Posts

Tapping Your Untapped Audience – Social Media

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Have you checked your Facebook page today? Tweeted? Updated your LinkedIn profile? Chances are you have completed one, two, or all three of those items today. Social media can have a huge influence on both our personal and professional lives, and it can be a great resource to effectively promote our organization as well.

Building a Social Media Presence

Social media offers individuals a way to instantly acquire information and “be in the know” about an organization–its events, news, and culture. If your organization does not have a Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn page, or if those pages are not updated often, it is time to change that.  Here are a few eye opening statistics about social media users.

Facebook:  Facebook currently has approximately 1.35 billion users monthly and is the most most active social media platform in the world. Over 23% of Internet traffic is from Facebook.

Twitter:  There is approximately 284 million monthly active users, and 500 million tweets are sent daily.  Interesting note:  Eighty percent of Twitter’s active users are mobile users.

LinkedIn:  LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 332 million members in over 200 countries and territories. More than four million companies have LinkedIn company pages.

Looking at that data, clearly there are a lot of people in this world using social media. So it makes perfect sense for your organization to be there. But to have a meaningful presence, you must look beyond your immediate network. Do this by exploring who your followers follow, and then connect with them where it makes sense. However, know that once your organization is “liked”, “followed” or “connected”, you are not finished–this is where the road gets exciting!

Maintaining a Social Media Presence

Display your organization’s culture via social media so that viewers can get a solid feel for your work environment, along with learning your organization’s goals. Content updates should radiate excitement and invite curiosity. Regular, relevant updates will keep the Likers liking, the Followers following, and the Connected connected. Occasional or irrelevant updates, will result in an audience that stops listening or disconnects all together. Remember: there is always another organization ready to steal your audience’s attention, and your future talent may be among that audience.

Finding Time to Be Social

If you are concerned about the time it takes to post updates, work closely with your marketing team to see how tasks can be coordinated. Solicit content ideas from the organization as a whole, and of course, identify the types of content that your audience finds meaningful. If your organization is small and your team members wear many hats, look at identifying a team member to coordinate updates, but with the understanding that everyone is responsible for providing ideas, interesting facts and data, and overall enriching content that emphasizes your organization’s mission.

Promoting Social Media Offline

Effective promotion of your social media sites is essential for reaching new audiences. Actively promote your pages on your corporate site, but also share your social media sites within your professional and personal networks at conferences, events, meetings, or even volunteer activities–wherever you can reach people in-person and wherever it makes sense.

Promoting Social Media Through ExactHire’s HireCentric ATS

Users of Exacthire’s HireCentric ATS can promote their organization’s social media pages from within our system. When job applicants view the company’s job listings, they can also access social media sites to learn more about the organization and its latest news. If you are a HireCentric user and not currently using this feature, please contact the Support Team to discuss ways promote your social media pages.

Do not let your organization miss out on expanding your audience through the use of social media. Actively update your social media and share your news with the world. People want to hear what is going on within your organization!

And of course, we like to share what is going on at ExactHire, so let’s connect!

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Connect With Us On LinkedIn

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Image credit: Tapped by Mike (contact)

How Can My Jobs Page Better Engage Job Seekers? – Whiteboard [VIDEO]

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If your company is looking for tips on how to increase the number of applications received for job openings, then check out this Whiteboard Chat. In this video, Jeff Hallam offers suggestions on how to streamline your Jobs page to make it easily navigable, and able to engage job seekers to share your career opportunities with others, sign up for future job alerts and easily complete an employment application.

Video Transcript:

Hi, today we are going to talk about how to make your Jobs page more attractive and more engaging for candidates. The reason this is such a big deal is there’s been quite a seismic shift in what’s happening out there in the job landscape over the last couple of years. It wasn’t that long ago that employers could do about anything that they wanted and require about anything that they wanted and people were so desperate for work that they would jump through about any hoop that was put out there in front of them. And that has changed dramatically with the improvement of the economy and with things getting better out there. And candidates, are starting to become a little more demanding and a little more discerning in terms of what they are and aren’t willing to do. So having a page that can actually catch peoples’ eye and get them engaged right out of the gate is often times kind of your ticket to entry to be able to play in that talent game. And so a lot of these are going to be things that you may have thought of before or may have heard of before, but maybe haven’t actually implemented from your end.

So one of the first of those is consistent branding with the rest of your corporate website. So instead of simply putting up a logo and a white page, make sure that the skin of the site, the images that are used, the frames, etc…everything matches up with the rest of what people would see on your corporate website. It makes it appear more natural, it makes it seem like it’s a little bit more a part of your organic site, and again it’s one of those things that can help people feel more confident about what group they’re actually applying for a job with.

And I mentioned images, and skin…no question that every opportunity that you have to inject images, and especially video, into your careers site is always going to be a plus. It catches peoples’ eye, people remember pictures, they remember videos, much more than anything we are going to write out there in terms of words and phrases.

It should go without saying, but maybe and I think this is important, I’m stunned at how often I can go to a page that’s set out there for somebody’s jobs and it’s not clear to me where I can actually find a job opening. So as you design this part of the site, make certain that it’s very clear to someone where they can find your openings so that they don’t have to look around for that. Again, while it may not seem like a big deal, you could lose people very quickly in that process.

This is also a great opportunity to tout any achievements of the organization…you know we were named to the top 10 employers in the region…we grew at a certain exponential percent, etc. Those are all opportunities, along with being able to get some perspective from current employees as to why do they enjoy working here. Those are things that are people, other than you as an HR professional, or as the owner of a company, talking about why this might be a great place to work.

Once someone has navigated to the site and they’ve found a job and they are interested in it, typically they are going to land at and should land at a page that will tell them more about that opportunity so they can determine if they really are a good fit there. This is fairly typical where you would find this…some issues that we sometimes will see that are fairly common. First off, only giving people the option of reading that job description and apply. If they don’t apply, one of the first things you can do now is use mechanisms, whether it’s social media, email or a combination of the two, to give them avenues to stay connected with your organization. Things change. They may like their job and are okay today, and they may hate it two months from now. You may not, this may not be the ideal job for them, but you may have a new job that opens up six months from now that may be perfect for them. So giving them a very simple and easy way to stay connected to you allows them to stay in an environment where once that change occurs there’s a much better likelihood that you will connect with them.

Likewise when you look at the description itself, try very hard even though we’ve been schooled from days gone by that we have to put every single thing about a job in the description, understand that very few candidates are actually going to read that full description. They’re going to look for bullet points, look for keywords and phrases and that’s when you drive whether they think they are qualified and whether they apply or not. So try to crunch that down as much as you can, make it as clear and concise as you can, but make sure you still keep all the relevant information in there about what will this job look like day to day, what are some key skills that somebody needs to have or qualifications to be considered for that opening.

Now when somebody gets to the point where they are actually ready to apply, again we talked about kind of the shift in the landscape. It’s not any more evident than here where that shift has occurred. So whereas, as recently as two or three years ago, I could require of my candidates a full online application and I would get plenty of applicant flow, that probably is not going to cut it in today’s environment. So, more and more you are seeing organizations make that process a little easier for people. Letting them auto-fill a lot of their application information from their LinkedIn profile. Letting them fill a lot of that information from job sites like Indeed where they can create profiles in advance. Doing those types of things once you’ve gotten to this point in the process now kind of continues to reinforce that perspective you’ve tried to set up up front with those candidates of being a welcoming, cool, neat place to work.

So, when you look at all of this, again, the idea of this is really nothing more than to try to bring to light some core things that you can do that can help make you stand out a little bit more in the eyes and in the minds of people who are out there looking at your career site. And again, doing it this way, making some of these changes and keeping some of these things in mind ultimately can help you as you go through and compete with other organizations in the war for talent.

New Jersey’s Opportunity to Compete Act

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Over the past few months, the ExactHire team has shared information with you through our blogs on the “Ban the Box” movement and the legislative changes that have been implemented.  Illinois, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Hawaii are states that have enacted legislation in both the public and private sectors relating to when a background check can be incorporated into the applicant review process.  The “Ban the Box” movement is running full speed ahead, and New Jersey is the newest state to pass legislation to “ban the box” on both public and private sector employment applications.

On August 11, 2014, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed New Jersey’s “The Opportunity to Compete Act” which requires public and private employers to remove any questions related to the applicant’s criminal history (AKA “ban the box”) from employment applications beginning March 1, 2015.  This legislation does not mean that employers cannot conduct background checks on applicants; however, background checks must come later in the hiring process and/or when a job offer is extended unless the company/position meets certain exceptions outlined in the legislation.

To keep abreast of States and Cities who enact “Ban the Box” legislation, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) has an interactive map that provides an overview of the current legislative status.  An overview of the legislation for the locations with “Ban the Box” legislation can be found here.  For the actual legislation, you will need to go directly to the state or city government website to access the passed law(s) in its comprehensive language.

Employers need to be aware of the legislation that exists and which is pending to be prepared for the potential impact on their organizations.  If your organization currently has hiring practices in multiple states and cities, or posts job listings nationally, it is important to be cognizant of the locales’ legal expectations.  At ExactHire, we take pride in doing our best to ensure our clients’ satisfaction is the highest possible. We do whatever we can to resolve clients’ current needs and identify potential needs.  After you speak with your legal counsel, and if you and your legal team decide changes need to be made to your employment application(s) to comply with legislation, the ExactHire team can work with you to create a new application with the verbiage you specify for compliance.  Also, please know that one of the benefits of using ExactHire’s HireCentric software as your applicant tracking system is that you can create multiple employment applications, each specific to your needs.  If you’re an existing client looking for more information about updating your current employment application(s) and/or creating additional employment applications, please email support@exacthire.com.

Please note:  The ExactHire team is not legal counsel, and we do not offer legal advice, so any questions regarding your company’s eligibility for exemption with the “Ban the Box” legislation and/or proper verbiage for your company’s employment application(s) should be discussed with your company’s legal counsel.  To learn specifically how New Jersey’s “The Opportunity to Compete Act” affects your organization’s hiring practices, please contact your company’s legal team.

If you are not yet an ExactHire client, for more information about HireCentric ATS, please visit our resources page or contact us today.

Image credit: Jersey City Skyline at Sunset (Explore) by geezaweezer (contact)

What Employers Need to Know About Ban the Box Legislation

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Ban the Box.  Whether you agree or disagree with the concept, one thing we all can agree on is that this movement requires our attention in our organization’s hiring practices.  Depending on the states in which an organization hires individuals, “Ban the Box” takes a heightened level of importance since states and cities throughout the United States are enacting various forms of this legislation.  The future of hiring is rapidly changing so it is important for human resources professionals to be aware of existing and pending legislation that directly affects daily hiring practices in order to prevent an organization from experiencing legal ramifications due to noncompliance.

About “Ban the Box”

“Ban the Box” is the removal of any questions asking about an individual’s prior criminal record from an employer’s job application…essentially, barring any check boxes that an applicant might have had to mark on an employment application in the past.  The “Ban the Box” concept is based on the idea that limiting the employer’s access to the applicant’s conviction records prior to a job offer can help ex-offenders find employment based on their merit and skills instead of being eliminated from consideration for the position potentially due to the applicant’s past criminal record.  Through the “Ban the Box” movement, advocates of this concept express the belief that if hiring representatives did not know about the applicant’s criminal background, hiring representatives would not factor that information in the decision making process as the applicant goes through the employer’s hiring channels resulting in a more “fair chance” approach to ex-offenders.  The biggest benefit according to “Ban the Box” supporters is that when ex-offenders acquire employment, ideally, the recidivism rate would decrease which would also provide a boost to our overall economy.  According to an article published by NBC News, the latest U.S. census figures estimate approximately 70 million adults in the United States have some form of criminal record.  This equates to approximately one in four individuals in the United States with a criminal record.

Ban the Box legislation does not force an employer to hire an individual with a criminal record.  The ban would not necessarily prohibit an employer from conducting background checks; the checks would possibly occur later in the hiring process and/or once an offer is extended to the applicant.  Exceptions could exist for certain jobs as mandated by federal law (ex. prohibiting pedophiles from working with children, etc.)

History

In San Francisco, the “Ban the Box” campaign was started over a decade ago in a civil rights movement of formerly and currently incarcerated individuals and their families in an organized group, All of Us or None.  They began to encourage the local government to remove questions related to convictions from job applications so ex-offenders could be evaluated on their qualifications and not their prior record(s).  In their vision, any questions about convictions could be asked later in the hiring process, if needed.  The efforts by All of Us or None paid off; the city of San Francisco was the first to remove the question from city job applications.  This victory was the catalyst for the current “Ban the Box” movement.  In 1998, Hawaii was the first state to pass legislation to “Ban the Box” about conviction related questions on both public and private sector employment applications, statewide.

Current Ban the Box Laws and Ordinances

According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP), thirteen states have implemented some degree of a statewide “Ban the Box” Fair Chance Hiring Law.  Thirty states have enacted a local or state “Ban the Box” Fair Chance Hiring Law.  With the “Ban the Box” trend in motion, it is just a matter of time before additional states, cities and jurisdictions enact similar legislation.  The statewide “Ban the Box” legislation enacted in Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Rhode Island include employers in both the public and private sectors, and Illinois and New Jersey are following in their footsteps beginning in 2015.

To keep abreast of States and Cities who enact “Ban the Box” legislation, NELP has an interactive map that provides an overview of the current legislative status.  An overview of the legislation for the locations with “Ban the Box” legislation can be found here.  For the actual legislation, you will need to go directly to the state or city government website to access the passed law(s) in its comprehensive language.

Employers need to be aware of the legislation that exists and which is pending to be prepared for the potential impact on their organizations.  If your organization currently has hiring practices in multiple states and cities, or posts job listings nationally, it is important to be cognizant of the locales’ legal expectations.  At ExactHire, we take pride in doing our best to ensure our clients’ satisfaction is the highest possible. We do whatever we can to resolve clients’ current needs and identify potential needs.  After you speak with your legal counsel, and if you and your legal team decide changes need to be made to your employment application(s) to comply with legislation, the ExactHire team can work with you to create a new application with the verbiage you specify for compliancy.  Also, please know that one of the benefits of using HireCentric as your applicant tracking software is that you can create multiple employment applications, each specific to your needs.  For more information about updating your current employment application(s) and/or creating additional employment applications, please email support@exacthire.com.

Please note:  The ExactHire team is not legal counsel, and we do not offer legal advice, so any questions regarding your company’s eligibility for exemption with the “Ban the Box” legislation and/or proper verbiage for your company’s employment application(s) should be discussed with your company’s legal counsel.

Related links of importance:

If you are not yet an ExactHire client, but are interested in using an applicant tracking system and online employment application, please visit our resources page for additional information or contact us today.

Image credit: rainbow cubes with holes by jared (contact)

Hiring Process Hurting Your Employer Brand?

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Your marketing team has worked hard to ensure that marketing campaigns communicate exactly what your company promises to be–your company brand. So hard in fact, that people are listening and business is growing! Now your company needs to be on top of their game as they seek to attract and hire the right people–your employer brand.

When hiring–especially when hiring aggressively–the perception of your employer brand can start to go one of two ways: your employer brand is knocked as contrived marketing fluff; or embraced as an authentic representation of what your company is, who your people are, and how you seek to do business.

Frequently, the people applying for jobs at your organization are also the people most familiar with your company’s brand–and many times they are direct or indirect customers. They’ve received your marketing. Now, through the hiring process, they get to pull the curtain back and really see what’s going on. It’s important that you meet their expectations.

Delivering On Your Employer Brand Promise

Let us pretend that your company brand stands for integrity, prompt communication, truthfulness, and transparency. You’re on the hunt to hire people who exemplify those characteristics. As you begin the hiring process, you portray these characteristics yourself by outlining the stages of the hiring process and roughly how long each stage will take. Even if you were to reject an applicant at this stage, your employer brand has been upheld by communicating and being truthful. On target so far–your marketing department is loving this!

But the next thing you know, massive chaos has broken out across your organization. Maybe someone quit unexpectedly, or you’ve had a benefit provider change rates on you, or…chaos of whatever type. It’s all you can do to keep yourself from drowning, let alone notify individual applicants that the next stage in the hiring process has been delayed!

But you stay cool, and you find the few minutes it takes to update your applicants. Maybe it’s just a generic, automated email that’s sent out to all applicants remaining in the hiring process, but this simple effort supports your employer brand image. The applicants thank you, and the marketing team does too.

Breaking Your Brand Promise

But let us examine what might happen if you did not take those few minutes to send an update to the applicants.

Scenario 1: Your potential new hire may not trust you to be timely, transparent, or communicative– and that mistrust could remain once they’ve been hired as part of your organization.

Scenario 2: The applicant could assume that they weren’t selected, and that you–uncomfortable with confrontation–just didn’t want to break the news to them. This might lead them to take a position elsewhere.

Scenario 3 In the worst possible scenario, the applicant tells everyone they know about their negative experience thus far with your company, severely damaging your brand image. If you think this is hyperbole, think about a company that is hiring aggressively:

20 positions X 50 applicants = 1,000 brand promises broken

1,000 miffed people X 300 followers of miffed people = 300,000 people who now have a bad perception of not only your employer brand, but perhaps your overall company brand as well. Ouch.

What’s the Good Word?

Word-of-mouth is the oldest and still the hottest marketing tactic–good, bad, or otherwise. Your hiring process will likely touch a lot of people and generate conversations about your  company. These conversations can either tarnish or reinforce your brand. Ensure a positive experience for your applicants–don’t keep them in limbo. By staying true to your employer brand, you will strengthen your company brand.


Looking for hiring software tools to improve and maintain your organization’s employer brand? Visit our resources page for more information about our applicant tracking system and pre-employment screening software, or contact us today.

Image credit: NO se contrata a nadie by Bart Everson (contact)

Employee Onboarding: What’s It Mean?

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What does employee onboarding mean? Because one of our software tools helps to automate many of the tasks and documentation commonly associated with new hire onboarding, this question is asked of me quite frequently. And while the definition certainly changes from one workplace to another, I think it is helpful to break it into two main categories: 

New Hire Onboarding

I think you can also refer to this as “short-term” onboarding.  What I mean by that terminology is that this definition is pretty limited to the initial documents/forms/tasks associated with a new hire. Tax forms, policy acknowledgements, direct deposit sign-up, etc. are good examples of things that tend to be done right upfront for any new hire. These need to be completed before that person is able to really jump in and start their employment with the organization.  From my experience over the past few years, this tends to be what most people in the SMB market space think of when they hear about onboarding.

Employee Onboarding

A little different than above, I would tend to refer to this more as “long-term” onboarding. While all of the items mentioned with short-term onboarding would certainly be a part of this process, it doesn’t stop there.

Instead, this process often can go on for the first several months of an employee’s stay with an organization. Likewise, this tends to be done in phases within those first few months on the job for a new hire.  Examples of things that are included in this form of onboarding include: training/safety videos and acknowledgements; provisioning of different items (laptop, phone, desk space, etc.); job-specific learning milestones, etc.

Currently, this definition of onboarding tends to be found more in larger organizations.  However, with technology continuing to progress, I’m seeing more and more SMB’s going this route.

Guidelines For Onboarding

Regardless of how your organization views onboarding, there are some core guidelines that apply to everyone:

  • You must follow the old adage of “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”. Make sure new hires feel welcome and that there is an organized process to assimilate them into your company.  Do everything you can to reinforce their decision to come to work for you.
  • Have a methodology to keep track of where people are in the onboarding process.  This may be onboarding software, or it may be a simple checklist.  Either way, be sure nothing slips through the cracks.
  • Stay organized and compliant.  It’s imperative that you keep record of the various documents (I-9’s are a great example) new hires complete, as you may be required to provide them at some point in the future.

Onboarding new employees is a critical function for companies of all sizes. Pay attention to this and stay close to your onboarding process to ensure that new hires are engaged, which will improve the odds that they’ll stay with you well into the future.

 

To learn more about how ExactHire can optimize and automate your HR processes, including new employee onboarding, we invite you to contact us today!
By Lhb1239 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The Hiring Process: Are We There Yet?

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The hiring process can be difficult for both the applicant and employer. Just as an anxious child awaits the end of a long road trip, both parties are asking, “Are we there yet?”

Invest Time in Saving Time

Streamline Your Hiring Process

Wasting time is expensive. And if your company spends too much time and effort hiring, you’re wasting money–especially if you end up hiring the wrong person. But it doesn’t have to be so difficult, and it doesn’t need to carry a hefty price tag.

You’ve heard it before: work smarter, not harder!

An Applicant tracking system can streamline your hiring process and save you time by reducing the time spent posting positions, reviewing applications, contacting applicants, and getting hiring approval from corporate.

Work Smarter

Applicant Tracking Systems Create Efficiency

  • List a job once and post it on any job board you want with a few clicks.
  • Manage the hiring process for all open positions from one site.
  • Invite managers to add notes and feedback at any point in the hiring process.
  • Eliminate unnecessary sorting and sifting through applicants by adding a filter to remove candidates that don’t meet the basic qualifications for the position.
  • Create a set of specialized questions for each position and attach scoring values to fast-track your efforts at finding the perfect candidate.
  • Build email templates for status letters, thank you’s, interview requests, testing requests, and any other email you regularly send to candidates.

Cut Through Red Tape

Speed Up Job Requisition

  • Streamline the requisition process by having the applicant tracking system automatically notify the next approver in line.
  • Hiring managers can check on the status of a requisition by logging in–no distracting follow-ups.

We’re Here!

ExactHire Can Help You Streamline The Hiring Process

Learn how ExactHire applicant tracking system can help your company work smarter. Visit our resources section or contact us today!

Image credit: In The Distance by Angus McCrae (contact)

Education – What Employers Really Want

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I have four children, with the oldest getting ready to head off to college this fall. Like all 18 year olds, he’s trying to decide what interests him and can engage him as he enters the workplace. Having talked with him over the last several months about this, it’s opened my eyes to how much education is likely to change over the next few years.

For people my age, going to college after high school was the only viable option to making a good living. Without a college degree in the 80’s and 90’s, it was nearly impossible to get any type of professional position anywhere. At the same time, though, college was fairly affordable for most families — even those in the lower-middle-class range.

Fast-forward to today and everyone knows the cost of college has far outpaced inflation. Beyond the economics, however, there has been a significant shift in the workplace regarding what skills/training/expertise are considered valuable.

Skills That Are In Demand

It’s clear in today’s environment (and future, by most accounts) that specialized skills are in demand more than ever. The obvious example is technology — development, database administration, user experience/graphic design, etc. are all things that tend to always be in demand. Other non-technology examples include advanced manufacturing, medical equipment repair/maintenance, engine repair/maintenance (aviation, diesel equipment, locomotives). These are just a few examples of positions that are understaffed today, but weren’t even on the radar 10-15 years ago. Human Resource leaders and their recruiting teams have seen these changes and are starting to adjust to them with different recruiting strategies and sources.

So there are literally millions of jobs that go unfilled each year, yet many college graduates can’t find a job. We read about them every day. See the disconnect?

My point is that college degrees are still very important for many professions — medicine, accounting, pharmacy, teaching, finance, etc. At the same time, general degrees (like the one I earned — Business Administration) aren’t nearly as valuable as they were previously. My contention (and I’m not alone here) is that they don’t provide graduates with the tangible skills so often needed in today’s workplace. In short, it’s hard to show a great ROI to parents (or graduates), each of whom are often racking up huge debt, for these types of degrees.

Education That Employers Seek

Employers and their staff involved in the hiring process want applicants who can show an ability to contribute to the bottom line right away. What degree they earned (or didn’t earn) or from where it was earned isn’t nearly as much of an issue as it was in the past.

Here are trends I see happening now (and hopefully continuing as we move forward):

  • Specialized degree programs (usually 2 years or less) that prepare graduates for a specific function or industry
  • Kids who pursue 4 year degrees taking core classes online or at local community colleges (usually for the first 2 years) — then transferring those core credits toward their ultimate degree from a 4 year institution
  • Apprentice programs for those who want to work in a chosen profession and need specialized training to get there. This allows them to have that training provided at little to no cost, in return for a commitment to work for their employer who paid for that training.
  • Online degrees — they’re far less expensive and allow people to earn degrees while working
  • Self-learning — this tends to apply more to technology and involves kids skipping post-secondary options completely. Instead, they learn by doing through online tutorials, meet-ups, etc.

It’s hard to predict how quickly these changes will be embraced by society. Traditional colleges and universities have much at stake to stave off these alternatives as long as possible. However, as the price tag continues to escalate at traditional institutions, making the option less attainable (even for upper-middle-class families), my prediction is the alternative trends emerging will continue to become a much more accepted option for both employers and society.

Jeff Hallam is Co-Founder of ExactHire, an Indianapolis-based firm that sells software to help employers automate and improve the quality of the hiring process. For more information about our products, please visit our resources section or contact us today.

Image credit: Harvard University by David Paul Ohmer (contact)

Top 5 Considerations For Understanding Employee Assessments

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Employee assessments have been around for decades. Organizations use them for hiring, team-building, conflict resolution and succession planning. While there are many legitimate options for these tools in the marketplace, there are many more that either aren’t very reliable or, worse yet, aren’t legal to use in certain situations. I get asked about these a lot, so it seems to make sense to help frame out some of the key things to consider if you’re currently using (or plan to use) assessments in your organization.

For my purposes here, I’m going to focus on behavior/personality assessments. That’s because these are the types of assessments whose accuracy and applicability are typically most difficult for people to confirm.

The Big Five Personality Traits

Most of these assessments are ultimately based on the “Big Five” personality traits. To make it easier to remember, you can use the acronym “OCEAN”:

  • O = Openness (degree to which someone is open to a variety of experiences)
  • C = Conscientiousness (willing to work, self-discipline)
  • E = Extraversion (importance of social stimulation)
  • A = Agreeableness (cooperative vs. antagonistic)
  • N = Neuroticism (need for stability)

Beyond these Big Five, most assessments now have created varying numbers of sub-scales to look into these various traits in more detail. Regardless of how they might be configured, having this basic working knowledge can help you to make sure a given assessment has at least the beginnings of being legitimate. Now, let’s look at five items that can help you be even more discerning in your evaluation:

Ipsative vs. Normative

Ipsative assessments are forced choice tools that provide a measurement of a person’s relative strengths in various categories. These types of tools tend to be used more in post-hire activities, as they don’t compare a person to others.

Normative assessments measure a person’s characteristics against confirmed patterns of normality — the population at large. Due to this, these types of tools tend to be used more for hiring.

Validity

Validity defines what characteristics an assessment is measuring and then determines if that assessment is truly measuring those characteristics. In other words, does it do what it’s supposed to do? There are a host of ways to validate assessments, but asking a provider for their validity studies is an excellent way to gauge how well the solution is put together.

Reliability

Reliability defines how dependably (or “reliably”) an assessment measures certain characteristics. This is usually gauged by how consistent the results are for groups of people who take the same assessment multiple times. Typically, you’ll want to work with an assessment that has a reliability score of .80 or better. As with validity referenced above, reliability figures are typically included in most assessment providers’ validation studies.

Distortion

One of the primary concerns for many people considering assessments for their organization is how easily others may be able to manipulate results. For any tool you’re considering, be sure that it has a way to detect this. Often called distortion or candidness, most quality tools will be able to flag those who have provided answers that are inconsistent.

Benchmarking

To help assessments really enable you to better understand what key traits are common in your high (or low) performers, it’s important to be able to benchmark existing performers within your organization. This usually includes looking at both ends of the performance spectrum. Being able to use results of real people performing certain functions within your culture and work atmosphere allows you to zero in on those particular traits/characteristics that are difference-makers for you.

Assessments, when used appropriately, can be significant predictors of success. They can also help you handle conflicts, promote from within and ensure current staff are in the best positions possible. I hope these core items help you choose the best options for you and your organization.

For more information on employee assessments available through ExactHire, please contact us today. 

Image credit: Pinky & the Brain by JD Hancock (contact)