Hiring a new employee can be a major change for your organization. New team members will change the landscape of their department and potentially shift your company’s culture.
All these changes can make employers and hiring managers apprehensive. If the person isn’t the right fit or can’t handle the job they’re hired to do, it can negatively impact the team and the company as a whole.
According to the SBA, hiring costs range from 1.25 to 1.4 times the worker’s annual salary. You’ll want to ensure your money is well-spent, and employment pre-screening is one of the best tools at your disposal.
What is Employment Pre-Screening?
Employment pre-screening refers to the process of evaluating and assessing job applicants before making a hiring decision. It involves various methods and tools to gather information about candidates to determine their suitability for a particular role.
These screenings can include drug screens, background checks, pre-employment assessments, and reviewing resumes, among others. For example, if the position involves working with heavy machinery or caring for a client’s health, you don’t want to hire someone with a substance abuse disorder. A pre-screening test that evaluates a candidate’s drug or alcohol use can reveal any issues your applicants may have that could adversely impact your organization.
By incorporating employment pre-screening into the hiring process, employers can save time, reduce turnover, ask targeted interview questions, and ultimately ensure that they select the right candidates for their team.
Here are a few benefits of pre-screening to be aware of:
1. Reduce Time Spent on Unqualified Applicants
It is not uncommon for small businesses to receive anywhere from 20 to 100 applications per job posting. Of course, not all those people will be a good fit for your open position. If you spend time reviewing every single resume and interviewing everyone who applies, you’ll likely be busy for weeks — making it difficult to take care of other responsibilities.
When you use pre-screening tools, you can automatically knock out candidates who don’t have the education, experience, or skills you’re looking for. Rather than sifting through hundreds of resumes, only the ones that pass your pre-screening test will land on your desk.
2. Cut Down on Employee Turnover
You’ll need to find a replacement whenever an employee leaves your organization. Pinpointing a replacement can take time, and your remaining staff will likely need to assume some extra duties until you identify the right person.
If you hire someone who isn’t the right fit and they leave within weeks or months of their start date, you won’t recoup your hiring costs. This means you’ll need to shell out more money to find someone else.
A bad hire can also be a real drag on employee morale. If your other team members don’t like the new person, or they find themselves having to constantly chip in to pull their weight, they may decide to move on to a new organization. You could therefore lose your most talented team members simply because you picked the wrong person.
3. Ask Important Questions Upfront
When you open a job to public applicants, you’re unlikely to know the candidates vying for the position. Usually, their resume is all you’ll have to evaluate their qualifications before an interview.
If you use pre-screening tools, you can incorporate questions you want all applicants to answer into your application process. This can be achieved by simply providing a free text box where they can write their responses or tick a box indicating their answer.
You’ll receive each applicant’s answers after they finalize their application, which can help you tailor your interview questions to dig deeper into their work history and experience. You’ll find you can learn more about your candidates before moving them through to the next stage of the hiring process.
4. Streamline the Hiring Process
Recruiting can disrupt normal business operations in subtle ways. It pulls senior employees away from their regular work, causing a backlog of tasks. Plus, new hires attract attention from the existing team. To avoid disruptions, it’s crucial to keep the application process short.
Success in business comes from making the most of limited resources. This is especially true in recruitment. Pre-screening helps streamline hiring by identifying top candidates early on. It saves time and resources by skipping lengthy interviews with unsuitable applicants. By focusing on the most promising candidates, businesses can achieve better, more efficient outcomes.
Focus HR Has a Full Array of Pre-Screening Tools Available
Focus HR offers multiple pre-screening tools to help you assess your candidates during the application process. A few of our offerings include pre-employment background checks, drug and alcohol screening, pre-screening assessments, and interview guidance.
When you invest in pre-screening for your hiring process, you can feel more confident that you’re making the right decision on a new employee. Contact Focus HR today, and we’ll help you select the right pre-screening tools for your company.