Posted by EmployTest - on Mon, Mar 01, 2010 @ 09:29 AM
This is the first of three posts diving into the topic of employee turnover costs.
A large part is for hiring managers to consider the various costs can be involved if they make a hiring error. But of course we hope that readers will implement some type of pre-employment testing system to help reduce these costs.
The first category of employee turnover costs is "Separation Costs". These are the costs that are most likely overlooked when considering employee turnover.
Remember all of those staff meetings (formal and informal) that were involved when you last terminated an employee? What about the disciplinary meetings between your team and the employee in question? Add together the collective time (hours, days?) spent on these discussions and mulitply by an hourly rate. This is the first step in determing these turnover costs.
Or perhaps it was a voluntary separation by the employee. In that case, what is the cost of the exit interview (if one occured)? Include your time and the employee's time as well, as well as any post interview analysis and reporting on your side.
Then include any payouts of sick and vacation time, if applicable.
Cost of removing from payroll system?
Unemployment benefits?
Severance, if any?
Are there other costs in your organization when an employee separates voluntarily or involuntarily? What are we missing here?
As you see, it adds up quickly. In the next two blog posts, we will cover aspects of the other two employee turnover costs, recruitment costs and training costs, to get a complete picture how expensive turnover really is.
Posted by EmployTest - on Thu, Feb 18, 2010 @ 09:08 AM
$190,000 is a lot of dough. According the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, that amount is the median loss by small businesses that are victims of embezzlement or employee theft, as recently reported in The Wall Street Journal.
And more than half of the Certified Fraud Examiners recently surveyed said that occupational fraud has inceased in the past twelve months.
Is there a foolproof, ironclad way to prevent such losses from occuring? Probably not, if your business is of any significant size. But there are some steps to take during the interviewing process to identify applicants that have a pattern of problems or are potential risks.
Most important is a background search. But not the quick, $9.95 search that's plastered all over the internet. What you need is an in-depth search to include all counties where the applicant has lived and all aliases that they might have used.
The cheap-o background searches only look at national databases and these can have older information that hasn't been updated. Or some county criminal databases don't report to the national ones (or are slow to report criminal activity). But the county level criminal databases are much more accurate. Search where the applicant currently lives and then also any other counties they recently lived in.
If the job description requires handling of money or access to sensitive financial information, then an employment credit search should be required.
Is this a guaranteed way to prevent fraud? Certainly not, as your firm will also need checks and balances internally to head off such activities. But these in-depth background searches will help you weed out the potential bad eggs before they get a foot in your door (and your company's wallet).
Posted by EmployTest - on Fri, Feb 12, 2010 @ 02:18 PM
In future decades, we will not be testing computer skills of job candidates. Why? Because future employees will have been taught to be proficient computer users. Beginning in their toddler years, today's kids are exposed to various computer programs--not only Internet Explorer and Word but also PowerPoint and Excel. So by the time they graduate from high school, those skills will be second nature.
But until that glorious time comes, we're receiving inquiries from college administrators wondering if EmployTest offers computer proficiency tests for college students. The challenge is these colleges (or universities or technical schools) are now tasked, by organizations such as SACS, with insuring that their graduates are computer literate.
Their incoming freshman have a wide variety of computer skill sets. Some freshmen are already pros with the Microsoft Office suite, if needed. Others, while they may be well versed in Facebook and Twitter, need some additional training in Office before they can navigate their classes with ease. Our computer skills tests will show exactly what they know so they can be placed for additional training in the first year of school. And if additional computer training isn't needed, the college will have confidence that their grads are already considered computer literate.
These computer proficiency tests can be given to freshman before they arrive on campus, during orientation, or after they arrive and are settled in. The computer skills tests can be administered online or via software installed locally at your campus.
Is your educational institution facing similar challenges regarding testing computer skills of students? If so, we'd welcome the chance to talk.
Posted by EmployTest - on Thu, Feb 04, 2010 @ 02:17 PM
Seattle social media firm Social Strata has implemented a new vacation policy: Take as much vacation time as you want. Really.
What does this mean for the employees of this small firm? They can be free to focus on their goals and projects without being slaves to the calendar (that is, unless they are behind on said goals and projects). They can be accountable without just punching the clock.
What does this mean for management? Less record keeping? Maybe, but more likely it's just a stunt to attract the top local talent. Especially since surveys show that most people don't use all of their vacation time anyway. Unlimited vacation is a nice thought but reality will continue to dicate the amount of time that we (and they) spend in the office.
Posted by EmployTest - on Fri, Jan 29, 2010 @ 01:42 PM
Today President Obama announces the next part of his proposal for jobs creation. The official announcement can be found here.
The core of his proposal is that businesses will receive a $5,000 tax credit for every "net new employee" that they employ in 2010. So by definition it must be a new position and doesn't apply if you terminate one worker and replace him/her with someone else.
The second part of his proposal says that small businesses can be reimbursed for increased Social Security payroll taxes that result from increased wages or hours.
The cap on this plan for any one business is a significant $500,000, which could be a noticeable windfall for a small to medium size company. And beware, because officials will be watching to make sure companies aren't trying to beat the system (ie. lay off, then rehire workers).
If your company does plan to hire (which is likely, because you're on this website), then make sure you are selecting the best candidates through the use of our best in breed pre-employment testing and background screening tools.
Posted by EmployTest - on Tue, Jan 19, 2010 @ 03:04 PM
Our preset computer skills tests, such as our Microsoft Office tests or basic computer skills tests, were created by subject matter experts who thoroughly researched the most common tasks used by people working on computers. These preset tests will typically have about 25-35 questions.
But that doesn't mean that the tasks you need will be included on those tests.
Sometimes your job descriptions will require skills that aren't covered thoroughly on our preset tests. For example, we're often asked about our Microsoft Excel tests--specifically about testing for pivot tables knowledge. And yep, it's in there. But there's only one question about pivot tables in our preset Excel test. And it may not go into the depth that you need.
But fear not, because we more questions than that. In fact, we have a comprehensive Excel test question bank with 225 possible questions, including six questions covering pivot tables. So it's likely your desired question will be the question bank (if not already in the preset test).
It's a similar situation with our Microsoft Word test. And PowerPoint and Outlook tests (although there are a fewer possible questions for those two). Make the tests as easy (or as hard) as you want them to be. Longer tests or shorter tests.
So the point is that there is large question bank (500+ for Microsoft Office tests and other computer skills tests) that can be used to make tests that match your job description. This customization can easily be done by you (with our software version) or by us (for our online test system).
Posted by EmployTest - on Wed, Jan 06, 2010 @ 10:48 AM
The number one project hiring trend of 2010 is...(insert drum roll)....
- Replacing lower performing employees
According to a December study commissioned by CareerBuilder.com, "thirty seven percent of employers say they plan to replace lower performing employees with higher performing employees."
Thirty seven percent? About one in three? Is that all? Not exactly an overwhelming number that's ready to make any changes--to clean house, so to speak. So what will the other 63% of the companies do? Continue to accept mediocrity or, worse yet, subpar performance? Do their customers and employees deserve that?
Jack Welch, the respected former CEO of General Electric, expected his business units to fire the lowest performing 10% of employees each year. Yes, each year. That culture catapulted GE into one of the top performing companies of the 90s.
After 18 months of stagnation and decline, 2010 will present some great opportunities for business growth. The current labor pool is flush with well qualified applicants that could make a difference in your organization in 2010 (pre-employment testing will help insure they're the right candidate). These potential new hires will be the ones that add to your client base and implement your strategy over the next few years. That is, if you hire them.
Will this be the year that you can clean up and take advantage of this great labor pool? Will you be one of the 37% who make improvements or the 63% who rest on thy laurels? Carpe diem.
Posted by EmployTest - on Thu, Dec 17, 2009 @ 03:44 PM
Personality testing will continue to be one of the hottest topics in 2010. Funny thing is that a lot of people we talk with have a negative impression of what it entails. There's often a certain "ick" factor when we suggest that a personality test might round out an assessment portfolio for a certain job. But it can be just as important as other parts of the pre-employment testing process.
Pre employment skills tests are essential to the hiring process. These tests measure the skillset relative to the job--skills with computer programs, clerical skills, spatial relations or other. How quickly the new guy can master the details of the job, whether it's learning a complex computer system or simply drafting a grammatically correct letter.
Pre-employment knowledge tests are equally important to identifying the best candidate. Knowledge of industry standards (ie accounting tests, medical knowledge tests) can allow the new employee to easily converse with clients and co-workers. No time spent explaining what this term and that means.
The final piece of that puzzle is the personality test. Or behavior profile, if you prefer. This will show you if the person is a good fit with the needed mindset for a specific job. If it's a customer service position, it's not enough for them to be able to maneuver the CRM system. They need to have the flexibility and service orientation to do the job. Your new salesperson needs to ooze self confidence and be ambitious. And to measure those critical areas, you need some type of personality profile. Because whether or not they have the skills, if the new employee is not mentally on the game, he/she will not be an effective performer for you.
Remember that each day you are competing against other companies, not only for new clients, but also to hire the best employees in your market. If you aren't testing for personality traits, then you might be hiring the applicants that other companies rejected.
Posted by EmployTest - on Tue, Dec 01, 2009 @ 02:18 PM
Global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi's CEO Kevin Roberts talks about their philosophy for hiring star performers, including some rather unconventional interview techniques. You can see the video here.
Should you take a similar approach to finding the superstars that will have a sudden impact on your company's performance? The likely answer is "no", but it will depend on your industry. Whether that answer is "yes" or "no", EmployTest offers pre-employment tests and background screening tools that are applicable to virturally any industry.
Posted by EmployTest - on Wed, Nov 11, 2009 @ 08:18 AM
An article in today's Wall Street Journal highlights a practice that is apparently becoming more commonplace: the expungement of criminal records from a job applicant's past. Job applicants (and volunteers) are being excluded from consideration because of minor criminal offenses that occured years, even decades, ago, but still show up in a background search (or volunteer background screening).
Attorneys today can request to have those old records sealed (and shredded) so that they don't show up in a current background search. Is it ethical? Well, that's not our question to answer because each situation is unique and the crime committed may or may not be related to the job description. But as a Human Resource pro (or business owner/manager), you should be aware that this is happening.