A recent blog post from Select International gives key tips to improve talent acquisition.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on Select International's website.
Simple isn’t necessarily easy. In fact, simple can be hard. I like this recent article from Inc. about the design secrets of Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs. From the article:
“When we don't do the necessary work up front to create a design that is simple and elegant, we end up building products and services that are complex and cluttered. Put another way: Simple is hard.”
This principle applies to building an effecting hiring system. Everyone is looking for the magic platform, program, or app that will solve their problem – or ALL of their problems. The reality is that the solution is a combination of tools put together in a thoughtful manner.
When it comes to pre-employment tests, the same theory applies. Building a hiring system that works, and seems easy takes a little thought, planning, and work. Fortunately, for our clients, we’ve often done much of the work for them. I always brag that our team of psychologists, analysts, and developers can build tools that will predict on the job performance. They do it every day. That’s relatively easy if you have the talent, experience, and the data - that we do.
Getting to a hiring system that is efficient, predictive, candidate-friendly, reduces turnover, and is valuable to hiring managers takes more than a well-designed test. It has more to do with the willingness to do that “necessary work up front to create a design that is simple and elegant” as it says, above.
The great thing is it’s not a heavy lift and our clients benefit from the fact that our team has built entire hiring systems for large manufacturing plants, distribution plants, retail stores, call centers, and hospitals. But – and it’s an important but – even the greatest, most sophisticated, technologically advanced hiring tools fail if you don’t put thought into “how” they are going to be used. It’s also important to track key metrics and adjust the process to maximize your return.
So – you need a good ATS configured to meet your needs. You need a pre-employment assessment designed for your needs. You need an effective interviewing program – and so on. No single component solves your problem, and each of the components must work together.
We call this evidence-based hiring. Medicine figured out (somewhat recently) that inconsistent treatment approaches based on instinct and anecdotal evidence are a disservice to patients. Similarly, an inconsistent, ineffective hiring process that isn't based on the right data, science, and technology is a disservice to your candidates, your hiring managers, and the organization relying on talent to help achieve its goals!
The basic principles of evidence-based hiring are, indeed, simple: Click here to continue>>
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