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Invigilate or Examine? 

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For recruiters and hiring managers, proctoring is a real challenge nowadays. It is the effort of invigilating and then examining a candidate’s veracity. First however you “test them” on their skills, talents, and experience how do you know if they are being truthful? And does later examination of their stated proficiencies validate their authenticity?

There is proof that in any process the earlier you discover and respond to errors the more wasted effort and cost you avoid. And in the recruiting process, this can be a real challenge based on some candidates’ behaviors. That is why proctoring is getting so much attention. To complicate matters more, proctoring is suspect to allegations of creating bias in candidate selection. So what do you do?

There is also proof that you create more success when you focus on what you can control and do your best to mitigate the effects of what you cannot. So let’s take a look at the entire life cycle of the hiring process in that respect.

Hiring processes can be very elaborately detailed, but for the sake of this blog the focus is on five general steps (not including post-hire onboarding.)

Diagram of hiring process: Create JD and Post Req, Screen, Interview, Select and Make Offers

Some elements of the process are easy to control and manage. Some others are difficult or impossible to control and manage. Of those, we can control where do the opportunities lie?

  • Where there is manual effort
  • Where the effort is large
  • When time is of the essence

Focusing on where we have more control and where obvious opportunities lie the diagram changes to this.

Diagram of hiring process: Create JD and Post Req, Screen, Interview, Select and Make Offers
  • Red areas we have full control over and can accelerate change (and savings)
  • Red fonts are where “no-brainer” opportunities lie that can be acted on quickly
  • Green fonts are where innovation is needed to realize opportunities

It is important to look for improvements beyond operational cost savings. Saving employees time and frustration and improving the customer experience are key. Furthermore, innovations need to be able to scale at the same time.

Both simple and innovative actions can turn opportunities into results. For example, take advantage of the highlighted opportunities with the following actions.

  • Replace Job Descriptions with Roles & Assessments
  • Automate manual screening and verification (no more resumes!)
  • Provide immediate percentile stratification
  • Digitize and automate workflows

Just a few of the results you will be by taking these actions:

  • Increase organizational capacity without adding more employees
  • Remove the opportunity for biased candidate ranking
  • Serve your customers faster and with a better user experience
  • Increase employee morale as people have fun producing higher value results
  • Get more time back in your day, and those of your employees
  • Reduce OPEX, and open up more opportunities to invest in CAPEX

To sum it all up, you have a real opportunity here. Recruiting is difficult and costly using an outdated process. Focusing on what you can control, and mitigating what you cannot, will generate valuable business outcomes. Furthermore, your customers and employees will be happier too.

If you would like to discuss the details of what makes the most sense in your business drop me an email at [email protected], or schedule some time on my calendar here: https://calendly.com/tim_montgomery/zoom-discussion-with-tim-montgomery