We’ve been having an interesting discussion on Linked In. The question was “If you receive a large number of applications for a job, what is a better way to assess candidates : personal screening or online assessment? “
There seem to be 3 schools. Most posters seem to think that gut feel and reading the CV is enough. My position and that of a couple of others is you need to assess and a third is coming down in favour of assessment centres and Behavioral Event Interviews(BEI)
But it seems to me that the principles of time and efficiency must apply.
Let’s ignore the question of scanning software. Having spent 10 years of my life running recruitment companies I dislike it, but we needed the efficiency that it produced.
Nowadays I would rather assess everybody on their competency and suitability for the job before checking their CV. With a web link and auto responder this gives me fit for the job and a set of screening questions ( http://snipurl.com/va7lb describes this a bit better), without any effort from me – we can autorespond rejection letters too. I have had over 200 responses in a day to a single job,most of those filtered positive through the CV scanner.
Let’s take relevant experience.Well for know let’s just take one aspect, longevity. The data says that only 16% of A type sales people will stay longer than 2 years in a job. So many companies will specify, say, no more than 3 jobs in 10 years. So would you reject A performers on this sort of qualification ?
Yet how many salespeople bend the truth, extend their period of employment, make not quite true claims ? In my extensive experience the majority of sales people write a CV that casts a rosy view on what they did.
As for BEI interviewing and assessment it will always be an expensive option. I am a great fan of BEI at the right point in the process and particularly for significant, strategic hires and internal promotion. For me this is an end game pre hire option because it helps select from the short, shortlist and would be preferable to, say, a presentation which tells you close to nothing. I would also use other tools if, for instance, the sale require substantial intellectual horse power or numeracy or literacy skills.
But, nothing, compares with a competency( http://snipurl.com/va89o ) based evaluation backed by substantial data. AFAIK – and I have spent some years researching -this limits the field to OMG.
Finally if, you have got the evaluation against job, experience(CV), initial interview/further evaluations right, then the interview is about can you work with this person and will they fit your culture. They need to meet a cross section of the group they are to work with in order to ensure that the fit is possible. Or you may decide that, since selling is not a team game, the fit is not important.
