The Role of Pre-Employment Assessment in Hiring

The Role of Pre-Employment Assessment in HiringThe Role of Pre-Employment Assessment in HiringYou dont want to hire an employee who will give presentations to clients, eitherbei internal or external and then find out that she is so nervous presenting that she cant get a coherent sentence out of her mouth when standing in front of a group. You dont want to hire a programmer who doesnt know the programming languages listed on her resume. How do you ensure that the people you hire arent just making stuff up in the interview? The formalbackground check helps, for sure. But, in another great way to determine appropriate background skills, many companies check the candidates actual skills through pre-employment assessments. You want to do any pre-employment assessment correctly, so keep in mind the following issues Only ask your most qualified couple of candidates to participate in a pre-employment assessment. Its not ritterlich to ask marginal candidates to spend the hours necessary for t he pre-employment assessment unless they are a finalist for the position.Set a time limit for any pre-assessment you request. Any work that you ask a candidate to do is taking time out of their busy schedule. Never ask your candidate for anything that requires more than an hour or two of preparation and testing unless you are willing to pay consulting fees for their time. The pre-assessment test selected should not become your work product. Dont ask a graphic design candidate to design a new logo, then not hire that partie, and use the logo. Dont ask an analyst candidate to write a report, and then use that report. Thats called stealing work. And remember, your job candidate owns the copyright on whatever they produce. Their product is not work for hire because you didnt pay for it.The pre-employment assessment should relate directly to the job. A basic math test is a must for grocery store cashiers, but not for the people who collect the carts. Asking an administrative assistant ca ndidate to do a sales presentation makes no more sense than asking a sales candidate to do a python coding test. Pre-Employment Assessments While many companies test for technical skills (appropriately for software developers) or do personality assessments which are always open to interpretation, the following pre-employment assessments may provide more useful information. Presentation Skills Does the candidate know how to handle herself in a presentation? Can she create engaging PowerPoint slides? Can she answer questions mid-presentation without being caught off guard and losing her place? Can she speak clearly and coherently? Remember, when you request your candidate to make a presentation as a pre-employment assessment, you need only a short time, 10-15 minutes, to assess your candidates skills in presenting. Internal Technical Skills Technical skills are easy to spot on a resume, and likely your applicant tracking system returned this resume because the keywords ma tched. But it is one thing for a candidate to say, I can do X, and another thing for her to demonstrate the actual skill. While your applicants resume may look impressive, the person may not be able to effectively demonstrate the actual skill you need. Why is that? The possibility that the candidate exaggerated her skills always exists, but you also need to consider the possibility that you and the candidate think about the skill differently. When you ask a candidate, can you work with Excel? the person may think, yes, I can make graphs, and I can add columns of numbers, so yes. But, you, the employer, are thinking, We create macros that communicate between datakusines and generate automated reports. Often, a person who is doing the job right now is the best person to assess whether the candidate has the needed technical skills. Analysis Skill Assessment Many people have analyst roles in the workplace, but what the job title, analyst, means varies widely from job to job and comp any to company. Just what will you need your new employee to analyze? Give her a pre-employment assessment that is a sample analysis assignment with a report to write. Her output will demonstrate whether she understands what is going on, or not. Customer Service Just how do you assess a candidates customer service skills? Give her a customer, an employee playing the role of a customer, of course. How would she handle an irate person? Or, what does she do to make a customer feel listened to and heard out? Remember that you havent trained the candidate on your company protocols, so dont grade her based on following your three steps for conflict resolution. Look at the candidates overall performance and interaction and ask yourself whether you believe you could train her to your performance standards. You need to determine if she has the base that you can build on. Feedback How does the candidate react when you give her feedback on your pre-employment test? Does she balk and be come defensive? Does she calmly explain why she did what she did and ask you for additional information on why you made the suggestions you did? This isnt an opportunity to verbally assault your candidate but an opportunity to assess how she reacts when she is under pressure. Its just normal feedback, I agree with your analysis on X and Y, but I disagree with Z. Can you explain a little bit more about how you drew that conclusion? Dont Forget Your Goals in Using Pre-Employment Assessment The goal of pre-employment assessment is to determine if the person is capable of doing the job, with the amount of training you are willing and able to provide. You should never expect perfection on a pre-employment assessment because each company has its own standards and protocols. Keep this in mind when youre evaluating pre-employment assessments to use with potential new employees. This understanding will help you find the best person for the job. Remember, business is always changing, so h iring the candidate who can learn new skills is more important than hiring the person who does the job perfectly today.

What New Grads Need to Know About Getting an Engineering Job

What New Grads Need to Know About Getting an Engineering JobWhat New Grads Need to Know About Getting an Engineering Job Attention classes of 2019 and 2020 If you are looking to snag an engineering job when you graduate, weve gathered everything you need to know- from whether you need to add an internship to your resume to what skills you need to highlight- from Philips top recruiters.While some companies may welcome candidates with majors outside of their chosen fields, that is not always the case with engineering, says Amy McNair, a Philips campus recruiter. When it comes to supply chain management and design engineers, its best to have a major in those areas, she says. You really need to have specific experience, McNair explains. For example, if you really want to work in supply chain management , You really cannot climb the corporate ladder without specific training, McNair says. However, we are hiring right now for our quality team, which is not tied to a specific major, she adds.According to Becky Abrahams, a campus recruiter at Philips, those seeking an engineering job should have an internship under their belts. At Philips specifically, recruiters often look for candidates with relevant technical skills- such as CAD or Solidworks- or programming experience. People who have previous software experience including coding and software programming, through an internship or a past position, will have a leg up, Abrahams says.And zeroing in on a role-specific internship is also a smart move Our hiring managers are often looking for role-specific internship experience, Abrahams says. While some hiring managers are more open-minded than others, Abrahams says, specific engineering or software candidates need to come to an interview/company with specific experience. If youd like to work at Philips, recruiters there will look for passion , they say. Abrahams says recruiters specifically will ask (and hope to answer) these questions about ap plicantsThese are great questions to consider- regardless of where you aspire to work. If you do aspire to work at Philips as an engineer, really research the company, and dont be afraid to share your excitement to work at Philips, advises McNair. Show your interest, do you your research. And be prepared to share your why. Philips will also look for someone who is ready to jump right in and contribute to the team from the start, she says.

Finding Meaning in Your Role as a Manager

Finding Meaning in Your Role as a ManagerFinding Meaning in Your Role as a ManagerDo you need to find a new purpose for your job? Would you like to make your work as a manager more rewarding? Use these tips to rethink your role. Its Teaching and Guiding, Not Supervising The notion of the manager as a supervisor, observing every aspect of work and stepping in to correct or discipline when people are out of compliance with work standards or pace is a leftover vestige from the latter stages of the industrial revolution. Todays manager must serve more as a guide and teacher for the following issues Helping everyone on the gruppe understand how their role connects to the group and organizational objectives.Translating senior managements strategic objectives into programs and approaches that bring them to life.Exposing colleagues to new ideas and approaches for strengthening pergestaltance at the individual and group level.Helping the team navigate challenging issues and ethical dilemm as when choices are not clear, and the decisions come with implications. Developing, Not Disciplining Todays effective manager is more of a talent scout and developer of talent than someone preoccupied with the minutia of what everyone is doing on an hourly basis. Key focal points for this work include Scouting for individuals who display the potential to succeed and grow in the firms working environment and culture.Helping individuals recognize their strengths and designing opportunities for them to develop further and leverage those skills and abilities.Providing clear, timely feedback and coaching guidance on resolving or eliminating behaviors that detract from top performance.Mentoring individuals as they consider their longer-range career paths and plans. Creating an Environment for Success to Flourish When wewrite or talk about the working environment, many people immediately assume we are referencing the physical characteristics of the working space. While physical at tributes do play a part in hilfeing collaboration and creativity, the working environment we are describing is much more about the culture on the team. It includes How people perceive they are treated. Are they valued as individuals and treated with respect and fairness?Whether people are free from fear in their jobs. Are they comfortable suggesting new ideas or experimenting with new approaches?Do team members recognize the need to be accountable for their contributions and commitments?Do they have confidence their manager will support and when needed, defend them? Forming and framing a positive working environment based on shared values for respect, trust and accountability is a critical part of the managers role in todays world. Finding Meaning in Purpose as a Manager An early mentor of mine regularly referenced the phrase, Remember, its all about the journey, when listening to my latest frustrations and challenges. I recall not completely understanding the meaning of her wor ds. I was looking for help in the middle of a workplace tornado, and here this individual was sharing philosophy. It turns out she was right. Years from now as you reflect on your career experience you will remember the people and teamwork and camaraderie and the experience of working together. What you will not remember or care about are the quarterly numbers, the budgets or the headaches. The journey of working and sharing and learning together will reign supreme in your memory. The challenge for many of us is how to keep that in context in the here-and-now and find purpose in our daily job activities as a manager. 5 Ideas to Find Meaning and Purpose in Your Work Recognize the Opportunity You Have to Positively Impact Someones Life Through Your Efforts as a Manager Taking a chance on someone or showing support for them after a failure can have long-lasting ripple effects in the lives of our coworkers. The manager who believed in my abilities as a young professional, to do a jo b at a much higher level in spite of my lack of experience gave me the gift of self-confidence. An individual I had no choice but to terminate looped back a decade later and offered that the respect I showed him in the process forced him to reevaluate where he had gone wrong. It was during that difficult situation that he decided to turn his career and life around. Look in the Rear-View Mirror Once per Year and Marvel at the Distance You and You Have kollektiv Members Traveled and What You Created Along the Way Often, work feels like a never-ending rush to put out fires and resolve crises. Nonetheless, good teams led by active managers learn to strengthen their performance, improve their quality, innovate to try new things and slowly, day by day, reinvent themselves. One manager used the new fiscal year kick-off not to talk so much about goals looking forward, but to ask the team to look backward at the prior year and identify all of those things that worked and that they wanted to do more of in this upcoming period. The goals seemed easy to digest when considered through the filter of so many positive achievements and behaviors. Strengthen Your Coaching Skills and Help Individuals Push Through to New Levels of Performance Walking in the door in the morning with the recognition that the most important work you can do all day is to offer coaching support through the delivery of constructive and positive feedback sets the tone for a positive day. Good people want feedback. They appreciate help in developing their strengths and overcoming or bypassing their weaknesses. And your work to help people develop through a series of unique and challenging experiences is a form of showing high respect for your coworkers. Remember, todays team members are tomorrows senior managers, executives, and even CEOs. Your coaching can make a difference in the trajectory of their careers and lives. Focus on Strengthening the Working Environment Every Day A positive working environ ment is the outcome of the nearly endless interactions we have as managers every single day. Every encounter and every meeting is an opportunity to show individuals and the larger team that the values of respect, trust and accountability are real and meaningful. Take the Bad Days in Stride and Remember That You Get to Start Fresh Tomorrow Navigating and learning from the struggles is a part of the journey. You will have bad days- we all do. The great news is that you get a do-over tomorrow. And problems that seem challenging one day are always just a bit easier to solve after a nights sleep. The Bottom Line The life of a manager is much about numbers and productivity and deadlines and dealing with challenging people issues. The daily work and stressors are always present. However, by focusing on the opportunities you have to support and develop others while building an environment that draws out the best in your coworkers, you develop an appreciation for your real purpose as a m anager. Long after you forget the numbers and results, you will remember the people who impacted you and the people you were able to have an impact along the way positively. Remember to enjoy the journey