Are we headed toward a recession? That is a question many CEOs and industry experts are asking. According to economic experts, we are officially in a recession if there are two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product (GDP) growth. This has not occurred as of January 2023, but astute business leaders know it is important to be prepared “just in case.”
If there is a recession during 2023, it will be business as usual throughout your organization. You still need to recruit top candidates and provide training for your staff. Otherwise, it will be impossible to conduct business efficiently and meet your growth goals and objectives. This means recruiting and employee development are as important during good times and bad.
How to Use Employment Tests in a Down Economy
Even the suggestion that a recession is on the horizon is enough to make many business leaders reconsider their hiring and training strategies.
While it is always important to hire top candidates, it is even more critical during a recession. If you have a well-qualified team, you can maximize every business opportunity and maintain your competitive edge in the market.
These are some ways you can use an industry-leading employment assessment testing solution like the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM to innovate your hiring and training processes during a recession.
- Simplify Your Hiring Process: You will probably receive more applications for each of your job openings when the economy is down. With the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM, your HR team can use employment tests to instantly identify top candidates and eliminate those who are unqualified instead of wasting hours reviewing resumes.
- Make Data-Driven Hiring Decisions: Recruiters cannot rely on the information applicants provide because 78% of job candidates lie on their resumes. By reviewing employment test results, hiring teams can make sound hiring decisions based on “hard” data to ensure new hires have the skills required for a job.
- Minimize Employee Turnover: Once you have hired good employees, you need to keep them. This is easier said than done, given that employee turnover costs US businesses $1 trillion annually. Organizations that implement employment testing minimize turnover because they can hire qualified employees and place them in the right jobs. This increases the chances that the new hires will become productive employees and grow with their company.
- Identify Knowledge Gaps: HR and Learning/Development leaders can use employment testing to assess skills company-wide. When they review the results, they can determine which skills employees have mastered and where staff needs more training. In turn, they can then create personalized training programs. This helps reduce turnover because employees stay with an organization longer if provided with training opportunities. They can also identify employees with the skills to move into new roles and those who could be ready for new challenges if provided with more training.
- Be Proactive About Employee Development: Research by the Association of Talent Development (ASTD) shows employee productivity is 200% higher at companies that offer training and employee development programs. Organizations that allow employees to learn on the job also attract over 70% more applicants for open positions.
- Recruit Remote Employees: Working remotely became accepted during the Coronavirus pandemic, and it is here to stay. An AT&T study shows that the percentage of hybrid workers will increase to 81% by 2024, and according to a Gallup study, 8 in 10 people work hybrid or remotely, and only 2 in 10 work exclusively on-site. Organizations can use employment tests such as Web Developer and Virtual Administrative Assistant to measure applicants’ job-related abilities. They can also use Remote Leadership Skills and Videoconference Communication and Etiquette to confirm candidates can work efficiently without direct supervision.
- Recruit Passive Candidates: Employees are often open to making a job change during a recession. The motivation could be a higher salary, better job security, or because business is not good at their current company. If you have identified executives and subject matter experts that you want on your team and they currently work for other companies, consider contacting them during a sluggish economy.
Innovating Hiring and Training During a Recession
The Harvard Business Review studied 4,700 companies’ hiring and training practices during the last three recessions. The results showed that successful organizations thrived because they focused on long-term strategic goals, retained employees in important positions, and actively recruited employees who were available due to layoffs or because companies were closing.
Get Started with Employment Testing
Suppose industry experts’ predictions come true and there is a recession during 2023. In that case, your first step in revising your recruiting strategy should be to decide how you want your company to be positioned in one year and five years and list the skills you will need. This will help you define your hiring and employee development processes so you can leverage all possible options.
Do you want to learn how you can use employment tests to innovate hiring and training when the economy is down? Contact us to request a demo.
