Assessments will not be forced out of recruitment by social media
26 February 2013
Despite a study showing that testing as part of the hiring process is dropping as use of social media in recruitment rises, Ken Lahti, vice-president for product development & innovation at talent measurement firm SHL, tells Recruiter that assessments are here to stay.
Tue, 26 Feb 2013Despite a study showing that testing as part of the hiring process is dropping as use of social media in recruitment rises, Ken Lahti, vice-president for product development & innovation at talent measurement firm SHL, tells Recruiter that assessments are here to stay.
Surveying 592 individuals globally, SHL’s ‘Global Assessment Trends’ report finds that the number of people calling candidate testing “a valuable part of the hiring process” has dropped from 94% in 2011 to 89% in 2012 and 87% in 2013, while a variety uses of social media have risen, including reviewing potential candidates on social media, which was allowed by 31% of firms in 2011, and in 2013 stands at 48%.
And the number of firms saying social media has “a large impact on how we recruit, manage and measure talent” rose from 28% in 2011 to 37% last year, although it dropped back to 32% this year.
“I wouldn’t see these [trends] as going together,” Lahti says, pointing out that 90% of firms plan to use or currently use assessments for external hiring, the highest uptake of assessment for an HR area, which suggests it is “very much accepted as a best practice”.
And Lahti notes the widely-acknowledged danger of discrimination “creeping in through the back door” if social media is incorrectly used. “The assessment doesn’t care if you’re male or female or disabled or non-disabled.
“Even as we do see an increase in the companies that allow the usage of social media [in recruitment], they’re recognising that maybe we shouldn’t necessarily trust that data,” he says, with 19% now going so far as to have a formal policy in place around its use, a figure which has increased by two percentage points across each of the last two surveys.
Surveying 592 individuals globally, SHL’s ‘Global Assessment Trends’ report finds that the number of people calling candidate testing “a valuable part of the hiring process” has dropped from 94% in 2011 to 89% in 2012 and 87% in 2013, while a variety uses of social media have risen, including reviewing potential candidates on social media, which was allowed by 31% of firms in 2011, and in 2013 stands at 48%.
And the number of firms saying social media has “a large impact on how we recruit, manage and measure talent” rose from 28% in 2011 to 37% last year, although it dropped back to 32% this year.
“I wouldn’t see these [trends] as going together,” Lahti says, pointing out that 90% of firms plan to use or currently use assessments for external hiring, the highest uptake of assessment for an HR area, which suggests it is “very much accepted as a best practice”.
And Lahti notes the widely-acknowledged danger of discrimination “creeping in through the back door” if social media is incorrectly used. “The assessment doesn’t care if you’re male or female or disabled or non-disabled.
“Even as we do see an increase in the companies that allow the usage of social media [in recruitment], they’re recognising that maybe we shouldn’t necessarily trust that data,” he says, with 19% now going so far as to have a formal policy in place around its use, a figure which has increased by two percentage points across each of the last two surveys.
