Dr. Marisa Seeds, Senior Consultant at Shaker Consulting Group

In my previous entry on Maximizing Selection for Culture Fit (Part I), I shared three tips that focused on using pre-employment testing to maximize your learning about candidates’ culture fit early in the hiring process. The remaining two tips shared below focus on using culture fit data to attract and engage candidates – that is, beyond measuring candidates’ fit and learning about where they stand, how can we use this information to further engage them in the hiring process and beyond? Continue Reading

Joe Murphy of Shaker Consulting Group

I sat with a recruiting team this week to discuss aligning staffing with their business strategy. In this case, the strategy was inclusive of how those not hired felt about the company and its brand. For some of their positions, each candidate could be a future customer, future employee, or potential competitor. Holding those thoughts in focus for a moment triggers some questions about the candidate experience. Continue Reading

Joe Murphy of Shaker Consulting Group

Charles Handler wrote about the movement from test to experience in his ERE article.  It was a great invitation to consider the candidate experience.  John Sullivan wrote a few years ago about how career web sites are boring candidates. It may actually be worse.  Applying may have total disregard or abuse in the candidate experience. While some corporate careers pages have added a touch of pizzazz with videos and testimonials, the actual application and pre-employment assessment components continue to be ignored by many, but not all. Continue Reading

Joe Murphy of Shaker Consulting Group

In his recent blog, Tim Sackett suggests HR may be wasting its time with focus on the candidate experience.  I beg to differ.

Tim suggests great companies to work for are hard to get into because they hire the best.  Being able to hire the best is a result of not only a great candidate experience, but also a great recruiter experience.

Both the candidate and the recruiter need an experience that improves their ability to decide if this job opportunity is a good fit.  Companies that do not pay attention to the candidate experience are more challenged to make the best hiring decision because they have not designed a process that obtains the best data to make the most informed decision. Continue Reading

Joe Murphy of Shaker Consulting Group

The nature of our experience economy has caused the population in general to expect more from every form of interaction.

-More engaging – provide me with an experience that draws me in.
-More informative – feed me information in a manner that is easy to digest.
-More interactive – give me a role to play.
-More rewarding and satisfying – help me walk away thinking I am glad I took the time to do this. Continue Reading

Joe Murphy of Shaker Consulting Group

When doing research on thought leadership in assessments, writer Dave Zielinski was directed to us by several resources.  He wrote a thoughtful article for SHRM’s HR Magazine from his findings.

Dave found out that market leaders, high performing organizations and highly brand conscious companies are using custom simulations for pre-employment testing and employee selection. Continue Reading

Joe Murphy of Shaker Consulting Group

Game designer and TED presenter Jane McGonigal had an article in the January 22, 2011 WSJ “Be a Gamer, Save the World.” She states we (the royal We) spend three billion hours a week gaming.  The average 18 year old spends 80 minutes a day gaming and extreme gamers spend up to 45 hours per week connected to a digitally delivered challenge. The quick lesson here is that engaging experiences hold our attention.  The first question is: What kind of engagement does your candidate experience deliver? 

Charles Handler, in his Candidate Bill of Rights suggests a candidate assessment should last no more than 30 minutes.  Is that to free up time for gaming?  Or is that because the assessments he is thinking about are a form of torture.  Maybe he is seeking to limit the pain of a putting a candidate through poorly designed on-line assessments. He wants to limit (but not ban)– Applitorture.  Or, the degree to which the applicant is subjected to mental or physical anguish from the act of applying for a job. Continue Reading