The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically affected businesses worldwide, making it difficult for employers to keep their companies running. Many workers found themselves either furloughed or let go, and those who remained had to perform the work of two — and sometimes three — people.
As the world recovers from the pandemic, businesses are trying to build their workforces back to pre-COVID levels. Just this month, the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced the economy added 943,000 jobs, with unemployment falling to 5.4%.
These numbers reflect the fact that the strategies that recruiting firms are now using are getting results. Here are some of the recruiting strategies top staffing companies are using to improve their results.
Establishing Virtual Recruiting Best Practices
While digital recruiting is not new to the staffing industry, it has undoubtedly become more important than ever before. Now is the time if your company has not yet established a clear set of best practices for your virtual recruiting. These modifications can mean refining your processes, modifying your ATS system, instituting consistent timelines for reviewing candidates, or creating a standardized interview process that relies more heavily on phone or video contact.
One easy way to streamline the virtual interview process is to incorporate pre-employment skills testing directly into your ATS. With eSkill’s intuitive testing platform, you can easily integrate skills tests into your application process. You can even set up your system to automatically email test links to all applicants, allowing you to begin evaluating their job compatibility, or Job Fit before you even look at their resume.
Using Pre Employment Skills Testing to Determine a Candidate’s Persona
One of the most effective ways to use pre-employment skills testing in your recruiting process is to create a candidate profile and match candidates to that success profile.
eSkill offers more than 800 pre-prepared tests organized by job and skill. You can create your own customized pre-employment skills tests as well. You can combine existing tests or build a test using validated questions drawn from eSkill’s library, allowing you to tailor your assessments to each specific job opening.
Skills tests address both hard and soft skills, enabling you to assess a candidate’s persona as well as their technical abilities. For example, you could use pre-employment skills testing to build an exam that combines the Data Analytics and Leadership Skills tests, giving you a complete picture of a candidate’s abilities.
Considering Internal Candidates More Frequently
More and more, organizations are making internal candidates a more significant part of their recruitment process. In addition to being familiar with the company culture — making them more likely to have a better Job Fit or ideal match to a position — helping clients to promote internal candidates is a great way to encourage other employees to continue their development efforts.
Companies like Amazon recognize this value, which is why they recently decided to invest more than $700 million in upskilling their employees.
Skills tests can also be a powerful tool for training programs. Using the candidate profile generated during pre-employment skills testing, you can quickly and easily identify an employee’s skill or knowledge gaps. The results of these assessments help guide each employee’s professional development, allowing you to personalize each worker’s training program.
However, the benefits of pre-employment skills tests go far beyond this initial use. As employees progress through their training programs, testing can help you evaluate each person’s progress, measuring their mastery and identifying new directions for further development.
With eSkill’s user-friendly dashboard, you can get detailed results for each candidate at a glance, making it a powerful tool for your development programs.
From Face-to-Face to Digital
One of the biggest changes in the recruiting landscape is the nearly complete transition to a digital process. While staffing is still about relationships, the nature of these relationships has pivoted away from traditional face-to-face meetings, turning into a combination of phone and video conversations as well as social media connections.
While this form of interaction is certainly different, that does not mean it is better or worse. When building relationships with candidates, recruiting professionals need to learn how to get the most out of these digital tools. Digital communication is another area in which eSkill’s Talent Assessment PlatformTM can provide enhanced benefits.
By adding video and audio questions to your pre-employment skills testing, you get a better idea of a candidate’s personality as well as their interpersonal communication skills.
Questions can range from situational outcomes to questions about the candidate’s goals. You can score each video response based on your criteria using point values and comments. Team scoring is also available, allowing each team member to provide their responses.
Interested in Finding Out More About Pre Employment Skills Testing?
Learn how eSkill’s Talent Assessment PlatformTM can help you find — and hire — the candidates with the best Job Fit. Request a demo today.