By HireGround

Read Part One and Part Two and Part Three.

Recruitment and hiring is undoubtedly a very expensive process, with HR experts calculating that the average hire costs about $3,300 ¹. Recruiting software can cut that number significantly by reducing the amount of time spent on hiring, improving communications, and providing search and referral systems that focus on the ideal candidate.

The Good Ol’ Days?
Do you remember the extensive screening tests that were required prior being considered for any role, not so many years ago? These tests were time consuming and costly to administer, and therefore have gradually been abandoned. Moreover, these tests were often based on unproven psychological theories, and could potentially be interpreted as a discriminatory tool – something best avoided.

Today, other informal qualitative hiring practices have been adopted, but we predict a change here too. More formal tools are going to improve with new technologies that are being frequently released in our industry.

As mentioned earlier, many applicant tracking software (ATS) systems are capable of comparing the resume to the job description and assigning a score to the applicant. Recruitment team members can choose whether or not to view the lower ranking applicants, instead of spending time looking over every resume. If specific requirements are not in the resume (typically keywords) the resume can be auto rejected.

Bringing Screening Up to Present
The option to add questions that can be ‘stop’ questions (the applicant answers correctly or they are rejected) or auto-scored questions gives the recruitment team much more power in quickly assessing the resumes flowing into the job list. Combine all options of auto matching, keywords and questions and you have some very powerful tools to assist in evaluating applicants.

Additionally, a system can reward certain behaviour within the applicant database. For example, an applicant can be given special emphasis if they were previously interviewed for a job, or if they are a current employee.

Getting a ‘Head’ of the Competition
Another option growing popular in the hiring software market is psychological tests, which are prevalent particularly in hourly worker roles that experience high turnover, for example, in the retail and call centre industries. These tests take one step towards limiting the absenteeism and theft that is typically higher in hourly, contract and seasonal employment.

These tools combine personality testing, cognitive skill testing, along with multiple questions that determine how an employee would handle different scenarios they may encounter in their day to day work. Psychometrics (Edmonton based), or SHL personality tests are a two examples of these.

The collection of personality and skills assessment tools are validating and delivering real time feedback to the recruitment team. These tools can be integrated with an ATS such that it is easy for the applicant to respond to the assessment requirements and in turn assist the hiring team in making more educated decisions on any one hire.

The Cost of a Bad Hire
All these assessment tools are designed to prevent a bad hire as much as possible. Hiring the wrong individual is an extraordinarily expensive mistake. The cost of a bad hire? “Twenty-seven percent of the U.S. employers surveyed said that just one of these bad hires cost their company more than $50,000.”

For smaller businesses of 60 employees or less it is estimated to be $8,000 in costs for each bad hire.² Ensuring the right candidates are hired is not a simple task, and assessment tools play a key role in determining good fit.

Read Part Five now.

1 Forbes – May 2013 (www.forbes.com)
2 Fast Company – April 2014 (www.fastcompany.com)

Since 1999, HireGround has established itself as a leading provider of Applicant Tracking Software (ATS). HireGround is recognized for its strong customer support, ease of use software, and ability to streamline software processes to meet client requirements.