Why Should Startups Invest in Pre-Employment Screening Assessments?

When we discuss the journey of startup projects like Apple, Google, or Amazon, we only talk about Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, or Jeff Bezos. These people might have sown the seed of startup projects with an idea. In fact, in nourishing and growing these ventures, the hard work of its employees plays a big role. These startups can flourish because they are lucky enough to find a qualified team. Hence, Let me take you through how pre-employment screening assessments can be helpful for startups.

A competent and technically skilled team can take a startup venture to new heights of success. However, finding a qualified and skilled employee from the vast pool of incompetent professionals is not a piece of cake. Thus, the pre-employment skills assessment test is a great tool to evaluate the capabilities and skills of employees before hiring the perfect employee. 

What are Pre-Employment Screening Assessments?

Pre-employment screening assessments are a standard objective for gathering relevant information about candidates during the hiring process. The professionally created pre-test enables employers to check the efficiency and traits of potential employees. The information retrieved from these tests depends on the methods used by a company. 

These tests are becoming highly popular as they can filter incompatible candidates and manage a large number of applicants swiftly. As the recruitment process becomes increasingly digitized, it’s also become important for companies to protect their pre-employment screening testing systems from external threats – particularly in the form of bots making fraudulent attempts. Zenrows, a sophisticated and reliable platform, offers outstanding proxy services for CAPTCHA. This can help ensure that the applications processed by startups are from genuine, prospective candidates and not automated spam bots, thereby improving the accuracy of their recruitment process. Additionally, the problem of resume spammers has been increasing rapidly. According to a report, on average applicants spend merely 76 seconds reading the job description – this results in recruiters receiving 50% of applications that won’t match the job brief.

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Hiring Challenges Faced by Startups 

In tough economic conditions, it is very hard for a startup to grow and thrive. And, on top of various external challenges, they have to bear the stress of hiring the right candidates while facing the following challenges –

1. Finding Local Candidates

Startups have a limited budget for hiring. So, they can’t afford to relocate an employee from outside the regional boundaries. Thus, they have to find candidates locally who can offer the best services. The pre-employment screening assessments can be very useful as it can test the skills of local employees and find suitable candidates. 

2. Limitation of Time

Startup organizations have limited employees. So, this startup needs employees who can work on their own under minimum guidance. That’s why testing the skills of candidates before hiring them, gives a rough idea to startups regarding the practical skills of candidates. 

3. Matching Ideology

Startup is an innovative business idea based on a unique ideology. To grow further, startups need to find employees who can connect with the startup and help it in growing. But, it’s hard to find the same ideology and passion containing employees without testing them on multiple grounds. 

4. Self-competent Employees 

To grow your startup business, you need employees who are tech-savvy as well as confident. If your employees are multitalented, then they can easily fit into any role to take your business further. Moreover, employees with a grasp of the latest marketing trends can benefit your business in multiple ways. 

Is it Beneficial for Startups to Invest in Pre-employment Screening Assessments?

50% of US employees are going to be millennials by 2020. That means upcoming employees are going to be passionate, creative, opportunity seekers, and fresh out of grad school. Also, these are the perfect candidates for startups, but they lack practical training and skills. So, before hiring them, startups need to organize pre-employment screening assessments and check their skills for various reasons. 

1. Improved Productivity 

It has been illustrated by numerous types of research that professionally developed and implemented pre-employment screening assessments can analyze the productivity of a candidate in a wide range of job profiles. These tests are the perfect and accurate way to determine the performance of candidates because the test shows objectivity to an extent. Therefore, a well structured pre-employment screening process analyzes performance, knowledge, and skills altogether.

Example:

Taking an apparel brand case study that has improved the productivity of their employees by measuring the hourly sales volume. They asked their entire team to perform the skills test that analyzes the basic maths, communication skills, and speaking talent of employees. By evaluating the average sales per hour and test scores, the company is able to determine the hourly productivity of every employee. Additionally, the test outcome has thrown light on the various aspects such as retention rate, customer satisfaction level, training expenses, individual productivity, and so on. 

2 Swift Hiring Process 

The process of organizing interviews and evaluating candidates takes up lots of time. On top, 75% of experienced candidates decline job offers from startups. Thus, to reduce time wastage, business organizations are automating the early stages of the recruitment process. Pre-employment screening assessment eliminates incompetent and under-qualified candidates from the hiring process and reduces the time.

Hence, after pre-employment screening assessments with the applicants, recruiters should shortlist and pay attention to them. This practice will not only reduce the recruitment process time but will also reduce the cost of the hiring process. It can also amplify the accuracy of the selection process as well. 

3. Increase Employee Retention Rate

The significant benefit that is driven by pre-employment testing is the improved employee retention rate. The test can show figures on the job expectations and the work environment. This makes new hires aware of the work. Further, it means that both the startup and candidates can make accurate choices as per their needs.

On the other hand, a pre-employment screening assessment will verify for the company whether the candidate can handle the workflow or not. After these tests, the candidate will accept the offer letter by their choice. Let me take you through how these screening assessments impact the retention rate-

• It will reduce the voluntary turnover by ensuring that candidates know about the real job profile. 
• It will cut short the involuntary turnover by making sure that candidates have the perfect skills and capacities to perform their work successfully. 

4. Enhanced Defensibility in the Recruitment Process 

Apart from helping startup organizations in improving outcomes, the pre-employment screening assessment can work towards improving the objectivity, legality, and equability in the hiring process as well. It is highly crucial for all companies to include equitable and legal features in employee selection practices. In some of the regions, the tests are governed by federal guidelines to ensure equality and non-discrimination in the hiring process. With this practice, companies can make the recruitment process more legal. 

Employers should be aware of the importance of legalizing the recruitment process due to the number of federal compliances. It is essential to realize that employment assessment can actually enhance the legal objectives of the organization. The organization that prepares the recruitment process according to legal guidelines is always prepared to defend the legal position of the company in case of legal obligations. 

Features of Professional Pre-employment Screening Test 

1. Identification of Skills

Foremost, startup organizations need to determine all the skills that they want in their candidates. If employers are not aware of the skills that they need to take their company ahead, then they won’t be able to create a comprehensive test defining all the essential skills.

2. Critical Written Tests

When you have to take the critical tests, then you have to conduct them in a written manner. The written test can present a situation in a better way and gives the opportunity to narrate an answer properly. The problem-solving abilities of the candidates can be tested by presenting a word problem. Moreover, computer and technology usage skills can be analyzed. On the top, critical skills like designing abilities or grammatical errors can be addressed through written tests better.

3. Check Validation

As many know these pre-employment screening assessments are for new candidates only. Sometimes employees working in a position don’t possess the talent to handle the position. Therefore, these tests can verify these skills.

4. Use in Hiring Process

Pre-employment assessment tests should be included in the recruitment process in different stages. Foremost, it should be used to shortlist the good candidates from the pool of applicants. Tests can be more comparative once candidates are analyzed. So, candidates who pass must be proficient in their skills.

Pre-employment Screening Assessment – A Necessity! 

Most startups fail due to incapable and incompetent employees. Employees are the fixed assets of the startups that make them a success. Thus, to hire professional and skilled employees for your startup company – it is essential to include pre-employment screening assessments. So, once you note down what you need, you should create the tests carefully. The perfect implementation of the employee assessments will increase employee productivity. Also, reduce hiring process costs and time along with multiple other benefits.