In the past, Human Resources teams had to rely exclusively on resumes, cover letters, and interviews to assess a candidate’s skillset and suitability for a role. But these methods haven’t always served us well—leaving room for inaccurate assessments, errors in judgment, and hiring biases. With the help of technology, limited historical hiring methods are giving way to pre-employment tests that allow recruiters to make decisions backed by data and gain accurate insights on the skills and traits candidates will bring to the job. And as we prepare for the future in an increasingly technological age, the ability of recruiters and hiring managers to make quick and accurate hiring decisions will depend on modern tools such as AI assessment solutions and training platforms.
Training & Assessment Solutions for the Technical Age
We have been living in the technical age since the middle of the twentieth century. This period has seen the rapid acceleration of advancements and the adoption of new technologies.
The speed at which these new technologies are introduced into the market and workplace is dizzying, even for early adopters. This presents an ongoing challenge for employers and HR managers to screen new hires skilled in the most recent technologies and providing training opportunities to keep existing employees up to date. In most cases, hiring for experience with cutting-edge technologies just introduced into the marketplace is unrealistic. Instead, employers need to find a way to build on the skillset that their employees and candidates already possess.
Unlocking Potential with Upskilling
Most modern companies recognize human capital as their most important resource. Upskilling is a way to protect that investment by adding to existing skillsets within that workforce and facilitating a growth environment, leading to greater productivity and retention long-term.
Identifying the skills gaps in your organization and making ongoing training available to all employees is one of the most cost-effective ways to ensure that you’re keeping pace with changing technology and unlocking the potential of existing employees through upskilling. Continuous upskilling isn’t just “nice-to-have; it’s essential for remaining competitive. As an example, a recent article highlighting companies with a good approach to learning and development quoted AT&T’s Corporate Communications Manager as saying, “we’re focused on aligning company leaders to strategic business innovation and results, skilling and reskilling our 280,000 employees and inspiring a culture of continuous learning.” Establishing a culture of continuous learning that reduces inter-departmental barriers and maximizes the potential of every employee is a crucial business strategy as we emerge from the pandemic very much aware of how quickly everything can change.
Another source found that “many large enterprises around the world have viewed the need to upskill their current talent as urgent for the last few years and have invested millions — and in some cases, billions — in “future-proofing” their employees, arming them with the skills required to adapt to changing work.” Forward-thinking companies are facilitating the upskilling of their employees by supporting their professional and personal development, allotting company time for ongoing education, creating opportunities for cross-functional work that fosters professional growth, and switching to a skills-based recruiting and hiring process.
Finding new talent with skills-based recruiting
Finding new talent with the right skill and mindset is an ongoing challenge for recruiters in nearly every industry. Creating a culture of continuous learning has further complicated the hiring process by changing how recruiters view experience, education, and skills. One study found that “skills-based or competency-based hiring appears to be gaining significant interest and momentum, with a majority of HR leaders reporting either having a formal effort to de-emphasize degrees and prioritize skills underway (23%) or actively exploring and considering this direction (39%).” The skills that someone brings to the table are becoming more important than a chronology of when and where they acquired those skills, a reality that requires a new kind of assessment model. Resumes are no longer an adequate tool for representing a candidate’s potential performance. As past performance is not a reliable indicator of future success, there is a real need for tools that measure the foundational skills required for positive job performance.
Hiring for foundational skills and value fit
When selecting potential candidates, it is essential for hiring managers to consider both the foundational skills required for the role and the value fit. Value fit goes beyond the skills needed to perform the necessary tasks and looks at the aspects of their personality and demeanor that will impact performance. Value fit considers traits like:
Value fit can also speak to whether a candidate is adaptive in their approach to challenges, environments, and learning scenarios. The future will see greater and greater adoption of training and assessment solutions that are responsive, adaptable, and can reliably predict a candidate’s suitability for the role and your company culture.
Rise in demand for Global Assessment Solutions
The pandemic had an enormous impact on hiring needs and practices globally. Widespread closures resulted in massive layoffs in the retail, food, and travel industries. Government stipends supporting furloughed workers alongside a persistent fear for personal safety have resulted in staff shortages and a surge in demand for skilled customer service workers.
Added to the post-pandemic reality is the increasing internationalization of business, which “is driving a regional and global view about how talent is managed in organizations and about how talent could be brought into businesses.” Many companies now find themselves asking how their talent acquisition team can be more proactive in shifting recruitment expenses and demands in a global market while also improving the recruitment process and candidate experience across different regions. Pre-hire assessment technology can help solve these challenges by standardizing and automating the hiring process for companies operating globally.
Benefits of Partnering with a Training & Assessment Solution Provider to Support Hiring and Upskilling
Modernizing hiring and training practices by focusing on value fit and foundational skills rather than past job experience can help you make better hiring decisions and reduce attrition rates. Businesses that hire for skills and provide employees with opportunities to improve and expand on those skills demonstrate a solid commitment to professional development that is very attractive to job seekers of all generations. Partnering with a training and assessment solution provider like HiringBranch helps support new talent acquisition and employee retention through ongoing training and upskilling. Training and assessment solutions offer a host of other benefits such as:
- Identify skill gaps using a scientific approach
- Real-time reporting on recruitment and training initiatives
- Enhanced and streamlined hiring processes
- Leveraging AI to allign ecruitment and training
- A higher-quality candidate pool
- Consistent and predictable recruit-to hire process and results
AI-Driven communicative competency training and assessments support faster and more accurate hiring decisions by allowing you to assess candidates with a scientifically proven framework. Using real-life chat, email, and voice calls to simulate the work environment, you can analyze results with the help of AI to make the best hiring decisions. Use the same AI-driven solution to provide existing employees with training opportunities that allow them to build on their foundational skills and enjoy greater professional development while improving productivity and retention.
Contact us today to learn more about our assessment and training solutions and discover how a partnership with HiringBranch can help your recruiting and development teams reach their goals.
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