White paper shows how to cut the cost of volume recruitment

THAME, U.K. - July 22, 2013 - PRLog -- A new white paper explaining how organisations can find the right candidates for frontline roles and save over 40 percent of the typical cost per hire has been launched today by assessment specialist Talent Q.

‘Finding needles in the haystack’ examines the challenges faced by recruiters who receive a high volume of applications for frontline sales, service and support roles. It offers best practice advice on how to use smart technology and intelligent assessment to make better quality, quicker and more consistent hiring decisions.

“Any organisation with a frontline recruitment need is likely to be overwhelmed with applicants,” said Alan Bourne, Director of Products & Innovation at Talent Q and author of the paper. “The right people will probably be in your applicant pool but you can easily miss them because so many unsuitable candidates are obscuring your view. This paper shows how volume recruiters can screen out unsuitable candidates and focus their attention on those who are well-matched to the role.”

Talent Q’s best practice advice for volume recruiters is to: create an empirically-driven profile of the skills, behaviour and characteristics you are looking for, to be successful in the role; be brutally honest about the role and your organisation before people apply, so they know what to expect; use objective assessments early in the selection process to screen out unsuitable applicants; conduct competency-based interviews and ensure the whole process is engaging for candidates.

“Essentially, recruitment is a rejection process as well as a hiring one,” said Alan Bourne. “It’s important to provide a positive experience for each candidate. If you alienate applicants, by treating them badly, you can not only lose their future custom, they may also ‘bad-mouth’ you to their family and friends. That can be highly detrimental to your brand.”

According to the paper, inefficiency and inconsistency in typical selection processes cause organisations to make poor recruitment decisions, leading to high staff turnover.

“When large employers use inconsistent selection methods, across different sites, then applicants of varying quality will inevitably be appointed,” said Alan Bourne. “This problem often occurs in sectors such as retail and hospitality. The advice in this paper can help you to find the most suitable candidates in all of your locations. Once you appoint the right people, it’s likely that they’ll perform better, they’ll be more engaged, your customers will be happier and your bottom line will improve.”

Talent Q’s paper includes a worked example which shows that using online psychometric assessments to screen out candidates in the early stages of the recruitment process can cut the cost per hire by 43 percent, compared to using a more traditional approach of CV screening and telephone interviews.

“Ultimately, you want a centrally-supported recruitment process that ensures local managers are able to choose from a pool of potential candidates, all of whom are a strong fit with the culture and values of the organisation and the competencies required for the role,” said Alan Bourne.

The new white paper classifies the specific online assessments that can be used in volume recruitment. These include realistic job previews, ability tests, personality/competency questionnaires, situational judgement tests and skills tests.

‘Finding needles in the haystack’ is available on Talent Q’s website: www.talentqgroup.com/findingneedles For further information, please call Talent Q on +44 (0)1844 218980.

Background notes: Founded in 2005, Talent Q provides personality, ability and competency assessments, as well as learning & development programmes and consultancy services. It works with over 500 clients worldwide.