In 2017, LinkedIn reported that the United States saw a 58% increase in hiring volume. During the month of September 2017 alone, there were over 6.2 million open jobs according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These statistics, paired with the fact that the unemployment rate continues to be at a 17-year low, are fantastic news for the country’s job market, but also mean that recruitment professionals have their hands full trying to find the right individuals for open positions.
Let’s assume you posted a job opening for your company and received over 250 responses. Your best candidate could be somewhere in that pile, but you don’t have time to comb through all the applications! To help locate the most qualified individuals, companies are increasingly using some kind of automated screening and/or pre-employment testing. Such tests are built to measure specific skills, abilities, intellect, personality and/or other characteristics specific to the job requirements.
Using this kind of testing during the hiring process has positives for both the employer and the job seeker.
- Increases objectivity and standardization across the hiring process: These kind of tests allow companies to assess individuals based on an objective, standardized score, rating, description or category. So long as the scoring mechanism is validated and proven to bring in qualified applicants, this can greatly help hiring managers know where people fall in relation to each other. For qualified job seekers, it signals that the company is invested in trying to find good people which is always a plus, no matter the industry.
- Narrow the pool of applicants: Many companies will set a minimum score or other expectation that will help determine who moves forward in the hiring process. For example, a company may decide that only applicants who score 60% or higher on cognitive abilities will be considered. This allows employers to feel more confident in their selection pool, and can help applicants who move forward feel more confident in their future discussions with the employer.
- Widen the physical location of the job search area: If using an online testing method, hiring managers can test an applicant’s qualifications from anywhere in the world without the added cost of bringing them into a physical office location. Job seekers get the benefit and convenience of being able to take the test from their location of choice.
- Decrease the chance of a “bad hire”: The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that a bad hire can cost a company at least 30% of the employee’s first-year earnings. On top of the financial strain, bad hires can wreak havoc on company morale which is sometimes more difficult to rebound than any dollar amount.
When you add an online proctoring partner into the testing mix, you see even more benefits.
- Reduce the risk of cheating: While less prevalent than cheating in an educational setting, there are people who will try to game the system. A proctoring service can validate the test taker’s identity to eliminate the ability of allowing the applicant to get someone else to take the exam. Furthermore, a proctor can ensure the applicant does not use an unpermitted resource (such as a smartphone or secondary computer) to search for answers.
- Eliminate the risk of the tests being copied and leaked online: These tests can be incredibly expensive to create and validate. While you can’t “study” in the traditional sense for most of these kind of tests, if one was to be shared virally it would greatly reduce its validity as a hiring tool.
- Added technical support: Many online proctoring companies include technical support in their service offerings. This ensures that the applicant’s testing process goes smoothly and that any technical issues that would have interrupted the exam are properly reported to the employer.
If you’re going to make the investment in pre-employment testing, you should strongly consider using an online proctoring service in order to protect your investment and uphold the integrity of your hiring process.
Part of ProctorU’s mission is to uphold the integrity of exams. The HR departments we partner with trust our services to protect their mission – finding the best candidates from even the widest pool of potentials. Just a couple of our unique benefits for employers include the ability to integrate with any online test, regardless of its platform, and our 24/7 live technical support. Online proctoring comes in many forms, and ProctorU helps many companies feel confident and secure in their hiring processes.