A recent study of over one thousand HR professionals from companies throughout the world showed a significant proportion of businesses are using psychometric tests as part of the pre-hire process. For example, 62% are using personality assessments.*

Indicators organisations look to when determining validity of an assessment:

1. Quality of hire
2. Productivity
3. Retention / Staff turnover
4. Process efficiency
5. Financial metrics
6. Training effectiveness/cost
7. Legal compliance
8. Performance ratings
9. Employer brand

Yet, according to a 2014 study (registration required) only 14% of organisations have data to prove the positive business impact of their assessment strategy.

A validity study is key in helping determine the effectiveness of your assessment strategy. You might remember validity from a previous blog article. A buzzword in psychometric assessment, it shows that the tests used go beyond something that looks relevant, ensuring they provide true value. The key questions a well designed validity study can help you answer are:

• Can you be confident that the prediction of a psychometric test is accurate for your situation?
• Can you be confident the investment you are making in pre-hire assessments is providing a worthwhile return?
• Is the test truly enhancing your ability to predict future performance?

Running a validity study: Is it a hassle?

No it is not. Especially, if you compare the potential benefits it can bring to your organization to the efforts it takes from you to run the study. In a nutshell, the process goes like this: The aim of every validity study is to let expert psychologists look into how well your chosen psychometric, or any other, assessment tool is performing. To carry this out, first, data that characterizes the on-the-job performance of candidates who has been previously assessed with the tool in question is gathered. Then, test results are compared to on-the-job results and the link between the two is scientifically demonstrated and translated into real business terms.

So how could a validity study help you?

• It will be created bespoke to your needs and your company.
• A validity study demonstrates the value you will get out of using psychometric tests, proving how they work for your own unique workplace environment.
• This provides you with solid ROI information to support your use of such tests – you won’t just be telling people you use them because others do or because they usually work, but because they work for you.
• The analysis will let you know exactly what to look for in each candidate’s results – to ensure you pick the best people for you.
• With the right data, candidate attributes can even be modeled into your future reports.
• You want more specific predictions about how well someone will meet your competency requirements? Given competency performance data, this is possible.
• Want to know whether someone has the characteristics of a good salesman in your team? If you have appropriate sales data, future sales performance can be predicted for each new candidate.

A validity studies are essential parts of data-driven HR processes, and great tools to prove you are using the right tools to select, develop and retain talent.

Talentsift offers psychometric selection tests and the best online assessment centre solution on the market. Our validity studies are complementary to all our tools, to ensure you make the most effective use of psychometrics. Contact us for more details!

*CEB Global Assessment Trends report 2014

Photo credit: ©opensource.com via Jisc
CC BY-SA

The post Psychometric Assessment: Will It Work for You? appeared first on Talentsift.

Details that an invite for interviews or assessment days should include:

Date and time of the interview

Name and position of the interviewee

Contact number of a person who may be contacted on the day

Location, ideally attach a map

Approximate length of the interview and/or AC

The type of questions and exercises candidates should expect

Ask whether the candidates need any special assistance on the day

Confirm the candidates’ contact details through which you may inform them about any unforeseen changes to the schedule

#1 – Be specific of your requirements.

Avoid statements like ’sufficient experience in a relevant role is required’.  Instead, give examples of what constitutes as ’sufficient experience’ (e.g. minimum of two years in the field of IT project management) and provide a concise but detailed description of the tasks. When candidates are fully aware of the recruitment criteria, their self-selection is more likely to be accurate and the ratio of suitable applications increases.

#2 -Be honest with your candidates.

Be honest with candidates and give them a realistic preview of the scope of activities and tasks the role would entail. For instance, if it is a highly repetitive role, be very upfront about it, otherwise you might face high rates of staff turnover not talking about the associated costs. If the job is not a typical full-time permanent position, make sure that your candidates are well aware of it (e.g. highlight information on the lengths of the contract, any evening or weekend shifts and the amount of travelling that may be involved).

#3 – Be clear and transparent on the recruitment process.

In terms of online applications, sending an email to confirm that an application has been received and is being reviewed can make your candidates feel welcome and valued. Advising your candidates that they would be shortly contacted regarding the status of their application and/or enabling them to track the progress of their application online can decrease the volume of enquiries and make a positive impression of your company.

There is quite a competition for talents where time is a crucial factor in retaining the best candidates. If you face difficulties with processing the applications in time, let your candidates know that their applications are still being considered, apologise for the delay and thank them for their patience and interest in the position. First, this gives the impression that your company does value its potential future employees; second, this may reduce the amount of inquiring correspondence you are likely to receive upon delay. Do not forget that the best candidates are fairly unlikely to be sitting at home all day long waiting for you to come back to them, but are rather involved in multiple recruitment campaigns and can get an offer in any minute.

While in the very early stages of recruitment it is acceptable (although not desirable) contacting only the successful candidates, once an applicant has been interviewed or attended an AC, they deserve and will expect to be informed about their results. Giving timely and sufficiently detailed feedback is of primary importance to contribute to a positive candidate experience.

Talentsift tools provide candidates with instant feedback on their performance. Contact us to learn how we can help your recruitment process.

#4 – Positive recruitment experience is the best marketing for you as an employer.

Small things like providing detailed and timely responses to candidates will make them feel valued and respected, and provide a positive recruitment experience with your company.

Many of your candidates may be employed full-time, thus it is important to give information on the provisional dates for the different stages of the recruitment process (e.g. telephone interview, psychometric testing, assessment centre day, panel interview), enabling the applicants to plan well in advance. Outlining the next steps of the process and the associated deadlines may help the candidates reduce the amount of stress due to the uncertainty involved in their job hunting and it also helps reduce the volume of enquiry regarding the different stages of your campaign.

The post 4 Tips on How to Get Your Recruitment Communication Right appeared first on Talentsift.

The key benefits of the Talentsift software

Improved logistics as the software offers the built-in feature of a personalised schedule for each candidate to allow independent work.

Reduced costs associated with printing, administration and scoring.

Assessors can instantly and flexibly access the data.

The collected information can be organised easily, stored securely and confidentially.

Option of customisation to reflect your corporate vision and brand.

Beautifully designed and user-friendly interface where aesthetic and functional qualities are in perfect balance to enhance candidate experience.

Embedment of multimedia files to utilise technology.

Realistic simulation and increased face validity.

The Talentsift software provides a beautifully designed, easy-to-use and personalised online platform for assessment centre exercises. Tailor-made AC tasks (either designed by you or our team) can be easily uploaded in our online system where they are ready to be used to identify the highest calibre candidates for your business.

What is in it for your business?

The Talentsift AC Platform will help your business increase the efficiency of your AC’s and reduce the administrative burden. The amount of waste (in terms of both material and time) can be minimised. Losing data, inputting the answers, receiving sheets with no signs of identification or papers with illegible handwriting will no longer be a problem. If amendments need to be made to AC content, this can be easily done online without the hassle of re-printing all the material. The information collected electronically can be easily organised and stored securely and confidentially. Assessors can instantly and flexibly access the data online, significantly speeding up the review process. The comments and scores made by the different assessors can be quickly integrated and compared.

Beyond providing a platform for the AC exercises, the Talentsift software also serves as a timetable for each candidate with a personalised schedule and calendar for the assessment day. This feature allows candidates to work independently without being interrupted or monitored by the administrator, since all the relevant information regarding their different activities is displayed on screen (e.g. the time and venue [room] for the interview or the position and name of the interviewer). This includes situations where different candidates need to work to slightly different briefs or timetables. This improves the logistics of such events tremendously.

Enhanced candidate experience

The online platform also has implications in terms of enhanced selection experience for the candidates. Based on our experience in online psychometric testing, we know that the attractiveness and user friendliness of the interface can significantly influence candidates’ perception of the process. Therefore, the layout of the platform has been carefully designed to ensure that both the functional and aesthetic quality is high. Moreover, the software gives you the option to customise the login screen or embed multimedia files (e.g. audio or video files) in the exercises to take the AC experience to a completely new level.

Not only can the content of the tasks be easily personalised, but the language and the display features of the exercises may be adjusted as well. The size of the font can be increased in a second, text to speech software may be used to read aloud the material and the time limit for each task can be easily changed to meet the unique needs of each candidate.

A realistic simulation

Beyond the reduced costs associated with the assessment day and the enhanced candidate experience, the online AC solution has the additional advantage of providing more realistic settings for assessment than the traditional paper-pencil based exercises, since most of the roles businesses recruit for would require the employees to carry out a large portion of their work on the computer. Thus, online exercises can have increased face validity as candidates can easily see the rationale behind the different tasks and understand how their scores can predict their future performance in the job. If your assessment is perceived as fair and valid, you are likely to win the competition for the most talented candidates.

Check out our free demo!

The post Talentsift’s Online Assessment Centre Platform appeared first on Talentsift.