Historically, employers depend upon resumes, references and
interviews as sources of information for making hiring decisions. In
practice, these sources have proved inadequate for consistently
selecting good employees.
"The appropriate use of professionally developed assessment tools on
average enables organizations to make more effective employment-
related decisions than the use of simple observation or random decision
making." "Testing and Assessment: An Employer’s Guide to Good
Practices”, US Department of Labor Employment and Training
Administration, 1999.
Two of three new hires will disappoint in the first year
"Chances are good that up to 66% of your company's hiring decisions
will prove to be mistakes in the first twelve months" Peter Drucker,
Management Consultant
Ninety-five of 100 applicants will "exaggerate" to get a job
Resume writers write great fiction. In a survey of recent college
graduates, 95% said they would be willing to make a false statement in
their resumes in order to get a job. 41% admitted they had already done
so, according to a report in Nation's Business (May, 1999).
Most hiring decisions are made in haste - during the first five
minutes of an interview.
"63% of all hiring decisions are made during the first 4.3 minutes of an
interview.” Society for Human Resource Management study, reported in
USA Today Experience shows only a coincidental correlation between
the ability to deliver well in an interview and to deliver well on the job.
AND... You want employees who are dependable!
In 1998, absenteeism cost employers $757 per employee, according to a
report in USA TODAY. This was the direct cost reported by a survey of
human resource professionals and does not include the cost of hiring
others or paying overtime to perform the work of absent employees.
Assessment is acceptable, and even expected.
"Pre-employment testing has grown in popularity recently, and the
science of testing has come a long way. Online testing standardizes the
tests and the testing conditions, computerized scoring is fast and
enables the easy creation of statistically derived hiring benchmarks, and
push-button reporting provides interviewers with follow-up questions to
ask when test results don’t match exactly with the desired profile.
Carefully choosing your pre-hire selection tools should help you narrow
the gap between a poor hiring choice and a well-qualified candidate.”
Patsy Svare, managing director, The Chatfield Group, Glenview, Illinois,
December 1, 2003.
A survey found that 92% of job applicants accept testing as part of the
job qualification process. Only 3% resent it, while 5% were neutral.
Molding Systems (May, 1999, v57 i5 p56(1))
When training employees, a "one size fits all" approach has failed to
provide the desired results. When selecting people for promotion,
otherwise excellent employees have too often been miscast into roles
they could not perform satisfactorily. Clearly, an essential ingredient for
making "people decisions" has been missing from the formula.
The use of assessments has become essential to employers who
• want to put the right people into jobs;
• provide employees with effective training;
• help their managers to become more effective; and
• promote people into positions where they will succeed.
The use of assessments has resulted in extraordinary increases in
productivity while reducing employee relations problems, employee
turnover, stress, tension, conflict and overall human resources
expenses.
HirePower Associates use an integrated assessment approach - one
that measures behavioral traits, thinking, occupational interests, plus
"Job Match", for existing employees.
HirePower Associates assess the qualities of "The Total Person.
In doing so, the individual qualities of candidates are compared to the
qualities of employees who perform their duties in a superior manner,
creating the ideal "Job Match".
A well-documented study, published in Harvard Business Review
concludes that "Job Match" is by far the most reliable predictor of
effectiveness on the job. The study considered many factors including
the age, sex, race, education and experience of approximately 300,000
subjects. It evaluated their job performance and found no significant
statistical differences, except in the area of "Job Match."
The conclusion: "It's not experience that counts or college degrees or
other accepted factors; success hinges on a fit with the job."
The only reliable method for evaluating "Job Match" is with a properly
designed assessment instrument, capable of measuring the essential
job-related characteristics particular to each specific job. HirePower
Associates has assessments designed for this purpose.
