Hiring People Without Job Experience
Archive for category: General
Current research tells us that basing a hiring decision on resumes, applications and interviews just doesn’t work anymore. Candidates misrepresent themselves on applications and in interviews more than half the time! Making decisions based on “gut feel” is accurate about 25% of the time!
Develop Your Managers
Develop Your Managers
Many executives are recognizing the valuable role leaders / managers play at all levels of the organization. Learn how to develop your managers to make sure they are performing at a high level.
Hire Top Performing Sales People
How do we know if we are hiring top performing sales people? Have you ever intentionally hired an under-performing sales person? We all want a sales staff to perform at high levels, whether it is your first or your 100th sales person. Here are some tips for hiring top performing sales people.
6 Step Hiring Process
Recent studies confirm the importance of an organization’s talent. Executives recognize that
recruiting, managing and retaining high performing talent is not only a competitive advantage
but it is imperative for survival. The rapid change in business today has put an even higher
value on attracting and retaining high performers.
Gig Workers
What is a Gig Worker?
According to Investopedia, ‘In a gig economy, temporary, flexible jobs are commonplace and companies tend toward hiring independent contractors and freelancers instead of full-time employees. A gig economy undermines the traditional economy of full-time workers who rarely change positions and instead focus on a lifetime career.”
Gig workers include independent contractors, freelancers, consultants, part time, and side hustles. Generally, a gig worker is a short term resource and is not a traditional full time employee. It’s estimated that as much as a third of the workforce is involved in gig work in some capacity.
Why are Organizations Engaging Gig Workers?
There are advantages in using gig workers in the right situations:
The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend toward engaging gig workers. It has highlighted a need for staffing flexibility, both up and down, as the economy adjusts. Remote working is also a contributor to moving toward gig workers.
Should I use Job Fit Assessments for Gig Workers?
It is important to recognize that your gig workers will contribute to your organization’s success in the same way a traditional employee will. Their productivity and retention (for the required period) will have the same impacts as our traditional employees.
Hiring and onboarding a gig worker often happens more quickly than with a traditional employee. Given the shorter tenure, it is critically important that the gig worker gets up to speed quickly. The manager needs to learn their strengths and weaknesses and how to best communicate with them just as quickly.
Job fit assessments provide objective information about the worker’s reasoning ability and behavioral traits. Comparing these traits to a benchmark of requirements for a specific job, helps ensure the worker is a good fit and can hit the ground running. A manager will not have the normal 6 – 12 month “get to know you” period with a gig worker, and so it is vital that they understand up front, the worker’s traits, their reasoning skills, and how they will fit the job.
You’ll want to use an assessment that is easy to administer, measures traits important to the role, generates results immediately and is easy to use. PDServices offers a family of assessments that meets these needs. There are different assessments for different job levels and benchmarks for specific jobs. And you will be pleasantly surprised by the cost! Give us a shout at 740-326-4494 or info@PDServices.com to try one today.
Tips for Employers and Job Candidates on Pre-Hire Assessments
I recently responded to the following questions posted anonymously from someone in transition. I thought it might be helpful to both employers and job candidates. These were the questions.
1. How beneficial are assessments to the hiring process?
2. Is pre-employment testing becoming the norm?
3. How do people in transition prepare for these tests?
4. Does it block candidates who may be seeking new opportunities (career change)?
1. If the employer is using an assessment that is truly valid for hiring, then the assessment can help both employer and candidate to see if you are a good fit for the job. Assessments that measure only personality are probably not the best indicator for hiring. Assessments that measure cognitive, personality, honesty and integrity, and interests, give the best overall picture for a good fit. As a candidate you want to make sure that you will be happy in your new position and as an employer, you want the candidate to be happy and a good performer for your company. Hiring someone who is a good fit will ultimately reduce turnover. A conservative calculation for cost of turnover is 20% of the salary for a job.
2. Yes. This is the norm. Over 80% of companies use assessments. Over 90% of all top performing companies use assessments.
3. You really should not need to prepare. There are sites that will tell people how to “fool” these tests or how to answer questions, but if the assessment is a good one, it is measuring how you learn, your personality traits, honesty, and what you like to do (interests). A good assessment can measure someone who is trying to fool the test. There are no right or wrong answers (except the cognitive piece). Don’t base your answers on how you think the employer wants you to answer. Just answer truthfully. Current assessments benefit both parties. Not only is the employer looking for a candidate who will fit their job and culture, but as a candidate, you should want to know if you would be happy working for a particular company in a particular job. I always went into an interview thinking I was interviewing them as much as they were interviewing me.
4. I am not aware of any that block someone because of a career change. In fact, if you have been unhappy in your current career, it is likely because you weren’t a good fit in that particular job in that particular company. An assessment can help you see if you are a good fit.
Happy hunting and don’t sweat an assessment! You probably won’t know which assessment you will be taking anyway, but regardless, you should not need to prepare. Finally, the assessment is only one piece of many factors used in a hiring decision.
What is Conscientiousness?
Conscientiousness – A measure of one’s willingness to work with honesty and integrity, and to follow rules.
Why is Conscientiousness Important in Hiring Decisions?
Conscientiousness and reasoning ability are the top two key measures when predicting job fit and high performance. Conscientiousness is a personality trait that has proven critical in evaluating candidates and selecting new employees. Paul R. Sackett and Philip T. Walmsley of the University of Minnesota – found that conscientiousness was by far the most highly sought after personality attribute for job applicants.
On the surface, the importance of Conscientiousness is obvious. A good employee will be honest and treat others with integrity. This is important in jobs that deal with customers and suppliers. It is particularly important for jobs where the employee has access to a customer’s residence (i.e. plumbers, electricians, HVAC, senior care workers) and/or access to a customer’s personal and financial information like credit cards or social security numbers.
Going a step deeper, Conscientiousness gives us insight into how the candidate will deal with team mates, customers, and suppliers. Integrity is all about one’s moral compass. An individual with high integrity does the right thing even when others aren’t looking, or if it’s inconvenient for the individual. That personality trait builds confidence and trust from others, having a positive impact on personal productivity and the reputation of the organization.
The last phrase in the definition above is “and to follow rules”. We all want employees who will follow our organization’s policies, comply with their supervisor’s direction, and adhere to important processes. This may be as simple as showing up for work on time. A YouGov poll found that one in five Americans (19 percent) are late for work at least once a week. SHRM estimates that employee tardiness costs businesses in the U.S more than $3 billion annually.
With more employees working at home, conscientiousness is an important consideration. For many organizations, this may become a permanent option. You might be interested in our article Do Your Employees Have What It Takes to Work at Home?
When managers clearly communicate job expectations, an employee with high conscientiousness will focus on meeting and exceeding expectations. They are responsible, act with integrity, and bring value to your organization.
Why Use a Cognitive Reasoning Ability Assessment Test?
Cognitive assessments are scientific measurement tools designed and validated by psychometricians. They are used with candidates and employees to help assess job fit. There are problem solving questions using words and numbers, number and shape sequences, and a variety of other question types. Results are used as objective data to understand how a person learns, adapts to change, and solves problems.
Why is Measuring Cognitive Ability Important in Business?
Research shows that cognitive reasoning ability has a very high correlation to job performance. Having the right cognitive fit for the job is key to retention, productivity, and employee engagement. Cognitive reasoning assessments tell an employer how quickly a candidate or existing employee will learn a job and how quickly they can adapt as the job or environment changes. Some jobs require employees to learn at a fast pace, process a lot of information, and solve problems quickly. Other jobs are repetitive, and once you learn them, you simply repeat the process over and over. It’s all about job fit.
If you put someone with lower cognitive reasoning ability into a job that requires processing a lot of information and/or solving complex problems, they will not fit the job and their performance will be below expectations. On the other hand, if you put a person with high cognitive skills into a repetitive job, they will be bored, disengaged, and are likely to quit. A cognitive assessment test provides objective information that you can’t get from traditional hiring methods such as applications, resumes, and interviews. The objective nature of the data also helps to overcome bias by interviewers and managers.
Examples of Cognitive Reasoning in Business
Think of a salesperson who sells a complicated technical product. First, they need to learn the technical details of the product. Second, technology is changing at a rapid pace so they are constantly learning new features and capabilities. When a salesperson talks with a prospective client, the client shares a lot of information about their situation and needs. The salesperson needs to gather that information, process and analyze it, provide a solution, and communicate back to the client in a short timeframe. A top performing sales person must have a high cognitive reasoning ability.
Other jobs requiring high cognitive skills include customer service, engineering, information technology, research, analytics, financial, medical, management, etc.
If you have a production job that is repetitive and you hire someone with high cognitive skills, you will likely be pleased initially, because the person will learn the job very quickly and become productive very fast. However, if the job doesn’t continue to engage their high cognitive ability they will become bored. We’ve seen people who begin to play games on the job, even begin to bypass safety procedures, and try new approaches just to keep their minds engaged. Ultimately, they will look for a job that is more interesting to them, forcing you to return to your recruiting process to replace them. You may have a number of jobs that are fairly repetitive. You should look for someone whose cognitive reasoning ability fits the job.
See more information on pre-employment assessment tests and employee talent assessment tests on our website.
What to look for in a Cognitive Reasoning Assessment Test
There are a number of options available. Some only measure cognitive ability while others combine cognitive, personality, and interests, to assess the total person and overall fit with the job. We advise the latter. The more information you have about a candidate or employee, the better hiring, onboarding and management decisions you will make.
Some things to look for:
PDServices offers a suite of assessments developed for different jobs and job types. They include entry level / hourly, mid-level, and higher level jobs. These assessments include cognitive reasoning ability, personality traits, honesty and integrity, and occupational interest measures that are appropriate for the job level.
It’s easy and affordable. Let’s discuss how assessment testing can benefit your company! Contact us today at 740-397-4928.
How Do You Fix An Ineffective Team?
A True Story of an Ineffective Team
PDServices was asked to help identify and resolve why an executive team at a mid-sized technology company was having difficulty working together and making timely decisions. The President of the organization was frustrated and had already tried a number of things to improve the team’s performance.
About PDServices
For over 25 years, PDServices has been working with small and mid-sized organizations to improve their Workforce Management. We help you hire, develop, and retain employees who will fit your jobs and culture. This results in improved productivity, reduced turnover, and increased employee engagement.
Evidence Based Hiring
We hear “evidence based” a great deal today, evidence based medicine, evidence based management . A main driver is the trend toward data analytics which helps us make evidence based decisions. We are now hearing the terms “evidence based hiring” and “evidence based selection” as a type of HR Analytics.
