Employee Screening

In a down market, Human Resource departments are inundated with applications as people seek to find stable, full-time employment. More applicants mean there are more people to choose from, but the process of assessing and choosing the most highly skilled and fitting employees is a big job. The use of psychometrics in the hiring process helps to narrow down a large applicant pool by using scientifically assessed personality and aptitude tests. Tests can be customized to fit a company’s values and ideals in order to find employees with parallel attributes. This saves Human Resources time when application levels are high, and people with the right skills and personality for the job are more easily found.

The psychometric tests used in employee screening assess applicants’ key weaknesses and strengths, giving Human Resources and the management team a better idea of how someone will fit into their team. Building a great team is like putting together a complex puzzle because no two people are alike. Using tests to find people with complimentary personalities, experience, and skills is a proficient way to build a productive and efficient team.

Screening tools are also essential in helping Human Resources and managers to build personalized interviews. Once an online assessment has been completed by an applicant, the interviewer can use the results to ask more specific questions relating to someone’s individual strengths and weaknesses. This creates efficient interviews that are more in-depth, providing the interviewer with a better idea whether certain applicants will fit the job or not.

Screening Tools

Screening tools are widely available online for use by businesses in their hiring process. It’s important to ensure that a screening tool is backed by psychometric study in order to get accurate results. These tests psychologically measure applicants’ skills and personality using coding. The series of questions an applicant will answer are studied by psychologists and other professionals specializing in psychometrics, and provide important insight into a person’s work behaviours.

Test questions will range from how the applicant works with a team to how they deal with difficult situations. Applicants will choose from multiple choice answers usually ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. While it is difficult to judge actual intelligence in these questionnaires, results will show how applicants hypothetically deal with everything from work stress to leadership. Skill tests can also assess whether the applicant has the necessary background training to be successful at the job.

Screening tool questions are also developed to find weaknesses in applicants. Interviewers can ask questions based on an applicant’s test results, in order to dig deeper into a potential issue such as lack of skill or interpersonal qualities. When questions are answered honestly, they provide the insight into an individual that a resume, or initial 10-minute interview might not.

Results on the Bottom Line

There’s no doubt about it that loyal, skilled employees save a company money. An employee that falls within the company’s standards of skill, emotional intelligence, and leadership will succeed at the job more so than someone meeting the bare minimum. Good multi-level employee screening finds these types of employees.

The Employment Policy Foundation states that the costs associated with replacing an employee are over $12,000 per full time position, depending on the type of position. Finding employees with the skills and personality needed to fit in with a company is essential in lowering these turnover costs. This is an important part of why psychometrics tools are needed for employee screening.

Employee screening programs are essential in today’s economic and employment market. Narrowing down applications to groups of skilled and emotionally intelligent people helps companies to find good fits for their teams, and also saves money in possible accumulated turnover. Using psychometric screening tools during the hiring process will provide companies with a better idea of who their applicants are, and how they will fit in with their company values and skill requirements.