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How to do Pre-Employment Evaluation Effectively
The rise of unemployment combined with the shift of the workforce becoming more and more remote has accelerated the need for better hiring methodologies. Hiring managers are having to sift through a much larger pool of applicants and typically those same hiring managers are doing so with fewer resources. Pre-employment evaluation tools, and automated systems, can help hiring managers streamline the application process and get them focused on only those applicants that best fit the position. When done correctly, pre-employment screening can have a significant impact for not only the company in time savings but also the applicant and the experience they have in the process of applying.
What is pre-employment screening?
Pre-employment screening is the process whereby companies filter out unqualified candidates based on a series of specific questions or pre-conditions needed for the job opening. This could be as simple as a drug screen or as focused as an assessment of actual job skills like coding. Depending on the company and what the position needs are, inserting a filtering process helps them work through a lot of applicants in a quick and easy manner. For some companies this is more important than others. As an example, your local Massage Envy may see 50 applicants a month for 1 job opening and have a significant turn-over challenge while an engineering firm hires 2 people annually. Obviously, pre-employment evaluation is going to be more important to the Massage Envy than the engineering firm. The Massage Envy could lower their turnover and save time by implementing a pre-employment evaluation tool.
8 steps to use when implementing pre-employment evaluation in your organization:
1. Evaluate
Evaluate your current process and where you are spending the most time.
2. Create a baseline
Based off step one, create a baseline for how hiring is currently handled, what is working, what isn’t working, how much you spend and so on.
3. Meet internally
Once you have your baseline, meet internally and discuss your baseline and how a pre-screening tool could help your organization.
4. Create a list
Create a list of must-haves for your pre-screener to have. Think of it like buying a house (you must have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms).
5. Research your options
Do your research. We recommend looking at about 2-3 different screeners to help you understand which one will work best.
6. Implement your process
Once you have decided which pre-employment evaluation tool to go with, bring the rest of the management team up to speed and start the process of implementing.
7. Do it right
Try not to take shortcuts and put it into the hiring process where it will be most effective. If you need to integrate with your current Automated Tracking System (ATS), be sure to do so even if it costs more money. It needs to be a no-brainer for your team to use it effectively.
8. Measure results
Track your results. What gets measured gets paid attention to. The results should speak for themselves, but it is important to track key metrics along the way in case you need to make tweaks and also to remind you of how integral a part of the hiring process pre-employment evaluation is.
The preceding 8 steps take a little time. Today, most companies are not interested in changing their current pre-screening processes. However, times are changing, and companies must make a change soon in order to meet the demands of tomorrow’s candidate pool. As the millennial generation becomes 80 Million strong in the workplace, they are going to have certain demands that are different than previous generations. They want a web-based experience that is similar to the ways they use the Internet for everything else. They want to learn information about a company as early in the hiring process as possible so they can make a quick decision whether it’s worth their time to pursue the opportunity. By implementing new application pre-screeners companies are recruiting their candidates from the very beginning of the pre-employment screening process.
One of the biggest mistakes that a company can make is letting their current technology or process get in the way of evaluating what will be best for the company. Companies that don’t change will soon find themselves behind in winning the war for talent. The goal for every company should be to find and hire top performers. How effective a company is at achieving this goal starts with the pre-screening and application process, so why not make it as good as possible.
Ultimately you want to use pre-employment screeners to help you get to the right applicant through the hiring process as quickly as possible. As discussed, the benefits far outweigh any challenge or cost a pre-employment screening service brings with it. This is especially true in high-volume hiring but even makes sense for a local Massage Envy or Chick-Fil-A. Be sure to follow our steps and take your time when making your decision about implementing pre-screening in your organization.
Related Resource – The Ultimate Guide to Pre-employment Screening
Related Blog Post – One Chick-fil-A Launches a New Way to Hire Crew
Dr. Jaffee (M.A., Ph.D.) is a recognized expert in the field of assessments, and has created effective HR Solutions used by millions of people.