5 ways to optimize your selection process with online assessments

Written by Amber Thomas, Consultant

Many companies are working to make their operational processes, including the hiring strategy, more modern, efficient, and innovative. In addition to being a change agent and positioning your company as an employer of choice, there are many advantages to taking your recruiting and selection process online. Read on to learn more about why a digital automated approach, including online talent assessments, might make sense for your company’s employee selection process.

5 Ways Online Assessments can Optimize your Employee Selection Process:

1. They give your candidates a better experience. What could make your candidates happier than being able to fill out your application and assessment from home in their jammies? Not only does it boost candidate experience, but making your application process almost entirely digital can increase your volume of applicants. Furthermore, it gives you a leg up on other employers if your busy candidates can apply from their mobile devices, and, since they’re digital applications, they can be more efficiently reviewed with automated screening. Read more: Are You Ready to Go Mobile In Hiring?
2. They streamline testing. Do you remember filling out bubbles and bubbles of answer sheets in school? Or scribbling out a four-page essay by hand? As cumbersome as those experiences were for many of us, they were that much more painful for our teachers and professors. They knew all too well the pain of scanning each test and the pain of mistakes with scoring (understandable given how common human error really is). Having your HR team scour handwritten applications can be a waste of valuable time. Automated online testing scores your candidates results in real time, isn’t prone to human error, and saves your team time so they can focus on the in-person behavioral interviews.
3. They help you do more with less. When your candidates go through an in-depth, online screening assessment rather than just completing a paper application, they are giving you a lot of valuable information about their motivational preferences and behavioral makeup. So don’t stop at the selection stage, you can use that data later in your process, as well as post-hire. By understanding your new employees’ strengths and challenges in more detail, you can better design their development strategy. Read more on how to use assessment scores for development. 
4. They digitize your records. It is critical to retain some important pieces of paper, such as interview notes, but you don’t have to keep those pieces of paper around forever. By using online assessments, results are saved onto your secure company network, freeing up storage space and increasing efficiency and organization. This is another way to save your HR team time and effort – it’s much more efficient to search a digital network for assessment results!
5. Build a social media presence. The days of job fairs are not quite behind us, but it’s definitely true that your online presence makes more of an impact than handing out free pens ever will. Social media is here to stay, and with the rise of Google for Jobs and Facebook’s new job search feature, candidates can be on the lookout 24/7. If you have a digital selection process in place, applicants can apply at any time. Just make sure that you’re keeping your social media process legally defensible.

Online applications, testing, and scoring are just a few ways that you can make your selection process more efficient and effective (and green!). Is there room in your process for more automation? We continue to research and test the effects of emerging technology trends on hiring strategies and employee assessments. To see our latest findings, check out our whitepaper that evaluates the latest technology trends in hiring.