The process of hiring new employees involves a universally accepted procedure that rarely deviates from one hiring cycle to the next.

After potential candidates respond to a classified ad in the local newspaper or a job posting on the company Web site, the hiring manager combs through the résumés and identifies viable applicants. The manager then schedules initial interviews with the most promising candidates; the top finalists receive notification of follow-up interviews.

Within a few days the company extends offers to the most impressive applicants.

Then the hiring manager and members of senior leadership hold their collective breath, as inevitably some candidates fail to live up to expectations.

Fortunately there are tools available to bring a job candidate’s capabilities into better focus before you extend an employment offer.

Pre-employment hiring assessments – also known as personality profiling – are designed to help business professionals identify the natural behavioral patterns of job candidates. Knowing their potential strengths and challenges in advance provides a significant advantage to managers – one that can reduce or eliminate unwanted turnover and save thousands of dollars in training and related expenses.

Many companies offer pre-employment hiring assessments; some cost hundreds of dollars and take hours to administer. The Omnia Group offers a quick, reasonably priced assessment tool called The Omnia Profile®.

Specially trained Omnia analysts write key segments of each Profile, comparing the applicant to job “benchmarks” submitted by the employer. Benchmarks may also include peer and supervisor Profiles, making it easy for managers to see how job candidates compare to top performers, and how the potential employee and manager would interact. Managers may benchmark for any position within the company.

The Profile is not a psychological pass-or-fail “test.” It is a combination adjective checklist/questionnaire administered before the first interview when job candidates are unaware of the specifics of the job or company. Candidates normally complete the Profile in 10 to 12 minutes.

In approximately three business hours the manager receives the report via the Omnia Web site. It contains a wealth of information about the individual’s personality tendencies in the workplace – for example, a measurement of a person’s need to win and take chances compared to the need to proceed with caution. It also indicates if there is a reasonable chance of sound judgment and good stamina for a productive workweek.

One of the benefits of profiling is its versatility. Even though The Omnia Profile is primarily associated with pre-employment hiring screening, many organizations use it as a tool to evaluate existing employees eligible for transfer or promotion. Other possible uses include retention counseling (concurrent with a quarterly or annual performance review), career planning, team building and outplacement assistance. Managers may share the assessment results with both candidates and employees; however it is always a good idea to indicate your intentions in advance to ensure a diplomatic discussion.

The mark of a good employee selection or management tool is its reliability. Before you sign up with a company, ask if an outside firm evaluated their assessment and request a copy of the validation study. Also determine how long the company has been in business. Founded in 1985, The Omnia Group’s premier product, The Omnia Profile, was validated as 93 percent accurate by an independent research company.

Although accurate and timely, managers should consider pre-employment hiring assessments as one element in a well-rounded hiring regimen, which should include at least two interviews with multiple interviewees, background searches, and verification of training, education and experience. In this light, managers should use The Omnia Profile as no more than 25 percent of their hiring decision.

If you are frustrated with bad hires and failed promotions, then pre-employment hiring assessments may be right for you. It’s the high-tech, low-cost solution to building a better workforce and saving money.

And you’ll breathe easier in the long run.

***

Feel free to pass this article to a colleague. You can earn a credit to your Omnia account for each referral who uses Omnia's services. For more information, please see our article entitled "Have a referral? Earn a $50 credit!" in this issue of News & Views.

We thank you for your business!