Rethinking and redesigning candidate assessments in the digital era

Did you know that it costs a company an average of US$20,000 for a single bad hire, according to a study by the Human Capital Institute? The recruitment process is both time-consuming and resource-intensive – not to mention, fraught with potential dangers of hiring the wrong candidate.

Therefore, it is crucial for companies to get their hiring process right, and to get it right from the onset of candidate assessment.

Pre-employment tests used to screen job candidates can include assessing of various abilities and skillsets including their knowledge of the industry and job scope, language proficiency, and personality, among others. Organisations rely on candidate assessments to shortlist applicants who are most likely to succeed in the positions.

For example, Singapore Airlines requires applicants for selected ground positions to complete essay and psychometric assessment comprising numerical, verbal, logical, and deductive reasoning tests in a classroom-style test room.

It might come as a surprise that there are many established companies that have yet to embrace unsupervised online testing in today’s digital era. Beyond digitising the assessment, there is certainly plenty of room for improvement in the way these assessments are operationalised and delivered.

Talent acquisition departments need to rethink about candidate assessments and make the transition from an organisation-centric to a candidate-centric approach.

Here are four ways that we can rethink the way we design and deliver pre-employment assessments: 

1. A mobile experience: Think about how reliant we are to our mobile devices and the prevalence of mobile surfing, shopping and now the rise of mobile payments. A mobile experience might seem like a given in the digital era we live in, but few companies have made that transition. Enabling candidates to complete the assessments on their mobile devices on-the-go and at their convenience is a key differentiator for an innovative and progressive organisation.

2. A relevant experience: Today’s assessments must be 100% relevant to the job position or company to which the candidate is applying. Using a blanket assessment approach that measures non-specific skills or attributes to the job to disqualify unwanted volumes of applicants provides limited value to employers and wastes candidates’ precious time.

3. An immersive experience: Candidates form impressions of the organisation even before they are successfully employed. This makes it critical to engage candidates with the organisation’s brand values throughout the entire recruitment process – from the time they come across the job posting, through the assessment phase, and till the candidate is hired.

4. A smart experience: Oftentimes, candidates walk away from lengthy assessments spanning hours without knowing how they had performed. Or in some instances, they receive a generic feedback after waiting for a period of time. Smart assessments provide instant feedback and these result in immediate and valuable takeaways for the candidate.

This doesn’t mean that the talent acquisition departments are sitting back. In fact, many firms invest hefty resources into an advanced suite of assessment tools to holistically assess candidates, especially important hires, on all fronts.

However, what we’ve discovered through conversations with clients and candidates alike is that more often than not, assessments end up being another mandatory exercise to tick off the HR process.

Generic assessments are frequently used as a tool to filter through large volumes of applicants; a simplistic gating system. Or worse still, an excuse for hiring managers to turn away candidates when the issue lies in the lack of a more meaningful and holistic assessment.

The entrance of the millennial generation into the workforce, coupled with technological advancements, have changed the way human resources work.

While we’ve seen significant improvements in the way HR teams brand, communicate, and market themselves to be more candidate-centric, there seems to be a significant lag in adopting candidate-centric and candidate-relevant assessment approaches. One will be surprised that in many organisations, the testing approach has not changed in years!

The latest labour market report by the Ministry of Manpower showed that turnover rates in Singapore in Q2 increased from the previous year, from 3,250 to 5,500¹. Besides reflecting the subdued economic conditions and slowing growth of the local labour force, the Harvard Business Review points out that as much as 80% of employee turnover is due to bad hiring decisions.

Rethinking and redesigning the hiring process would allow organisations to attract and hire the kind of employees that would best suit their company, and avoid unnecessary turnovers. Therefore, it is high time for assessment approaches to step up their game and evolve with the rest of the human resources function.

¹https://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/press-releases/2016/0728-labour-market-advance-release-2q-2016