Is your company struggling with high attrition rates? If so, you are not alone. A recent study revealed that 87 percent of today’s employers consider improving attrition rates to be a top priority. This comes as no surprise considering that today’s highly competitive job market — spurred by high unemployment and the emergence of online career sites — has made it harder, and more costly, to both attract and identify top talent.
The High Costs of Attrition
Globally, companies are spending more than $200 billion annually in an effort to recruit top talent. Research shows that companies are willing to spend upwards of $4,000 per hire just for entry-level position. This amount rises to 100 percent to 300 percent the base salary of the position to be filled for higher level jobs. These figures don’t even take into account some of the unspoken costs of attrition, such as lost productivity, customer service errors, diminished engagement and cultural impact.
The Rise of Pre-Employment Assessments
With competition fierce and recruitment costs rising, employers are looking for viable solutions to identify qualified candidates that would be a good fit for their company. Thus, the rise of pre-employment assessment testing. Employers use these tests to identify candidates who have certain traits or qualities that would work well within the company.
The problem is that many employers choose an off-the-shelf assessment, plug it into their hiring process and assume it will render the results they need. These outdated assessments may provide some value to the hiring process, but they may also hinder the process by allowing you to assume you have the right data to make sound hiring decisions.
The truth is that many of these off-the-shelf solutions provide generic results that are based on outdated data.
Innovative Assessments Offer Real-Time Analytics
The good news is that technological advancements have improved the quality of professional pre-hire assessment tests in several areas.
Learn About The Importance of Analytics in Talent Assessment
1. Customization
No two companies are alike. Each has different workforce needs, unique workplace cultures and specific attributes they look for in a candidate. Assessment tests can now be customized to help employers not just identify qualified candidates, but to identify their “ideal” candidate. Studies suggest that onboarding employees who “fit” well with the company improves job satisfaction and retention rates.
2. Predictive Data
Pre-hire tests are becoming increasingly accurate at predicting workplace success. The right assessment test offers performance and behavioral analysis that can identify which applicants are most likely to succeed in your specific workplace environment. Having this data available can increase your ability to hire highly productive employees that are most likely to stay and find success within your company. This ultimately can lead to lower turnover rates.
3. Real-Time Solutions
Best of all, quality employment assessments offer real-time data, so you can make real-time hiring decisions. Employers should insist on using assessment tests that are evaluated and readjusted on a continuous basis to help your company hire into the future. Real-time analytics can help improve the quality of hire, while simultaneously reducing recruitment costs.
Think about it. Would you make important business decisions based on outdated material? Hopefully not. If you are struggling with high attrition, it may be because you are using outdated data and/or outdated hiring strategies to make today’s real-time decisions.
FurstPerson offers customized solutions to meet your unique employer needs. Our innovative pre-employment assessments are designed to identify not just skills, but specific traits, attributes and behaviors that best match the needs of your company.
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