded at an aggressive clip. Among the most interesting entrants to this up-and-coming space: Smarterer (http://smarterer.com/) verifies candidates’ skills to make a better job match. The site includes hundreds of crowdsourced knowledge tests (anyone can submit a test to the site and receive feedback), and verifies skills using a combination of scoring and badges. As a social widget, Smarterer can plug in to any career site. jobFig (http://www.jobfig.com/) uses personality—or psychometric—testing to assess job fit, or how well an individual will fit into a company’s culture. The test is unusual in its ability to boil down complex assessments into as few as six or seven questions.
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  /07 Checkster (http://www.checkster.com/)automates reference checking. Checkster reaches out to candidates’ professional contacts (on average six compared to just 2.4 for manual reference checking) and polls them for a more nuanced view of a potential candidate. The company also argues its algorithms prevent fraud more effectively. SmartHires (http://www.smarthires.com/) also automates reference checks. A candidate loads in reference names and contacts, and then the solution seeks out references on the candidate’s behalf. Since the reference request is initiated by the candidate rather than the hiring company, and results are aggregated and anonymized, SmartHire claims it mitigates the legal risk involved in attesting for (or critiquing) past employees. (Plus, previous employers are more likely to be honest when they know their answers will be mixed with others.) ASSESSMENTS
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  /08 eiTalent. (https://eitalent.com/)is an algorithmic tool to search a candidate’s social content (including social updates, comments and authored content) and provide a personality report based on a candidate’s online footprint. Chemistry Group (http://www.thechemistrygroup.com/) offers job seekers and hiring companies an “early detection system,” illustrating how well a particular individual will fit within an organization even before they apply. A graduate student, for example, can take a five-minute test to find out how well their personality matches a variety of participating companies, or more specifically, a particular division of a single company. For the oil company BP, for example, Chemistry Group tested a selection of graduate students BP was actively trying to recruit, and determined where each candidate would best fit within the global organization based on intellect, values, motivations, behaviors and experience. ASSESSMENTS
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  /09 ASSESSMENTS THEGAMIFICATION OF The Good Jobs (https://www.thegoodjobs.com/) is the eHarmony of the assessment marketplace, offering a job board that matches job seekers and hiring companies based on psychometric factors. With all these tools available to hiring companies—and with unit prices substantially lower than traditional psychometric testing—organizations can assess a broader range of candidates, make more informed decisions about skills, and study a candidate’s degree of cultural fit. And many of these tools can be deployed pre-application. Which raises a profoundly interesting question: Is it possible interviewing will be much less important in the near future? If it’s now possible to ask candidates before they’ve formally applied for a position to complete a knowledge assessment (e.g. Smarterer) and skills assessment (e.g. Smarterer or CodeView), share references (e.g. SmartHires and Checkster) and a personality profile (e.g. jobFig), and to verify credentials via professional networks (e.g. LinkedIn), is an interview overkill? ASSESSING SKILLS The notion of awarding digital “badges” for specific achievements or skills is quickly gaining acceptance. Badge icons come from the world of gaming, but are now used by training and development organizations to offer a fast and easy visual verification of skills. Among the pace-setters in this emerging field is Open Badges. The free software offered by Mozilla is an open technical standard any organization can use to create, issue and verify digital badges. Dozens of organizations have joined Open Badges to date, including top-tier universities, professional associations and corporations. To learn more about how companies are using gaming strategies to assess candidates and improve the recruiting process experience, download the Gamification eBook. 4 e Tru Files GAMIFICATION 9 3.5 TRU HEAT INDEX ➔ DOWNLOAD HERE
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  /10 ASSESSMENTS WHYASSESSMENTS MATTER MORE THAN EVER For both recruiters and hiring companies, it’s critical to understand how assessments relate to profound changes in the way companies will secure talent. We’re about to share ideas with you that will up-end the field of recruiting in the next five years. We can all agree the resume is an impractical tool to evaluate an individual’s job suitability. It’s simply an inventory of academic credentials and previous work that communicates little about true ability, knowledge, or personality. LinkedIn offers a bit more: references and endorsements from colleagues, as well as a greater understanding of what issues interest a candidate. And yet, a hiring manager needs much more to pull out one talented candidate from a sea of hundreds. Hiring companies also need more because the nature of work has changed. High-growth organizations no longer want to hire employees (particularly knowledge workers) for long tenures in stable, static jobs. If a healthcare device manufacturer, for example, wants to consider expanding and selling its product in Southeast Asia, it will assemble the proper team of market
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  /11 ASSESSMENTS researchers,forecasters, attorneys and regulatory experts to weigh the market’s potential profitability. These individuals may be company employees, contingent labor, freelancers or consultants; such categories won’t matter as long as the company is recruiting the very best talent to solve that specific, critical problem. But making rapid-fire assessments of skills and fit to assemble such teams simply won’t work using the tools recruiters have in their tool belts today. Traditional credentials such as past employers and alma maters don’t convey an individual’s specialized knowledge and skills. Going forward, recruiters will have to embrace the types of high-volume, low-cost assessment tools discussed here. In time we believe even the notion of an application process will become outdated. If artificial intelligence can analyze the credentials of large pools of people, and select an individual based on knowledge, skills, personality and availability, it’s easy to see how the traditional application process is obsolete. And while it may seem counterintuitive, attracting fewer job applicants is actually a good thing. Technology will winnow the field of attractive candidates such that only a dozen perfectly suited candidates will apply for a job—and that bodes well for both applicants and hiring companies. Why invite someone to apply, after all, if you’re extremely likely to reject them? In any other business, inviting clients to make a purchase, subjecting them to a long and time-consuming application process, and then rejecting 99.8 percent of invitees would simply be considered abysmal customer service.
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  /12 ASSESSMENTS Whyinvite someone to apply, after all, if you’re extremely likely to reject them? In any other business, inviting clients to make a purchase, subjecting them to a long and time-consuming buying process, and then rejecting 99.8 percent of invitees would be considered abysmal customer service. And yet most recruiting practices are designed to do just that. Rather than find the perfect candidate, they are more focused on rejecting legions of applicants. High-quality, artificial intelligence-driven assessments have the potential to tranform recruiting and refocus efforts on locating and truly recruiting viable candidates.
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  /13 ASSESSMENTS: ACTIONABLEINSIGHTS MAP YOUR CURRENT NEEDS One of the biggest shifts we see in the assessments market is the ability to use these tools much earlier in the candidate attraction and hiring process. Rather than assess only the three finalists, why not assess 100 applicants? Easier said than done. Before shopping for assessment tools, take a close look at your hiring process, and what types of assessments (e.g. sourcing, psychometric, skills, reference checking) you would like to introduce at which stages? What value will each serve and which are priorities within your organization? While psychometric testing all candidates may seem attractive, for example, it’s possible your biggest priority is sourcing a stronger pool of applicants. And remember: Assessment technology is but one set of solutions within a much larger portfolio of talent attraction and hiring technologies (a set that includes applicant sourcing, tracking, video interviewing and social recruiting). Consider a holistic approach to talent-related technology, rather than considering each solution independently.
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  ASSESSMENTS: /14 ACTIONABLEINSIGHTS MAP YOUR FUTURE NEEDS As you weigh technology decisions, also consider what you will need three years from now rather than what you want today. Too many organizations fail to appreciate the pace of change within their HR and recruiting departments, and make time-consuming technology adoption decisions that must be replaced within 12–18 months. Think about how your recruiting strategy is evolving, and what a future state may look like. Place calls to current vendors and find out their plans for future add-ons. For example, your applicant tracking system may be readying a new feature you are considering purchasing. For more information about other technologies in the recruiter’s arsenal, download the Video Interviewing and Sourcing Technology eBooks. e Tru Files SOURCING TECHNOLOGY 6 4.0 ➔ DOWNLOAD HERE ➔ DOWNLOAD HERE TRU HEAT INDEX e Tru Files VIDEO INTERVIEWING 4 3.5 TRU HEAT INDEX
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  ASSESSMENTS /15 THE#TRU STORY I first discovered the Unconference concept when I led a track at #RecruitFest in Toronto in 1999. I was taken aback by the way discussion flowed and how different the format was to a traditional conference. I led a track all day under a tree and learnt far more than I gave. Two months later and back in the UK, we ran the first #truLondon at Canary Wharf in November 2009. Today, we’re running dozens of #tru events a year across Europe, North America, Africa and the Asia-Pacific. Thousands of recruiters, HR leaders and providers come together in an informal spirit of information sharing and networking. #tru is based on the BarCamp principle, which means that everybody can be an active participant instead of listening to speakers and watching presentations all day. The emphasis is on communication and the free exchange of ideas and experiences where the participants fuel the conversations. BILL BOORMAN
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  /16 ATTRACT FEWERAPPLICANTS: THIS IS THE NEW RECRUITMENT MANTRA Why? Because assessment tools simply can’t adapt fast enough to keep pace with radically shifting talent demands. Traditional assessment tools and processes are failing to tell HR teams and hiring managers what they really need to know about the suitability of candidates. Resumes offer little more than an inventory of academic credentials and previous work¬; Interviews are time consuming and favour specific personality traits over others. Both communicate very little about true ability, knowledge, or personality of a candidate. Both recruiters and hiring companies are experiencing profound changes in the way they need to secure talent. They are challenged to match hiring to specific business problems, and rapid-fire assessments of skills and cultural fit simply don’t work using the tools recruiters have in their tool belts today. More importantly, however, the very notion of attracting a large volume of unsuitable candidates for a single job opening is being called into question. When many recruitment processes are simply seeking one ideal candidate, what is the purpose of attracting many applicants that are extremely likely to be rejected? The logic is flawed and it’s making the candidate experience less than optimal. Why disappoint a higher number of candidates than is necessary and run the risk of them not applying for a more suitable position when the time comes. Making more informed hiring decisions to meet rapidly evolving business problems is the challenge. This Tru file e-book has the insights to meet them: Assessments @BillBoorman. SALLY HUNTER SALLY HUNTER, RPO Practice Lead EMEA for the Kelly Outsourcing Consulting Group Sally is responsible for the RPO proposition from client relationships via the account management team to consulting on HR transformation. She has extensive experience in the human capital sector, including leadership positions within strategic account management for staffing providers to operational delivery. Sally has also been on the ‘buy/client’ side leading transformational efficiency projects, that have included the outsourcing of large scale recruitment and learning operations. As an independent Consultant, Sally has worked with a number of clients to build the business case for change and shape their HR model in the context of outsourcing partnerships. ASSESSMENTS
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  For more thoughtleadership go to talentproject.com EXIT 2 1 TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF RECRUITING, DOWNLOAD THE FOLLOWING TRU FILES EBOOKS. e Tru Files CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE 2 3.5 TRU HEAT INDEX e Tru Files CULTURE BRANDING 5.0 TRU HEAT INDEX e Tru Files MOBILITY 5 3.5 5.0 5.0 ABOUT KELLY SERVICES® Kelly Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: KELYA, KELYB) is a leader in providing workforce solutions. Kelly® offers a comprehensive array of outsourcing and consulting services as well as world-class staffing on a temporary, temporary-to-hire, and direct-hire basis. Serving clients around the globe, Kelly provided employment to approximately 540,000 employees in 2013. Revenue in 2013 was $5.4 billion. Visit kellyservices.com and connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Download The Talent Project, a free iPad® app by Kelly Services. This information may not be published, broadcast, sold, or otherwise distributed without prior written permission from the authorized party. All trademarks are property of their respective owners. An Equal Opportunity Employer. © 2014 Kelly Services, Inc. TRU HEAT INDEX e Tru Files HIRE WORK, NOT WORKERS 8 TRU HEAT INDEX e Tru Files ASSESSMENTS 3 4.0 TRU HEAT INDEX e Tru Files SOURCING TECHNOLOGY 6 4.0 TRU HEAT INDEX e Tru Files GAMIFICATION 9 3.5 TRU HEAT INDEX e Tru Files VIDEO INTERVIEWING 4 3.5 TRU HEAT INDEX e Tru Files NEW ROLE OF THE RECRUITER 7 TRU HEAT INDEX e Tru Files SOCIAL RECRUITING PERSONALIZATION 4.0 TRU HEAT INDEX