The hiring process brings out stress for candidates and businesses. However, one thing that’s often overlooked is the cost of bringing on new employees. In fact, there are a few specific monetary effects on the business end:
- Onboarding and extra paperwork
- Any necessary items such as equipment or uniforms
- Decrease in company productivity due to a new work environment
Typically, businesses can spend a little over a month to hire someone. It can even cost them a few thousand dollars in the process, though that number is subject to change depending on things like the company, desired position, and experience needed. For the most part, there is no way for businesses to get around having to spend money before a new employee is even brought in.
There is, fortunately, a way for the hiring process to be more beneficial to both sides—by administering pre-employment assessments.
What are pre-employment assessments?
These tests look at the skills of viable candidates to help hiring managers and recruiters evaluate what they can or can’t do. Pre-employment assessments also allow candidates to show their skills, which can decrease the time they would have taken reviewing resumes. Candidates unable to complete these assessments could be excluded from the candidate pool. Additionally, there are many pre-made tests available to choose from. Customizable assessments could be made but some websites charge for that.
Expenses may come with having access to pre-employment assessments, though it would still be significantly less than most other previously-used options. Hiring managers and recruiters should consider that when looking into implementing them into their hiring process.
From Old to New
The traditional hiring process used to encompass resume reviewing, several stages of interviews, and a general test—written or practical application of skills. Unfortunately, that was very time-consuming and expensive from a business standpoint. The transition to remote hiring processes significantly improved the overall process. With the decrease of interview stages needed, stress that candidates felt lowered as well. Pre-employment assessments became an upfront look for candidates to understand what might be required of them if they were hired. Similarly, the tests helped recruiters and hiring managers do more than eliminate unqualified individuals.
Pre-employment assessments provided them with information on:
- A collection of data across a candidate pool
- What questions may be confusing (i.e. if all candidates answered wrong)
- General skillsets of the candidate pool
- Patterns in experiences or backgrounds
Summary
The hiring process is no walk-in-the-park for anyone. Companies looking to hire must make an investment in a potential employee and job hunting is a stressful endeavor on its own. Being able to decrease time, money, and stress in any aspect of the process will have a positive influence generally. Getting a qualified employee out of it thanks to a thorough, well-constructed pre-employment assessment should be the goal of the hiring process. The implementation of a remote hiring process for the world is seemingly here to stay, and pre-employment assessments are only the tip of the iceberg.
