Yesterday we heard from CEO and founder of Criteria Corp, Josh Millet, on new advancements in preemployment testing. Today we’ll hear more, including how it can help reduce implicit bias and what technology is available.
Another area that has fueled renewed interest in objective, standardized preemployment assessments is the growing awareness of the potentially detrimental effects of unconscious bias. To combat this, preemployment test results–or any other selection criteria—can be presented using blind practices where names, e-mails, and other personal details are masked so that HR staff can truly assess a candidate through objective and standardized measurements.
The Technology
Ultimately, the biggest change in preemployment assessment in the years ahead may come in its delivery method. Gamification, a technique currently being adapted into marketing techniques, is a path that holds much promise for preemployment testing and has become increasingly viable through the rise of smart devices and cloud computing.
By turning assessments into an environment that feels more like “brain games” than HR forms, candidates tend to perform better and provide more data points, thus giving more metrics for employers to objectively assess. Because of the widespread use of smartphones, gamification also allows more candidates to be brought into the fold, even strong ones that may not have traditional backgrounds but have outsized potential.
That may be the biggest change to the HR industry regarding candidate screening: the idea that through technology and gamification, it’s possible to identify a candidate from a nonstandard pool, allowing employers to hire on the basis of talent rather than experience. Talent, after all, is what wins out in the end, and by allowing talent to move laterally across industries, this new age of preemployment screening may help power innovations no one could have predicted.
Josh Millet is CEO and founder of Criteria Corp., a preemployment testing company founded in 2006 that creates software for employers to gather objective data on job candidates with aptitude, personality, and skills tests.