CareerJournal.com again with this article – Pre-Hire Tests Aim To Stop ‘Fakers’. I like to riff on this topic often. My comment – if we could simply keep the fakers off your payroll, we would be worth our weight in gold. Along those lines, I think the most accurate pricing model for our assessments would be $500 for determining a strong candidate and $1,000 for identifying a weak candidate. I doubt that would fly, but the logic is sound. Some excerpts: Despite the tests’ flaws, Dr. Griffith says pre-employment tests are generally more reliable predictors of performance than an interview alone. Generally? An understatement in my opinion. Our primary focus… Read More
Continue ReadingAnecdote – Tell Me What You’re Looking For
In a recent phone screen for a sales position, I asked a candidate to tell me how they believed their background fit the requirements of the position. Now mind you, the position required the candidates to listen effectively, build rapport, ask insightful questions and have excellent verbal communication skills. The candidate’s response: Tell me what you’re looking for and I will tell you if I can do it. Really, I didn’t need to go much further, but I did ask him a couple of other questions and received similar answers. So I ended the phone screen by stating, “That’s all the questions I have for you at this time. What… Read More
Continue ReadingWhy Assessing Works
From CareerJournal.com’s mailbag article (emphasis mine): Question: My son, a high-school student who has dyslexia and ADD, handles himself well in job interviews and on jobs bagging groceries or helping customers. But when he applies for part-time jobs at big store chains, he invariably flunks their online pre-employment tests. The tests take an hour or more and ask so many simple, repetitive questions that my son gets bored and just starts checking off answers randomly. Are these tests a legal way of discriminating? — F.J., Irvine, Calif. Answer: Such tests can be discriminatory, but proving it can be difficult. The Americans With Disabilities Act prohibits employers from using screening tests… Read More
Continue ReadingVerification Statistics
You have seen multiple posts from us here at The Hire Sense on background verification and it’s importance in the hiring process. This morning as I was scanning through some online content, I came across some statistics from Verified Credentials on verification discrepancies. 10% of criminal background searches contain discrepancies 18.42% of academic verifications contain discrepancies 41.07% of employment verifications contain discrepancies 4.17% of professional license verifications contain discrepancies 1% of personal reference checks contain discrepancies 46.65% of driving records contain discrepancies A discrepancy is defined as “information provided by the applicant which does not agree with the information verified.” This does not always mean that the discrepancy would disqualify… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Results Orientation
Last week, we defined Project and Goal Focus which is important for successful selling in any market. Salespeople must stay on target over extended periods of time while overcoming many obstacles. The companion aptitude to Goal Focus is Results Orientation. It is one thing to stay on target, it is another thing to actually accomplish the tasks needed to reach that target. A salesperson with little aptitude for achieving results will be the proverbial “cloud of dust” salesperson. You will see a cloud of dust kicked up by all of their activity, but at the end of the day, the wagon hasn’t moved. Results Orientation The ability to identify actions… Read More
Continue ReadingA Survey on Digital Dirt
CareerBuilder offers this article discussing the use of the Internet to research candidates. Most candidates are aware of the pervasiveness of information available on the web. But according to this statistics from this article, not all candidates are concerned about it: When asked to divulge the types of information discovered on the Web that caused them to dismiss potential employees, hiring managers pointed to the following: 31% – candidate lied about qualifications 25% – candidate had poor communication skills 24% – candidate was linked to criminal behavior 19% – candidate bad-mouthed their previous company or fellow employee 19% – candidate posted information about them drinking or using drugs 15% –… Read More
Continue ReadingTop Job Boards
I’m sure you can guess the top 2 job boards, no surprises there, but who is number one. Careerbuilder nudges out Monster by 400,000 more ads in a quarter. But what boards round out the top 10, that might suprise you. Check out the list at Workforce.com.
Continue ReadingBest Cities for Relocating
Through some of my sourcing efforts this past week I came across several lists for the top cities for relocating. The Employee Relocation Council (ERC) and Primacy Relocation have been conducting these survey’s for a few years. From what I found, they publish a yearly list of the top 50 cities for Families by market size and the top 100 cities for singles. Our home state of Minnesota did not place any cities in the top 50 for families, but Minneapolis/St. Paul came in at 77 on the list of top 100 cities for singles. Here is the criteria used for each of the lists: Families Tax Rates Average House… Read More
Continue ReadingSimply The Best
I had a good conversation today about a business owner whom we assessed as a salesperson and found some varied results. The owner was strong in some areas but weak in some important aptitudes. This led to the discussion that the owner was one of the best people at actually selling this service so how could they have lower scores in these areas. Some important points about this scenario: Hiring is a complex process with an almost limitless amount of variables. A successful process needs to incorporate objective data and then use it interactively with the candidate. Our approach is to pursue specific topics, in an indirect manner, once we… Read More
Continue ReadingCover Letter Fun
Not the most inspiring introduction: “I need any sedentary job that need no previous experiance, based on hourly wage…”
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