Employment Testing Blog

3 Steps to Take Before Pre-Employment Testing

You've plowed through all of the candidates and now you're ready to test those fabulous finalists.  Before jumping into the testing process, here are three things to do to make sure your pre-employment testing process will provide the results you need.

1.  Remember the job description?  Take some time to review it. (You do have a job description, don't you?)   Make sure that you've identified the Key Success Factors that will determine whether or not this new hire will be successful in their new position.  Now rank these success factors so that you will know which is the most important for the job.

2.  Based on those Key Success Factors, select the appropriate pre-employment tests and administer them to yourself and others within the firm so you can be familiar with the topics covered.  You'd might be surprised at how often this step is not taken with a new employment testing system.

3.  Develop some type of scoring methodology.  What will you consider as a good score?  Ask us for scoring norms for the desired tests and we will provide them if available.  It's easy to revert back to the school grading mentality and think that a good score has to be above 80% or 90%.  That may not be the case.  Tests can have different scoring processes and the norms might not be what you think.  

And finally remember that tests are only one part of the selection decision.  Many other factors will help predict if this person is your next rock star or just a one hit wonder passing through.

Can individuals buy our Employment Tests? No way, no how....

Some of our comrades in the employment testing industry have decided to have their cake and eat it too.  They decided that it makes good business sense to allow individuals to purchase their tests, on their own, to prepare (or practice) before they go on a job interview. 

Well, allow us to politely disagree. We do not, will not, allow individuals that are seeking jobs to purchase tests from us.  And believe me, we get plenty of requests to do just that.  Past research has shown that many of our website visitors are in fact not hiring managers.  Instead they are job seekers looking to learn more about how our testing works in order to "ace" the pre-employment tests.  

And we certainly wish those folks well.  We too want them to succeed on the tests but we do not provide them with test samples nor do we offer to sell them "practice" tests.  And these tests are often not really practice tests--they can be the same exact pre-employment tests that are being used by hiring managers to measure job skills and knowledge.

For example, if you're selling them the practice Excel test in the morning, and then that afternoon they take an Excel test administered by the interviewer, it's highly likely that they will perform better because of these practice tests. 

We value the money our clients have invested in our testing system and don't want to minimize that by selling practice tests to individuals. Is it unethical?  Well, we wouldn't go that far but definitely questionable.  When you use our employment tests, you'll have the confidence that your applicant wasn't practicing on the same test 30 minutes ago.

Behavioral Trait Testing: Are your candidates being honest?

"The closest a person ever comes to perfection is when he fills out a job application form."

-Stanley Randall

A common question our clients and potential clients ask is this:

"How can I tell if my applicants are being honest with their responses?"

And that's a challenging question.   The core problem is that applicants have an incentive to misrepresent their personality traits, skills and knowledge levels in order to get the job.  That's why pre-employment testing companies like ours exist--to help the hiring manager determine what the actual truth is. 

With skills and knowledge testing, it's much easier to manage the honesty question because, if you can control the testing environment, you've covered most of your bases.  Test them in a proctored environment.  Provide a consistent level of coaching, if any at all.  If you've taken those steps, then the applicant won't be able to search for the solutions to the questions and honesty won't be an issue.

But what about behavioral trait testing (or personality testing)?  Admittedly it's slightly more challenging to control dishonesty with these types of tests.  Because the answers, right or wrong, are wholly located in the person's head, the location of the tests matters less.  Your applicant can test in your office or from a remote location (unlike with skills or knowledge testing) with similar results.

Fortunately, a Candidness score appears in every EmployTest report that includes behavioral test content. This Candidness score helps to tell hiring managers whether the candidate provided honest answers to behavioral test questions.

A High or Moderate Candidness score indicates that questions were answered honestly and that other scores in the test can be trusted. A Low Candidness score indicates that the hiring manager may want to use other screening tools (ie interviews or reference checks) to supplement their analysis of behavioral traits covered in the test.

By using these tools, you can develop a feeling of confidence that your applicants are being honest and, if they are not, then you have the tools to spot the dishonesty.

No Employment Skills Testing Needed for these Job Applicants

No need for pre-employment testing for these job applicants, as their antics are described in this recent Career Builder survey. We suspect they will not make it past the first round of interviews.  Our favorite is the escaped dog.  Animals and interviews usually do not mix, unless you want to work for the Dog Whisperer.  Enjoy...

Top 3 Employee Turnover Costs: Part 1-Separation Costs

This is the first of four posts diving into the topic of employee turnover costs. 

A large part 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.

 

Replacing Low Performers in 2010

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.

Job Candidates Lie? Really? (Part 2)

According to HR Recruiting Alert, job candidates are strategically "crafting" their resumes to cover up any weak areas in their job history and references (related article).  Is that a surprise?  Certainly not.  Since the dawn of our careers, we've all "spun" our resumes and job experiences to put us in best possible light. 

What's unnerving about this information is the deliberate lack of honesty that seems to be driving these people.   The top 3 areas that are lied about are...

-Employment Gaps

-Fake references

-Phony responsibilities

There's even a website selling information on how to lie on your resume (fakeresume.com).  Disgusting, yes (although admirably entreprenurial).

None of us are naive enough to think that all information on a resume is 100% accurate. But we also want to believe that our candidates are not blatantly lying about their history.  

The solution to this problem requires a dedicated investigative approach to your selection process.  And pre-employment testing would likely assist you in these efforts.  If a job requires Excel skills, then give the applicants an Excel test.  If a job requires excellent customer service skills, then administer a customer service skills test.   Taking a resume (and an interview) at face value will not do justice you or your company.

2009 Liars Index Says that Some Executives Lie. Really. (Part 1)

The 2009 Liars Index, as compiled by Jude Werra (President, Jude Werra & Associates, 262-797-9166), is published as a percentage of executives who are misrepresenting their academic credentials on their resumes. 

The index for the first half of 2009 is more than 15%, meaning that at least 15% of executives are not being forthright about their academics on their resume.  This is a 39% increase from the previous period (last half of 2008) and 19% higher than the previous 2 year rolling average.  

Are all executives lying on their resumes?  Of course not and the vast majority are giving a full (and accurate) disclosure.  But some of them are lying.  Just like your hourly and professional positions.  Most applicants don't lie.  But some do.   Truth is, you probably can't tell the difference between the liars and non-liars.  And if other companies are using pre-employment testing and performing background screens (and you are not), then you may be one that's hiring the liars.

Higher Unemployment, More Job Applicants

Unemployed and in Bismarck, North Dakota?  Good for you. 

You won't have trouble finding a job.  The hiring managers are under the gun.  The unemployment rate is less than 4% (remember the good ole days of 4%?).  That number means hiring managers are under pressure and and are all going after the same top candidates. The search is on to get the best and brightest and it's a competitive field out there.  In-depth, hard-nosed pre-employment testing?  Probably not so much here.  They will take what good candidates they can find.

But if you're unemployed and job hunting in the Detroit area, good luck to you (you'd better hone your employment testing skills). Unemployment numbers released this week for metro Detroit top 17%.  If you're currently hiring for a position in Detroit, then even better luck to you.  Have fun spending hours looking at the massive tsunami of resumes that is coming your way.  You might have 10-15 truly qualified candidates for your position.  Each with their own set of skills that will help drive profits for your business or division.  And of those 10-15 candidates, 5 of them will pass the inital phone screen and in person interview with flying colors.  How will you determine which applicant is the best fit for the job?  (Hint: employment skills tests would help...) 

Employment Test for Smiling?

In June the City of Bozeman, Montana, created quite a controversy when it asked job applicants to surrender the passwords to any social networks that they belong to, such as Facebook.   Applicants (and the general public) were shocked because of the privacy concerns and city officials eventually backed off the request.  

In the spirit of other strange employment requests, now a railway company in Tokyo is employing a "Smile Detector" to measure employees' smiles.

While it's not clear if the Smile Detector is being used as an employment test, it is a scary thought that an applicant's natural physical appearance can be used (or tested) as a requirement for employment.  This type of pre-employment testing may not be such a good idea.