Improved candidate selection

Improved candidate selection and recruitment is becoming increasingly important as HR departments look to transform their staffing resources into competitive advantage.

Unfortunately, resumés and simple interviews are no longer enough to guarantee the recruitment of top talent. So how do you ensure your new hires have the skills and ‘cultural fit’ to help drive the business forward? Wonderlic’s Rick Betori answers your questions…

Rick Betori has over 20 years of sales management, marketing and business development experience. As Executive Vice President at Wonderlic, his responsibilities include directing all business development efforts for the company and creating new solutions that enable clients to improve their hiring effectiveness and maximize employee productivity. Rick also oversees all operations of Wonderlic Education Solutions, a separate business unit created specifically to serve vocational post-secondary schools. Prior to joining Wonderlic, Rick was Principal of INSinc Management Consulting, a Chicago-area consulting firm specializing in strategic consultation and business process design.

Problem #1
“I’ve been tasked with finding out what ‘cutting-edge’ companies are doing in regard to candidate selection and recruitment. What are the forward-thinking companies doing in this regard? Are there any new or unique methods/best practices being used by cutting-edge companies to recruit and retain the best employees?”

Rick Betori says: Progressive companies understand that human capital should be a competitive advantage and something that they continually look to improve. Not only do they use the most scientific methods in employee selection, they realize that hiring the right employees is just one step in the employment process, developing and retaining talented people is another challenge all together.

The first step in modern hiring starts with a streamlined process where HR staff time is only focused on the most qualified candidates. Thanks to the internet and interactive telephone processes, traditional pre-screening phone calls and a wide range of pre-employment tests are now automated and objective. Since data collection is much easier and information analysis more effective, companies now utilize information from their specific hiring history to improve future selection processes.

The second step includes consistent programs that address employee development and retention. Successful companies focus on two key words: regular communication. These companies recognize that their employees are by far their greatest asset and try to make it easy for them to provide input. Some examples include:

• New hire surveys that gather feedback from employees that are new to your organization or department. This information can help identify early voluntary terminations that are costly to any company.
• Yearly employee surveys that help to identify areas of concern and provide a platform that drives action plans for company improvement.
• Multi-source feedback solutions (360-degree review programs) that provide valuable input for employee developmental purposes and performance evaluations.

All of these solutions employ objective measurement rather than gut feeling. The days of hiring someone based upon a resumé, a diploma and an interview are long gone.

Problem #2
“Our small(ish) firm of 150 employees recently experienced problems with placements that didn’t measure up to expectations. One candidate interviewed well but was found to be a disruptive influence; the skill sets of another failed to match up to their CV. How can we improve the screening/assessment process to ensure we hire staff that provide a good fit for the company and its culture? Our experience is that one hiring mistake can actually have a detrimental effect on a large number of people…”

Rick Betori says: As you suggest, one bad hire can negatively affect an entire team, particularly in a smaller company. In order to ensure that you are employing those candidates with the highest opportunity for success in your company, you need to incorporate some objective measurement into your selection process, even as it relates to cultural fit. Your success rate will also improve with a defined process focused on job requirements that is documented and consistently followed. Here are a few suggestions that should help you.

Start by defining what work needs to be performed to achieve success in each of the positions you are recruiting to fill. This is accomplished by completing a job analysis, a structured process used by professionals with backgrounds in I/O psychology to identify the core competencies required for a specific position. The most accurate selection decisions are made by comparing applicant qualifications to job requirements and competencies.

Second, consider incorporating web and/or IVR (telephone) pre-screening tools to quickly identify those candidates who meet your minimum employment requirement. Linking these tools to your website or job board is easier than you think and will save you both time and money.

Next, utilize scientifically validated assessments to measure the competencies identified during the job analysis. Make sure to follow the test publisher’s administration recommendations. These tests can range from standardized measures of basic skills, specific skills, ability, personality and reliability to customized solutions designed for your organization. While there are some standard predictive solutions available to assess the likelihood of disruptive behaviour, for example, make sure you leverage the expertise your test vendor provides to ensure the most accurate overall test selection.

Finish your interview process with structural behavioural interview questions specifically developed for each position. By providing a consistent set of questions for each applicant, and scoring the responses on a numerical scale, the interview provides a more focused and objective way to compare applicants to each other and the requirements of the job. This is particularly helpful to managers who are not regularly involved in the selection process.

Problem #3
“We find that most candidates can work out a way to look good on paper; our difficulty is that we need real problem-solvers, and these skills aren’t always obvious from a resume. How do we go about introducing testing to the hiring process to help find good problem-solvers? Are there any dos and don’ts?”

Rick Betori says: Clearly resumés and even educational achievement only tell you part of the story. Let’s face it, resumés are written from the candidate’s point of view in pursuit of his/her employment. And the meaning of an educational degree varies by the school or college.

Generally speaking, the factor that determines a person’s ability to solve problems is cognitive ability. In fact, cognitive ability is the single most powerful predictor of job success for almost any position. The question is what level of cognitive ability is required to succeed in your position? The best way to introduce cognitive ability or any other type of testing into your company is as follows:

• Create a job description for your position by completing a needs assessment and job analysis for your specific position. Not only will this help you select the proper assessments, but it will also aid in designing pre-screening and interview questions that address your specific concerns. This process should be completed using your testing vendor’s expertise to ensure accuracy and proper application.
• Work with your testing partner to determine the proper placement of these tools in your existing process. In many cases, you will have to change your current practices but it will be well worth the effort.
• Document ‘what is changing’ and invite interviewing and hiring managers involved in the process to offer input. Over communicate and encourage involvement so that when you are ready to roll out your ideas, you will have already gained a level of acceptance to the testing process.
• Conduct a pilot involving a few key managers or positions to explore how testing impacts your hiring effectiveness. It is very important to establish performance objectives for your pilot and make sure you work with a partner who can provide you with proper measurement and analysis.
• Standardize and document your process so that your assessment solutions are embedded in your company’s procedures moving forward.
• Thoroughly train those involved in the process to ensure further acceptance and use. Users will need to be trained on process, technologies, test interpretation, and reporting. Again, make sure your test partner is positioned to provide you with the services you need.

Problem #4
“I’m an (overworked!) in-house recruiter. I typically have 25 or more open requisitions to fill for which I must review resumes, conduct phone-screenings and perform on-site interviews. All of these take a good deal of time to do properly. How can I meet my ‘time-to-fill’ goal without sacrificing quality-of-hires? Can I cut back on some of these processes and still provide full-service to clients (department heads, hiring managers, etc.)?”

Rick Betori says: You should never eliminate key processes that add value to the hiring decision, but rather you should incorporate solutions that deliver efficiency and enable your efforts. In fact, automating your process should ultimately increase quality. As mentioned in the answer to a previous question, using pre-screening and assessment solutions can positively impact your hiring efforts. As you review your current process, keep these ideas in mind:

• Utilize pre-screening tools to narrow your applicant pool to only qualified candidates – work smarter, not harder.
• Before bringing candidates in for an interview, use tools that will help you determine if they will even have a chance in the face-to-face interview process. Since many tests are designed to be administered remotely over the internet, you can efficiently screen candidates even further to fit your specific needs well in advance of a scheduled interview. When remote testing is selected, you should always follow-up to validate a candidate’s results during a live interview.
• Based on the number of open requisitions you are managing today, you should also investigate some additional technologies to streamline your path to qualified candidates. applicant tracking systems (ATS) are very effective at helping recruiters manage their recruiting and candidate tracking activity and there are a host of solutions available to meet almost any sized company. In lieu of a complete ATS, you will want to at least make sure you have the ability to manage key elements in the process such as resumé collection/pooling, application completion, authorization for background checking, pre-screening results, testing results and results analysis.
• Use advertising sources that provide you with the best applicants. Start by tracking where your applicants are coming from (newspaper, friends, signs, internet, etc.) and record which sources yield the best hires. Then narrow your recruiting focus to those sources.

Problem #5
“Management is currently putting pressure on us to show the returns on our hiring investments. What is the most efficient way to measure cost per quality hire? And are there any employment selection techniques that have proven to show healthy ROI?”

Rick Betori says: The two most common areas to measure include measuring both cost/hire as you suggest, and productivity.

The most effective way to measure cost per hire begins with understanding the costs associated with each step in your process. You will need to capture all of the ‘hard’ (actual expenditures such as advertising, training and recruiting fees) and ‘soft’ (time spent interviewing, loss of training and productivity) costs impacting your process and divide the total expense by the number of hires made. This average is considered your cost/hire and your cost of turnover can be quickly calculated by multiplying your cost/hire by the number of hires made due to turnover.

The best way to determine if your hiring process is having a positive impact on performance (positive ROI) is to validate specific steps in your hiring practice that you believe make a difference, and link them to desired performance measurements. For example, many companies will benchmark or validate their assessment scores and link a candidate’s responses during the interview process to their ultimate job performance. This practice not only quantifies productivity improvement and revenue contribution, but also guides future hiring decisions.

Using pre-screening tools and job-specific assessment practices will show immediate cost savings and positive ROI as you look to reduce your cost/hire expense. Work with a vendor who can demonstrate the impact of their tools and even help you present ROI information at an executive level. As far as productivity is concerned, consider investing in a validation study or benchmark study to provide you with the objective analysis and consultative partnership you need. While the investment in these solutions can be expensive, understanding the links between candidate information collected during the selection process to on-the-job performance can have a lasting impact on your bottom line.