Meet the New Boss: Big Data
Article:Companies trade in hunch-based hiring for computer modeling.
Spotting the Great but Imperfect Resume
Article:Recruiters and senior executives express frustration these days about corporate talent hunts at all levels. The gripe: "We're pouring tremendous energy into finding the right resumes. But we're losing the ability to find the right people."
Directors of summer internship programs, for example, have soured on seemingly "perfect" students with 3.9 grade-point averages from elite schools, who have mastered multiple foreign languages. The reason: these recruits show surprisingly little initiative once they arrive at a big, busy company; they keep waiting to be told what to do. Ultra-rigorous screening of internship candidates has inadvertently eliminated the freewheeling mavericks of previous eras. Those earlier interns might have lacked great transcripts, but they didn't need anyone's permission to try something bold.
The Assessment Time Capsule: What Has and Has Not Changed in the World of Pre-employment Assessment
Article:I was cleaning the attic the other day when I discovered a book that Kevin Wheeler and I put together back in the fall of 2001. This dusty tomb provided me with a treasure trove of insight along with a good deal of food for reflection.
Our book, titled “ Screening and Assessment: Best Practices” includes a variety of information about screening and assessment tools including the results of a usage survey examining use patterns for assessment tools, a summary of best practices for screening and assessment, and predictions for the future.
Managers Need You to Screen Out the Weakest Candidates
Article:Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure; Married in haste, we may repent at leisure. –William Congreve, 1693
If you work from a job description only to find it does not correctly define candidate requirements; if you send multiple candidates to the hiring manager only to him/her complain about wrong-skilled people; if turnover stubbornly stays high; if too many people fail training programs; if newly promoted managers fail on the job; if 80% of salespeople produce only 20% of sales, or if half the people you hire tend to sink to the bottom of the pool, then William Congreve defined your problem over 300 years ago.
High-School Graduates Feel Ill-Equipped for Work
Article:More and more high-school graduates who aren't attending college are feeling ill-equipped for the working world, according to a Rutgers University study.
Human resource leaders can help, experts say, by enlisting their companies to provide internships and mentoring services to area high school students, to help them be more confident about preparing for future careers.
Is That Degree Really Necessary?
Article:A recent EEOC discussion letter opines that adopting education requirements for jobs may screen out certain applicants, and that employers shouldn't apply the standard unless they can show that the requirement is job-related. While including education requirements in job listings isn't likely to become illegal, HR professionals may want to rethink asking about candidates' educational backgrounds.
Analytics and Technology Have Led Us to the Doorstep of Assessment’s “Golden Era”
Article:As I continue to attend conferences and hear awesome speeches about analytics such as the one by Josh Bersin, I am thoroughly convinced that talent acquisition (testing and assessment included) are at the beginning of a new era. The coming decades will represent not just a new era for testing and assessment, but rather its “golden era.” I began talking about this trend almost a decade ago, and I continue to watch for signs of the major transition that is currently underway.
Your Customers: A Near-perfect Recruiting Target
Article:They are the perfect recruiting target because these prospects are currently employed (i.e. passives); they are diverse; it costs almost nothing to get a recruiting message in front of them and best of all; and they already know and like your company and its products. These perfect candidates are your customers.
Seven "Non-Negotiables" to Prevent a Bad Hire
Article:The costs of a bad hire are staggering. A recent survey by Career Builder reports more than two-thirds of employers were affected by a bad hire last year, according to AOL Jobs. Of nearly 2,700 employers surveyed, 41% estimate a single bad hire cost $25,000; a quarter estimate a bad choice cost $50,000 or more — not to mention the demoralizing effect of the issue on other employees and on the new hire. Losing a job is one of the most stressful events a human can experience.
What Motivates a Geek to Take a Job
Article:Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg marries his long-time girlfriend and the Washington Post writes, “Another reason, ladies, to give those college geeks a shot.”
