Human resources are the largest expenditure for most businesses. As such, many invest a significant amount of money to find the right people.
How can we be sure that investment is spent wisely? One way is the use of pre-interview assessments to screen applicants.
The recruiting process alone is a substantial investment. Advertising, assessment tests, time costs of the internal staff reviewing resumes and applications, time costs of the interviewer or hiring manager, and drug/ background screening all have a monetary cost. If you are hiring multiple individuals during one recruitment process, this amount is spread over the number hired. But if you are hiring just one or two people, research finds the entire process can amount to $3,500 in costs!
This cost is just to get an applicant to an employee. The cost of workplace integration, onboarding and training is also an expense that takes a long time to pay off.
“A survey of 610 CEOs by Harvard Business School estimates that typical mid-level employee require 6.2 months to reach their break-even point.”
In a previous blog post we explored How to Choose a Staffing Vendor, which suggests finding a vendor with the industry expertise necessary to support specific needs. Pre-interview assessments are another reason why picking the right staffing vendor is important. A professional recruitment staff is able to more accurately predict an employee’s success before they’re brought onboard. A thorough pre-interview assessment can reveal a candidate’s innate abilities and work style.
Akraya hires engineering graduates as recruiters to fill highly technical positions. As an added value service to our customers, we often provide pre-interview assessments of candidates along with their resumes. Some of our customers found that our pre-interviewed candidates have enabled them to shorten the interview loop from four or five interviewees to one or two. This practice has also led to dramatic increases in the interview-to-hire ratio.