Posted by EmployTest - on Thu, Feb 16, 2012 @ 07:05 AM
From our friends at Inc.com, here's an article covering The Four Worst Hiring Mistakes that a manager or business owner can make. However, a better title might be the "Four Different Hiring Personalities" because the article looks at such problems as the over-thinking manager, the perfectionist, last minute manager, and the "just like me" narcissistic manager. Depending on the business requirements at the time, we've at times found ourselves in positions where we displayed some of those behaviors.
If you had to insert pre-employment testing users into one of those categories, they might fall into either the perfectionist or the over-thinking manager. They are looking for the perfect candidate and/or they may give too much weight to the test results. That's why we advocate that the employment test results should not be the sole basis for a hiring decision. Instead the test scores will help complete the true picture of the applicant.
That said, we're not even sure that those represent the actual worst hiring mistakes that can be made, as there was no mention of hiring friends or relatives (our personal favorite). But the mistakes listed there are valid and the article does provide some simple techniques to avoid them in the future.
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Posted by EmployTest - on Wed, Feb 15, 2012 @ 08:16 AM
2011 was another great year for embezzlement, according to Marquet International, a risk management company. Their report from January summarized hundreds of active embezzlement cases from across the country last year and declared that white collar crime was again alive and well.
One of the embezzlement stars of 2011 was a 67 year old bookkeeper who, during her 34 year tenure at Tanklages Construction Company, had taken almost $5,000,000 and used it on vacations and gambling trips. Her loyalty to her job was surely appreciated. Other findings of the report include: 
These criminal activities are not noticed as much in prosperous business times when there's plenty of money floating around. But when business is slower and there's less profit, business owners will pay closer attention to where the money is going. And that's when these criminals get caught.
Did you perform county level criminal background searches on your new hires? If not, you may be hiring those that other companies rejected. We can can help. If you want to explore how our background screening programs work, visit ScreenMyJobApplicants.com.
Would you like a sample of our pre-employment tests? Just visit Try a Test to get started!
Posted by EmployTest - on Mon, Feb 13, 2012 @ 10:23 AM
Last month we started the longest job interview process most of us will ever witness. And it should be long and thorough, given the importance of the position (but perhaps not this long...).
It's our periodic interview for the highest profile position in the country: The President of the United States. Yes, it's election year, folks, in case you've been hiding under a rock for the past few months. And expect the drama it to get more intense as we move through the year. While we won't push our political philosophies on you, we will marvel at the process again this year, as the candidates duke it out to claim the moral and intellectual high ground 
of the United States.
It's truly a job interview, complete with the initial screening process (speeches before the debates), the group interviews (aka "debates"), and then the final interviews, when the applicants go state to state and pitch the voters, much like your candidates would interview with various department heads or teams in your company. And the media is kind enough to do the "background screening" along the way, digging up every piece of dirt they can find.
Unfortunately for us, there's no pre-employment testing for these candidates, so there's no way to predict how they'll perform on the job. Just like with any new hire, there will be surprises. Yet it is the ultimate interview process, covered in every minute detail and laid out before our very eyes. Stay tuned, it will be fun to watch....
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Posted by EmployTest - on Fri, Feb 03, 2012 @ 02:27 PM
Good news today from the US Department of Labor. The January unemployment rate dropped by 0.2%, which brings it down to 8.3% percent. The rate is down almost a full percentage point since August of last year. The overall employment numbers increased by 243,000 workers. Those gains 
were spread across many areas, including Professional and Business Services, Hospitality/Leisure and Manufacturing.
About half of the Business Services increase happened in "Employment Services" category, which shows our friends in the Staffing Industry were doing the heavy lifting in that segment. Government employment didn't change much, which isn't surprising, given the current political climate. No politicians are eager to increase government spending in an election year.
It's still early, but have you seen less applicants for your open positions?
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Posted by EmployTest - on Wed, Dec 28, 2011 @ 01:45 PM
Too many applicants? Try using some of
Google's interview questions...
Just like you, Google and other high profile companies are flooded with job applicants for every open position. Here's a sampling of interview questions that have been used, according to a Wall Street Journal
article last week.
1. You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and thrown into a blender. Your mass is reduced so that your density is the same as usual. The blades start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?
2. A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened?
3. Using only a four-minute hourglass and a seven-minute hourglass, measure exactly nine minutes—without the process taking longer than nine minutes.
Traditional job interviews are often not very effective at identifying the top job candidates. So in addition to pre-employment job testing, some tech companies are using riddles and puzzles like these to measure the cognitive and creative skills of their job applicants. However, although these tests give interviewers an idea about the applicants' mental horsepower, it may be tough to demonstrate the job-relatedness of the test should the EEOC pay you a visit.
Answers:
1) It depends but a clue is to the density of the person
2) Monopoly, anyone?
3) Flip them both to start, flip 4 min when it empties, and flip 7 minute when it empties. Then when 4 minute empties a second time, flip 7 minute again as it will have exactly one minute remaining.
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Posted by EmployTest - on Mon, Dec 26, 2011 @ 12:02 PM
Instead of sending lovely 2011 holiday cards and gifts that are quickly tossed in the trash on December 26, EmployTest donated the equivalent to Goodwill Industries International.
Goodwill Industries provides job training, employment placement and other services to people who have disabilities, lack education or job experience, or face employment challenges. We encourage you to support your local Goodwill organization, either through donations or by considering their clients for employment in your organization.
Would you like a sample of our pre-employment tests? Just visit Try a Test to get started!
Posted by EmployTest - on Tue, Dec 20, 2011 @ 04:07 PM
As the end of year approaches, we want to send out a massive THANK YOU to the hundreds of new clients who signed up for our testing system in 2011. And a double THANK YOU to our clients who continued to use our pre-employment tests this year. We had our best year to date and here's to a prosperous 2012 for our new (and old) clients!
Would you like a sample of our pre-employment tests? Just visit Try a Test to get started!
Posted by EmployTest - on Tue, Dec 13, 2011 @ 03:46 PM
When people call us, that's the burning question in the back of their mind. Most of them are polite enough not to ask it as their very first question, but it's rare that a conversation doesn't include it.
The pricing plan for most organizations is pretty simple. You buy test units to test your employees or job applicants. It's a per test unit pricing model. You don't sign a contract and there are no monthly charges or set up fees. 
Each test that is completed uses one test unit. By "completed", it means that a score report was generated. If someone stops halfway through an Excel test, then that does not use a test unit (until they complete it). If someone never starts your Microsoft Office test, no units used. If an applicant freaks out and leaves your computer skills test sitting there on the computer, nothing used. Only when the test is actually completed does a unit get used.
The pricing is based on the number of tests given. It's a price per test (not per applicant).
For example,
3 tests per applicant x 10 applicants = 30 test units needed.
Here's how it typically works. Clients buy test units. Then use them all. Then reorder again as needed. Most companies will purchase what they need for 3-6 months, expecting to reorder again at that point. Of course, they really don't want to be in a position that they need to reorder, because reordering means that they now have open positions again.
Is it expensive? Usually not, as compared to other costs of the hiring process. It can even be a net savings when you factor in your (and your coworkers') time spent with unqualified applicants. The testing cost can grow if you have to test many applicants. But most people agree it's cheaper to pay that cost than to have hired an unproductive new employee.
To view the pricing levels, please visit our Pricing page. If you have special pricing questions, just give us a call at 1.800.836.1901.
Would you like a sample of our pre-employment tests? Just visit Try a Test to get started!
Posted by EmployTest - on Tue, Nov 29, 2011 @ 02:49 PM
Testing applicants remotely can make your life easier. You can pre-screen the applicants, before they step one foot into your office. Fewer people to interview, more efficient process, quicker time to hire. It would be a no-brainer, if only you could be sure that it's not your applicant's cousin's uncle's sister's plumber actually taking the test. And who's to know if the applicant is looking up answers. Surely your applicants wouldn't do that, would they? It can be tough to decide whether or not to allow remote testing, but here are a few thoughts to help you navigate those rough waters. These are not "set in stone" rules by any means but you can use these thoughts to help make the decisions.
1. You can administer behavioral tests remotely and then administer skills and knowledge tests within your offices. Applicants might be more likely to cheat on skills tests (ie Excel tests) and knowledge tests (ie accounting tests) than they are on behavioral tests, where the answers are less clear-cut.
2. Tell applicants about how much time it should take to complete each test. If you don't, the applicant might initially think that, after starting the test, he/she will have hours to complete it, which may lead them to research possible answers. If an applicant knows that the Microsoft Office test should take about 30 minutes, then they will usually complete it in a similar time frame--around 30 minutes, not three hours.
3. Tell applicants that you will be re-testing final candidates in your offices before the job offer is made. And then do so. This will reduce the temptation to cheat because the applicants know that they will have to test again.
None of these are fool proof ways to eliminate cheating but can provide some peace of mind that you are getting an accurate picture of the applicant's abilities.
Would you like a sample of our pre-employment tests? Just visit Try a Test to get started!
Posted by EmployTest - on Tue, Oct 25, 2011 @ 03:46 PM
Here's a link to a Wall Street Journal article from this week that makes this case:
The negative atmosphere that bad hires bring to a company are stronger than the positive impact that superstars provide.
So evil does win out over the good, at least in this context. So says Robert Baumeister, a psychologist at Florida State University (and his colleagues):
"The negative thoughts, feelings and performance they trigger in others are far larger and longer lasting than the positive responses generated by more constructive colleagues."
The bad vibes from a hiring mistake are "contagious" and easily drag down the efforts of other successful employees. Whether through true incompetence or just a bad attitude, the work environment can quickly turn poisonous (hint: that's one of the reasons companies use our pre-employment tests). And when a manager lets the bad behavior go unpunished, it's easy to sense the frustration of the other team members.
But the real challenge comes the bad apple is also a top performer. What to do then? There's no hard rule but this article suggests that even if you are forced to remove the team's misbehavin' superstar, the team can improve their performance beyond the star's contributions.
Would you like a sample of our pre-employment tests? Just visit Try a Test to get started!