Performance Test of the Staffing

Performance Test of the Staffing

Introduction

Pre-employment screening can help make new-hire training less expensive and time consuming. If the wrong candidate is selected for a job, valuable payroll dollars are wasted. Your company must spend additional time on bringing the new employee up to speed, or worse, you are faced with a quick turnover forcing another round of job interviews.

When hiring new employees, making sure that you hire the right candidate for the job is essential. Relying on “seat-of-the-pants” feelings about candidates' abilities is a poor way to hire when tools are available - and expected - that assess candidates in a fair fashion.

A pre-employment skills assessment is critical when you need someone to start their new job with specific job-related skills or experience. Pre-employment test assessments helps weed out unqualified candidates early in the job filling process. Besides the time and money savings, having quantitative data that support your hiring decisions protects you from being faulted for discriminatory practices.

Many human resources managers are still making staffing decisions based on just two screening methods: the resume and the in-person interview. Both are important to the hiring process, but not enough to insure a proper fit. The best way to increase the chances of finding the ideal employee is to test the applicant for the required skills before conducting the interview. By using pre-employment testing software, managers can narrow down their choices and avoid wasting time interviewing unqualified applicants. When selecting a pre-employment testing software system, HR managers should look for one covering these five categories: 1. Windows operating systems, word processing applications, spreadsheet application and database applications, 2. keyboarding speed, accuracy, alpha/numeric data, keypad and high volume data entry, 3. clerical word processing, filing and proofreading, 4. common business financial tasks plus basic math, and 5. professional legal and medical keyboarding, terminology and transcription

Retrospective analysis

Many HR managers move straight from the selection of resumes to conducting the in-person interview. Again, the applicant can have all the appearances of being the right candidate to fill the position: they arrive on time for the interview, appropriately dressed, with a list of personal references. (Backhaus 2009)

At this point, the HR manager has already begun to develop an opinion of the applicant and is possibly assuming the applicant has the skills for the job. Even the applicant who will admit to their lack of the necessary skills will compensate for it by exuding a high level of confidence and enthusiasm during the interview.

Every manager has interviewed an applicant who readily admits to not knowing a particular software program but declares with confidence they "know they can do it" or they are "fast learners." It's easy to be influenced by the optimism of the applicant and figure this "good attitude" will be enough to carry out the responsibilities of the job. Unfortunately, as all HR managers know from experience, good attitudes alone do not get the job done.

The best way to increase the chances of finding the ideal employee is to ...