Capturing Talent Faster with Assessments

For some employers, the challenge is not always hiring the best person for the job. It is one of hiring someone for the job. The economy or other circumstances can create job markets with fewer candidates for jobs at all levels. Even when candidates are plentiful, the competition for talent is intense. The good news is that a few of the newest assessment tools can give businesses significant advantages in capturing talent regardless of the market.

A critical factor in determining the level of candidates that a business has to choose from is how long it takes for that business to make a job offer to a desirable candidate. Each population of applicants contains 3 kinds of potential employees: STARS (marvelous model employees who set records for achievement), OK'S (average performers), and OOPS (disastrous employees who set records for problems). After receiving the job application, most selection systems focus their attention on identifying the best available candidates. This may include multiple interviews, reference checks, various testing processes, committee discussions, and more. No matter how valuable each step may be, each one increases the amount of time between the initial meeting and the job offer. Experience suggests that in many employment markets, a delay of one week in the job offer can eliminate most of the desirable candidates from the available pool of talent. In other words, they get another offer sooner. These very careful selection processes still end up selecting the best available candidate, except that these candidates are usually only the best of the leftovers. It is similar to having one of the last picks in a professional sports draft. The players are professional caliber, but they are not going to win a championship anytime soon.

The newest assessment tools enable companies to achieve their hiring goals more effectively in competitive hiring situations. HermanCheckStart can assist in quickly screening out those candidates whose strengths are poorly matched to the job in question. Once the unsuitable candidates have been eliminated, it is possible to select any of the others with a relatively low risk of poor performance. Therefore the interview process becomes one of evaluating how each of the remaining candidates may best meet the skills, experience and attitude criteria for the job. It is quite possible to issue a contingent job offer either on the same day or the next day with this level of confidence and low risk. (The contingency is for background checks and any other necessary testing.) By collapsing the time-to-decision, the company is better able to capture top talent.