Posted by Josh Millet on Wed, Apr 08, 2009 @ 06:43 PM
In a series of blog posts last year I discussed the evolution of employment personality testing, from the Myers-Briggs to the "Big Five" to more job-specific personality inventories. The last of these continue to grow in popularity, especially in the fields of customer service and sales.
Our customer service test is now one of the most widely used tests in HireSelect. One reason for this is that customer service representative positions tend to have higher than average turnover, and so HR managers are constantly looking for tools that can help remedy this problem. But another reason we're seeing these tests grow in popularity is that many organizations seem to be placing a heavy emphasis on cultivating a "culture of customer service" across an entire organization. We hear this regularly from customers as diverse as medical care providers, banks, and non-profits. The result is that applicants for managerial and administrative positions may be asked to take these tests if their jobs will involve frequent interactions with customers and/or the public. So these tests are not just used for Customer Service representatives anymore.
So what does a customer service personality test measure? Our customer service test is called the Customer Service Aptitude Profile (CSAP), and it measures a series of personality traits that are widely regarded as important for successful interactions with customers. These traits include such things as patience, cooperativeness, and personal diplomacy. Because customer service personnel are foot soldiers on the front lines of an organization's efforts to build and mantain its reputation and brand, companies look for individuals who will be able to answer questions and resolve customer complaints in a helpful, compassionate way. Impatience, competitiveness, and uncooperativeness may be traits that can lead to success in some fields (such as sales, actually--more on that in my next post), but they are not traits you'd look for in customer service representatives.
Click here to see a sample score report for the CSAP.
Posted by Josh Millet on Mon, Feb 16, 2009 @ 12:11 PM
At Criteria we develop and deliver pre-employment testing software that our customers use to help enhance their hiring process. Because our service is web-based we can track our customers' usage patterns pretty closely, and this provides us with great insights into hiring trends across the U.S. (we currently have hundreds of customers in 46 different states.)
One of the metrics we track is a monthly "Hiring Activity Index" that essentially measures the percentage of our customers who are actively administering pre-employment tests, and therefore, presumably, hiring. From January to October of 2008, the Hiring Activity Index was remarkably consistent, always hovering around 65%. When the turmoil in the financial markets caused the unemployment rate to surge in November, however, the Hiring Index dropped a full ten points, and by January it was down to 53%. In the past few weeks, however, we've seen pre-employment testing activity surge to the highest level we've ever seen: it looks like the total number of tests delivered through HireSelect in the month of February will be 25-30% higher than in any previous month.
What gives? If significantly fewer companies are hiring now than were three months ago, why is the total level of applicant testing on our site surging? There's no question that some companies in certain industries (construction, financial services) have stopped hiring for the moment, but the data shows that companies that are hiring are screening far more applicants for each position than they were previously. Companies that had 6 applicants for a position now often have 20; where 25 applicants for a position was normal, some companies are now getting 60 resumes.
The silver lining for employers in this giant economic mess, therefore, is that there is a glut of job seekers on the market right now. Those companies that are hiring have their pick from candidate pools that are stocked with talent. The upside of the downturn, it seems, is a real opportunity for HR managers to land great employees.
Posted by Wayne Chuen on Thu, Jun 19, 2008 @ 07:23 PM
Today's blog post is by Wayne Chuen, the lead software engineer in Criteria's product development group. Wayne directs Criteria's software development initiatives.
Over the last few months, the product development team at Criteria has been hard at work on a new tool that will help customers visualize and analyze their test results. Instead of simply delivering a list of test results by candidate, the Results Analysis tool uses interactive charts to present an aggregate view of a company's candidate pool, while allowing customers to drill down to the candidate level.
When a customer enters the Results Analysis section, they are asked to determine which data they wish to analyze (for example, you might want to look at all Customer Service Representative candidates that you've tested in the past year.) Once you (a HireSelect user) select a data set, you'll see an interactive page that presents data by test, where each test is a new tab. For example, in the tab for the Criteria Basic Skills Test (CBST), a pie chart shows the percentage of candidates that scored in the Excellent, Good, Fair, or Low range. Clicking any of these pie slices will highlight the relevant candidates in the Candidate Scores bar chart. Additionally, there is a section that shows the average and median scores of a candidate pool, along with a suggested cutoff score. You can compare those statistics to your past candidates, overall national norms, or position-specific norms by simply selecting the appropriate category from a drop-down list. By clicking any of these scores, another pie chart will show the percentage of your candidate pool that scored at that level or above.
In the tab for the Customer Service Aptitude Profile (CSAP), clicking the bars in the Customer Service Characteristics bar chart will show you the percentage of your candidate pool that scored Low, Average, or High for that trait.
The big payoff comes in the Candidate Selection tab. After analyzing your results in each of the test-specific tabs, you can use sliders in the Candidate Selection section to set minimum scores, and immediately see the percentage of matching candidates in a pie chart. The list of matching candidates will also automatically update, and show only the candidates that qualify based on the scores you set. With the click of a button, you can then export the qualified candidates list as an Excel spreadsheet.
We believe that the Results Analysis section is a big step forward as HireSelect continues to evolve. It will make it much easier for organizations to analyze aggregate testing data from their applicant pool. If you’re currently a HireSelect subscriber, there's no additional charge or anything you need to do to activate this feature; it's already available to you as the second tab in the Results section. However, if you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know in the Comments section below or by giving us a call. If you're not a subscriber, but would like to check out this new feature, along with what we believe to be the most user-friendly employee testing solution available today, feel free to begin a free trial of HireSelect.
Posted by Josh Millet on Tue, Apr 22, 2008 @ 01:07 PM
Hello all. Well, we're taking the plunge into the blogosphere. We're launching our blog in order to be able to discuss trends in employee testing and Human Resources in general, provide updates about new features in HireSelect, Criteria's web-based pre-employment testing system, and to provide news about our company that may be of interest to our customers.
First, if you're new to the subject of pre-employment testing you may want to check out our white paper. There are also a couple of blogs that I read regularly that I would recommend to HR people who are interested in following trends in HR testing. The one I want to mention today is this HR Testing blog that may be of interest to those of you who are already familiar with the basic issues surrounding employee testing. One of the recent posts gives a good summary of a recent survey of trends in employment testing.
Well, that's all for now, I'll keep the first one short and sweet. But check back later this week when I'll post a summary of a recent study we did examining the use of the Wonderlic Personnel Test by teams in the National Football League. We came up with some findings that I think may surprise you.