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Hi Everyone,
I thought I would pass this article along that I found on online applicant screening systems. While it does not address aviation in specific, there are some of the same principles.
Kathy
Need a job? Computer will see you now
Retail chains and others let online systems handle the task of screening applicants.
[size=-1]By Adam Geller[/size]
[size=-1]Associated Press[/size]
EDGEWATER, N.J. - The Pathmark supermarket here is hiring. But walk-in applicants need not bother asking for a manager.
First, they have to get past the computer.
"Join the Pathmark Team!" welcomes a screen built into a black and gray kiosk, tucked between the store's customer-service counter and a display rack full of beach balls. "Right now, we're looking for people who think big and dream big - people a lot like you."
The automated greeting and screen after screen of multiple-choice questions that follow are part of a new approach by some employers to filling their ranks of hourly workers.
A growing number of retail chains and similar businesses, frustrated by near-constant employee turnover, are entrusting the first step of the hiring process to computers, designed to zero in on applicants likely to do a job well - and stay awhile.
To do that, the computers gather not just names and Social Security numbers, but also work to size up an applicant's personality, and provide hiring managers with a list of questions for follow-up interviews.
Online screening systems used by companies such as Pathmark issue reports on applicants almost immediately, grading them as green, yellow or red - the last a warning of a potentially problematic hire.
One retailer, Houston-based crafts chain Garden Ridge, even has its screening system set to page store managers so they can catch choice applicants before they walk out the door and apply at a competitor.
Companies including the Sports Authority Inc., Blockbuster Inc. and the Golden Corral Corp. steak-house chain have also adopted the online screening systems.
Many companies using the systems have installed in-store terminals or telephones equipped with screens and keyboards especially for the purpose, while others direct people to apply on company Web sites.
"I think it's really going to take off, because the technology for how people are screened is changing so quickly," said Donald M. Truxillo, a professor of industrial psychology at Oregon's Portland State University who studies the online systems.
"Our philosophy is to let the technology do the heavy lifting," said Richard Harding, director of research for Kenexa Corp., a Wayne, Pa., firm that designs and administers online assessment systems.
Online screening incorporates personality tests similar to the paper-and-pencil versions used by some employers as far back as the 1940s. But computers use the results more systematically, letting managers instantly rank candidates or dip into the pool of applicants who have sought jobs at other stores in the same chain.
"You're able to prequalify people and focus really only on the people who look like they have the best chance of success," said Charles Handler, an industrial psychologist whose firm, Rocket-Hire, is a consultant to employers in choosing the systems.
That is only the start for some employers. Some continue to use the systems after making a hire, feeding worker performance data - such as sales commissions or the time it takes a waiter to "turn" a table - into the computer. The data are then used to help fine-tune questions to screen future hires.
That helps employers "close the loop," said Kim Beasley, a spokeswoman for Unicru Inc., a Beaverton, Ore., firm that makes the screening systems used at 50 retail and restaurant chains, including Pathmark Stores Inc. and Sports Authority.
Online assessment could prove particularly valuable at big retailers and restaurant chains whose employee turnover rate runs as high as 200 percent a year, experts say.
Such employers, almost constantly hiring, are looking for ways to predict which job candidates are less likely to leave once hired, and help them cut down on the cost of finding and training replacements. "They just lose people about as fast as they can get them in the door," Harding said.
Since Rock Bottom Restaurants Inc. began using a Unicru system in late 2002, turnover in its outlets has tailed off from 110 percent yearly to 91 percent.
That may be partly due to the soft labor market, but some of it almost certainly is due to hiring choices aided by the computer, said Ted Williams, senior vice president of the brewery division at the Louisville, Colo., company.
Lowering turnover has an immediate impact on profit. Restaurants spend an average of $500 to $600 to hire and train an employee. But the actual cost of a new worker is closer to $2,000 because that employee is less productive while he or she learns the business, Williams said.
Some researchers are concerned people will see the new technology as impersonal and find it a turnoff. But Truxillo, the Portland State professor, said job seekers probably would get used to the idea. He compared it to preemployment drug screening, which drew protests from some workers 15 or 20 years ago, but has become fairly routine.
I thought I would pass this article along that I found on online applicant screening systems. While it does not address aviation in specific, there are some of the same principles.
Kathy
Need a job? Computer will see you now
Retail chains and others let online systems handle the task of screening applicants.
[size=-1]By Adam Geller[/size]
[size=-1]Associated Press[/size]
EDGEWATER, N.J. - The Pathmark supermarket here is hiring. But walk-in applicants need not bother asking for a manager.
First, they have to get past the computer.
"Join the Pathmark Team!" welcomes a screen built into a black and gray kiosk, tucked between the store's customer-service counter and a display rack full of beach balls. "Right now, we're looking for people who think big and dream big - people a lot like you."
The automated greeting and screen after screen of multiple-choice questions that follow are part of a new approach by some employers to filling their ranks of hourly workers.
A growing number of retail chains and similar businesses, frustrated by near-constant employee turnover, are entrusting the first step of the hiring process to computers, designed to zero in on applicants likely to do a job well - and stay awhile.
To do that, the computers gather not just names and Social Security numbers, but also work to size up an applicant's personality, and provide hiring managers with a list of questions for follow-up interviews.
Online screening systems used by companies such as Pathmark issue reports on applicants almost immediately, grading them as green, yellow or red - the last a warning of a potentially problematic hire.
One retailer, Houston-based crafts chain Garden Ridge, even has its screening system set to page store managers so they can catch choice applicants before they walk out the door and apply at a competitor.
Companies including the Sports Authority Inc., Blockbuster Inc. and the Golden Corral Corp. steak-house chain have also adopted the online screening systems.
Many companies using the systems have installed in-store terminals or telephones equipped with screens and keyboards especially for the purpose, while others direct people to apply on company Web sites.
"I think it's really going to take off, because the technology for how people are screened is changing so quickly," said Donald M. Truxillo, a professor of industrial psychology at Oregon's Portland State University who studies the online systems.
"Our philosophy is to let the technology do the heavy lifting," said Richard Harding, director of research for Kenexa Corp., a Wayne, Pa., firm that designs and administers online assessment systems.
Online screening incorporates personality tests similar to the paper-and-pencil versions used by some employers as far back as the 1940s. But computers use the results more systematically, letting managers instantly rank candidates or dip into the pool of applicants who have sought jobs at other stores in the same chain.
"You're able to prequalify people and focus really only on the people who look like they have the best chance of success," said Charles Handler, an industrial psychologist whose firm, Rocket-Hire, is a consultant to employers in choosing the systems.
That is only the start for some employers. Some continue to use the systems after making a hire, feeding worker performance data - such as sales commissions or the time it takes a waiter to "turn" a table - into the computer. The data are then used to help fine-tune questions to screen future hires.
That helps employers "close the loop," said Kim Beasley, a spokeswoman for Unicru Inc., a Beaverton, Ore., firm that makes the screening systems used at 50 retail and restaurant chains, including Pathmark Stores Inc. and Sports Authority.
Online assessment could prove particularly valuable at big retailers and restaurant chains whose employee turnover rate runs as high as 200 percent a year, experts say.
Such employers, almost constantly hiring, are looking for ways to predict which job candidates are less likely to leave once hired, and help them cut down on the cost of finding and training replacements. "They just lose people about as fast as they can get them in the door," Harding said.
Since Rock Bottom Restaurants Inc. began using a Unicru system in late 2002, turnover in its outlets has tailed off from 110 percent yearly to 91 percent.
That may be partly due to the soft labor market, but some of it almost certainly is due to hiring choices aided by the computer, said Ted Williams, senior vice president of the brewery division at the Louisville, Colo., company.
Lowering turnover has an immediate impact on profit. Restaurants spend an average of $500 to $600 to hire and train an employee. But the actual cost of a new worker is closer to $2,000 because that employee is less productive while he or she learns the business, Williams said.
Some researchers are concerned people will see the new technology as impersonal and find it a turnoff. But Truxillo, the Portland State professor, said job seekers probably would get used to the idea. He compared it to preemployment drug screening, which drew protests from some workers 15 or 20 years ago, but has become fairly routine.
