PREPARING FOR THE NEW YEAR RECRUITMENT RUSH
Phillippa Turner
Start thinking about your Talent strategy for 2018 - Is your business ready for the January job search?
New year, new beginnings. January will herald in the annual jump in job listings posted across NZ’s major online search engines, with employers and potential candidates alike focusing on their growth for 2018.
February data from SEEK Employment Trends demonstrated that job ads were up by 17.3% compared to the same time last year, with similar numbers reported by Trade Me Jobs (16.4%). According to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) Jobs Online report, this trend continued through 2017, with the number of online job advertisements rising by 8.2% overall.
This jump in listings certainly signalled growth in New Zealand’s employment market, but it can also mean that employers will need to work harder in order to attract and retain the right people for the job and their business.
January is often cited as one of the most popular months for job changes worldwide, and as the ongoing shortage of highly-skilled professionals sees the gap between skills required by employers and those in the labour market continue to widen, the competition for talent is about to heat up.
Indeed 2018 has the potential to emerge as a job seekers’ market, and employers may find they need to be more efficient when it comes to securing the right talent.
A streamlined recruitment process is essential to securing skilled candidates who fit with your business, and when you need to turn decisions around quickly, psychometric testing can allow employers to quickly and effectively gather critical information on potential hires.
Ensuring that new hires are not only qualified for their respective positions but really ‘fit’ in with your culture, vision and values can be challenging, for instance, especially if key decision makers are making their evaluations based on interviews, reference checks or gut instinct alone.
Making the wrong hiring decision can also be extremely costly from a financial, performance and cultural perspective. Once you have determined an individual’s pre-existing experience, skill and knowledge base, personality assessments will allow you to take a closer look at their motivational drivers, how they are likely to respond across a range of work-related activities, and their overall compatibility with your business’ existing mission and culture.
Aside from evaluating fit, cognitive ability assessments are widely considered to be one of the most valid predictors of job performance. Whether you are interested in assessing an individual’s problem solving ability, how quickly and accurately they can think on their feet, their verbal abilities or numerical aptitude – these assessments can be an extremely efficient way of measuring how well an applicant is likely to perform on the job.
When time is at a premium, utilising psychometric assessments for recruitment and selection is a logical choice – upon completion, most assessments on the market can provide individual and group level data almost instantaneously. The key for employers in 2018 will be administering well-designed tools that are based on statistical or psychological research, and are independently recognised in the industry as valid and reliable.
Properly administered and interpreted assessments can provide employers with a wealth of information, but it is vital that data is used appropriately, and not as a ‘pass or fail’ exercise. The information gathered via assessment should complement the decision making process, for instance, providing an additional layer of insight that strengthens the data gathered via a quality interview and reference checking process.
It can be difficult to balance the need to fill roles with the need to ensure the right fit with your people, their jobs and your philosophy as an organisation – especially when time is at a premium, and the competition for talent is high. Fit from a capability and a personality perspective can be a significant predictor of on-the-job performance, so it stands to reason that key decision makers would want to gather as much useful information as quickly and effectively as possible on a potential candidate before making a hiring decision.
Partnering with an experienced provider who is skilled not only in the interpretation of psychometric assessment results but in their delivery is also critical for maximum return on investment. As independent practitioners, we are able to offer objective, high-quality advice around psychometrics that is transparent, ethical and compliant with our industry’s standards. Every organisation is unique, and we are passionate about providing a level of service that reflects this.
Feel free to get in touch to discuss assessment options before the new year rush!