Assessments Help Solve Common Business Problems
Two of three new hires will disappoint in the first year
-
Two of three employees would rather work somewhere else
-
Ninety-five of 100 applicants will "exaggerate" to get a job
-
Most hiring decisions are made in haste - during the first five minutes of
an interview
-
One of three businesses will be sued this year over an employment issue
-
Employee
Turnover costs thousands of dollars for every departing employee
-
Eighty percent of employee turnover is avoidable
The U.S. Department of Labor
says:
" An organization can improve
the accuracy of its selection decisions by using the science of psychology
and scientifically developed selection tests"
"Case studies indicate that
the use of scientific selection procedures can have a positive effect on
organizational effectiveness which is not always intuitively obvious to
managers"
Employee Reliability
In 1998, employee absenteeism cost employers $757 per employee, according
to a report in USA TODAY. This was the direct cost reported by a survey of
human resource professionals and does not include the cost of hiring others
or paying overtime to perform the work of absent employees.
Employee Theft
Employers lose on average $9.00 per day per employee due to employee theft.
That is over $1800 per year per employee. Be it office supplies, punching in
or out a little early or a little late, or outright theft from your till,
this is an expense that no company can afford.
Employer Liability
You must know the nature of the people you hire because their criminal
behavior could cost your business millions of dollars. Every time you hire
without practicing due diligence, you may be accepting liability for their
actions - even when they are "off the clock."
Discrimination Lawsuits
In the absence of objective assessment data, how can you
demonstrate a hiring/promotion decision was made objectively, without
discrimination because of gender, race, religion, etc.
Résumé Fiction
In a survey of recent college graduates, 95% said they would be willing to
make a false statement in their résumés in order to get a job. Forty-one
percent admitted they had already done so, according to a report in Nation's
Business (May, 1999).
The Assessment Solution
Testing is acceptable, even expected
As reported in Molding Systems (May, 1999, v57 i5 p56(1)),
a survey found that 92% of job applicants accept testing as part of the job
qualification process. Only 3% resent it, while 5% were neutral. The
U.S. Department of Labor also recommends
using assessments in pre employment screening.
Assessments offer a solution
Historically, employers depend upon résumés, references and interviews as
sources of information for making hiring decisions. In practice, these
sources have proved inadequate for consistently selecting good employees.
When training
employees, a "one size fits all" approach has failed to provide the desired
results.
When selecting
people for promotion, otherwise excellent employees have too often been
miscast into roles they could not perform satisfactorily.
Clearly, an
essential ingredient for making "people decisions" has been missing from the
formula.
The use of assessments and employee testing has become essential to employers who:
provide employees with effective training
help their managers to become more effective and
promote people into positions where they will succeed.
The use of
assessments has resulted in extraordinary increases in productivity while
reducing employee relations problems, employee turnover, stress, tension,
conflict and overall human resources expenses.
Several factors
contribute to the failure of traditional hiring methods. Résumés often
contain false claims of education and experience while omitting information
that would help employers make better hiring decisions.
Business
references are of little value because most past-employers will tell you
nothing but "name, rank and serial number."
These realities
are the reason interviews have become the most influential factor in hiring
and promotion decisions. However, experience shows only a coincidental
correlation between the ability to deliver well in an interview and to
deliver well on the job. Studies peg this correlation at 14% -- one good
employee in every seven hires. Even background checks don't help much. The
success rate becomes 26%, but that's only one good hire in every four.
Unfortunately, many employers have accepted these poor results and the high
cost of excessive turnover as a business reality. They have flown the white
flag of surrender.
 Don't
Surrender! Assessments and employee testing do help significantly
Assessing
behavioral traits improved the hiring success rate to 38%.
When both
thinking abilities and behavioral traits are assessed, the right people are
hired 54% of the time.
When an
assessment of occupational interests is added, successful results improve to
66%.
The most
impressive results are achieved, however, when an integrated assessment is
used - one that measures behavioral traits, thinking, occupational
interests, plus "Job Match."
These integrated
assessments employ cutting-edge technology and empirical data to assess the
qualities of "The Total Person." In doing so, the individual qualities of
candidates are compared to the qualities of employees who performing their
duties in a superior manner. These 21st Century assessments successfully
identify potentially excellent employees better than 75% of the time.
Job Match outranks all other factors
A well-documented study, published in Harvard Business Review
concludes that "Job Match" is by far the most reliable predictor of
effectiveness on the job. The study considered many factors including the
age, sex, race, education and experience of approximately 300,000 subjects.
It evaluated their job performance and found no significant statistical
differences, except in the area of "Job Match." The conclusion: "It's not
experience that counts or college degrees or other accepted factors; success
hinges on a fit with the job."
The only reliable method for evaluating "Job
Match" is with a properly designed
assessment instrument, capable of measuring the essential job-related
characteristics particular to each specific job. Profiles International has
assessments designed for this purpose.
|
