What about the career summary or objectives? Do they match the required qualifications?

Background
Let’s say you work in human resources in a large car dealership. You need to fill a salesperson position, and you have reached the stage of in-person interviews. In each interview, you set out to determine information about each candidate that you wouldn’t know from their application. Due to the nature of sales, you need someone who has assertiveness, but cultural fit is also important. You need to know how the applicant handles rejection, how they follow leads, and how they work in a team environment. At the end of each interview, you’ll be able to recommend the candidate for employment or not, but what are some other ways to assess candidates? Let’s back up a bit.

Where to Begin

There are many elements to consider when you begin looking at applicants for a vacancy. But before that, determine which qualifications are most important to your company. For example, do candidates need technical skills, a specific personality type, or should they be able to show you how they would respond to a situation?

To begin with, you must look at the requirements of the job. These are skills that an applicant must have, so they shouldn’t bother applying if they don’t have those. Consider the following as examples of requirements:

Is a college education required?
Are there specific skills required?
Does the person need to be able to lift a certain amount of weight?
Does the job include repetitive motions?
Does the job require a clean driving record?
Is travel required? (If you are screening for a high-level position and travel is required, you’ll want to be even more careful in making your selection)
Next, are there preferred qualifications? Preferred skills include knowledge and abilities that would be favorable. Since this means you’d really like the candidate to know how to do a particular skill, applicants who meet preferred qualifications are more likely to get an interview. Consider the following examples:

Being bilingual
Possessing medical knowledge
Having Adobe Photoshop skills
Google Analytics experience is a plus
Now you can eliminate many resumes by simply looking for typographical errors, formatting, and matching information for the vacancy. Ask yourself the following:

Is the resume professionally presented?
Does it match the job vacancy?
What about the career summary or objectives? Do they match the required qualifications?
A candidate who takes the time to polish these elements deserves your attention.
Next, you’ll want to look at the person’s experience. Have they worked in a similar position in the past? Eliminate candidates that do not meet your requirements. In addition, some employers will look at social media, either Facebook or LinkedIn, to see what kind of presence the potential employee presents to the public.

Telephone Screening

From there, extract applicants who are strong possibilities and meet all requirements. The next step is generally a telephone screening. You might conduct as many as fifteen telephone interviews in order to identify and screen two to three applicants to come into the office for an interview later. Here are some tips for phone screening:

When you set up a call to screen a potential applicant, you have the option to set up a video call or simply do an audio interview. As a courtesy, do let the applicant know if they should be prepared for video.
During the phone screening, pay attention to how the individual answers the questions, and be on the look-out for similarities to your corporate culture.
From there, you will choose three to five people to come in for an interview.
Job Interviews

Interviews have officially arrived, and you’ll invite your top candidates to come in. Remember that you’re hoping to gain information that you don’t already have on the applicant, whether from their application or phone screening. You want candidates who come prepared, answer questions thoroughly, possess career goals, exhibit passion, and are open to learning new things. Once the interviews are through, you will select a few candidates and conduct candidate assessment.

Candidate Assessment

Candidate assessment refers to the framework or process that hiring personnel use to decide if a candidate is suitable for a particular vacancy. Since you have reviewed applications, screened applicants, and conducted interviews already, it’s time to move forward with three stages of candidate assessment:

Candidate testing. Candidates can be evaluated based on your goal objective(s). Consider examples of assessments/tests:
Technical skill evaluation: this type of testing can determine if the candidate can troubleshoot, program and code, or perform big data analysis, for example.
Personality: various options test a candidate’s primary traits and how these relate to job performance.
Creative skill: for example, this assessment asks your candidate to write an article or create a video.
Situational judgment: this test gives your candidate several situations they might experience on the job, and they must choose the best option using their judgment.
Job simulation: this test assigns a task that gives the candidate an accurate preview of the job on a daily basis.
Cognitive ability: this test measures a person’s intelligence for various skills like spatial reasoning, numerical abilities, or memory.
Communication skills: this test is imperative for jobs that require regular interaction with the public. Some skills tested include vocabulary, reading comprehension, and grammar.
image of: skills assessments graph

Background checks. No HR manager likes surprises that include a lengthy criminal history, but it’s better to find out before a job offer is extended. You need to confirm what the applicants have told you about their history, which can be done through any or all of the following:
Reference checks
Criminal record checks
Security clearance checks
Resume cross-referencing
Verification of education credentials
Verification of prior work experience and performance
Military records verification
Your company’s policies, security protocols, and regulations will determine which background checks are conducted.

Legal and eligibility checks. Some companies have strict guidelines that must be satisfied before a job offer can be made. Candidates should be alerted to these requirements early in the process. Some of these checks can include:
Eligibility to work in the country
Alcohol or drug testing
Credit checks
Sex offender registry searches
Social security number traces
At this point in the process, companies are financially invested in candidates. Be sure you have done your homework and checked off requirements up to now. If this has not been done correctly, you’ve wasted valuable time, and the company has lost money.

Sources of Information

Cognitive ability test. (2020, May 30). Workplace Testing. Retrieved on June 29, 2020. https://www.workplacetesting.com/definition/514/cognitive-ability-test (Links to an external site.)

Doyle, A. (2019, May 14). The top 10 resume mistakes to avoid. The Balance Careers. Retrieved on June 29, 2020. https://www.thebalancecareers.com/top-resume-mistakes-to-avoid-2063291#:~:text=%20The%20most%20common%20errors%20seen%20in%20resumes,commonly%20
misspelled%20words%20are%20simple%20words…%20More%20 (Links to an external site.)

Gibbs, R. (2020, April 23). Hire the right candidate by assessing their soft skills. Forbes. Retrieved on June 29, 2020. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2020/04/23/hire-the-right-candidate-by-assessing-their-soft-skills/#1c3e5bb448fc (Links to an external site.)

Heathfield, S. (2019, November 1). Job candidate evaluation form. The Balance Careers. Retrieved on June 29, 2020. https://www.thebalancecareers.com/job-candidate-evaluation-form-1916797 (Links to an external site.)

Job requirements: What you need to know. (2020, April 6). Betterteam. Retrieved on June 29, 2020. https://www.betterteam.com/job-requirements#:~:text=Job%20Requirement%20Examples%3A%201%20%221-2%20years%20of%20sales,summarize%20large%20sets%20of%20data.%22%20More%20items…%20 (Links to an external site.)

McConnell, B. (2020, January 30). The definitive checklist for candidate assessments. Recruitee. Retrieved on June 29, 2020. https://blog.recruitee.com/candidate-assessments/ (Links to an external site.)

Reddy, C. (n.d.). What does required, preferred, and desired skills mean? Wise Step. Retrieved on June 29, 2020. https://content.wisestep.com/required-preferred-desired-skills-mean/ (Links to an external site.)

Schooley, S. (2019, August 12). Choosing a background check service. Business News Daily. Retrieved on June 29, 2020. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7636-choosing-a-background-check-service.html (Links to an external site.)

Situational judgment tests. (n.d.). Assessment Day. Retrieved on June 29, 2020. https://www.assessmentday.co.uk/situational-judgement-test.htm#:~:text=Situational%20Judgement%20Tests%201%20Most%20and%20least%20effective.,judgement.
%203%20Ranked%20responses.%20…%20More%20items…%20 (Links to an external site.)

What is a job simulation and how can you prepare for one? (2019, March 18). Grammarly Blog. Retrieved on June 29, 2020. https://www.grammarly.com/blog/job-simulation/ (Links to an external site.)

Why communication skills are important in the workplace. (n.d.). Criteria Pre-Employment Testing. Retrieved on June 29, 2020. https://www.criteriacorp.com/solution/measure_communication_skills.php (Links to an external site.)

Why specialized candidate assessments are critical for filling “unfillable” vacancies. (2018, November 2). Link Staffing. Retrieved on June 29, 2020. https://linkstaffing.com/why-specialized-candidate-assessments-critical-filling-vacancies/ (Links to an external site.)

PROMPT:
For the assessment, you will analyze candidate applications and resumes (3), to select a candidate for a human resource representative.

Candidate 1’s Resume attached

Candidate 2’s Resume attached

Candidate 3’s Resume attached

First, you are looking for two candidates to move onto the interview phase for the following position:

Human Resource Specialist Job Description

JOB SUMMARY / GENERAL DESCRIPTION:

Creates HR related paperwork and maintains HR-related files for documentation purposes. Can follow all appropriate guidelines for employee payroll and documentation. Can maintain logs and records as appropriate. Conduct background checks and drug testing.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS / PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES:

Processes non-exempt HR information each week including change forms, vacation requests, and corrections.
Completes all necessary on-boarding and new hire processes.
Assists team with recruitment efforts, job fairs, etc.
Explains benefits, policies, and procedures.
Maintains files and records.
Scans and indexes employment data.
May also handle Time, Labor, and Payroll.
Other duties may be assigned.
MINIMUM SKILLS AND QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS:

HS Diploma or GED.
Ability to maintain confidentiality.
Strong professional communication skills.
Ability to handle delicate employee situations.
Ability to build and maintain work relationships.
Four or more years of experience in an HR or payroll role is required.
Self-starter.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS:

Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management
WORKING CONDITIONS:

Office Environment
Telephone and computer use
Next, create an email communication template for the two candidates who are moving onto the interview phase and one email for the candidate who is not moving forward in the process (https://www.indeed.com/hire/c/info/how-to-send-a-rejection-letter-after-an-interview?hl=en&co=US) .  Each email should contain a minimum 150 words.

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