The Labor Market is Strong: Tips and Tools to Aid the Hiring Process

Hiring AssessmentsThe labor market is strong and continues to grow, with employers posting 11.3 million jobs in May 2022, making it an exciting time to be looking for a new job. According to the latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), hiring demand has remained strong in most industries, except for manufacturing and mining.

The current demand in the labor market is being driven by an expanding economy and low unemployment rates. This is a great time to be hiring, but it’s important to have the right strategies and tools in place. Let’s discuss some hiring process tips and tools, including using a hiring assessment.

The Current Demand in the Labor Market

As mentioned, the current demand in the labor market is being driven by an expanding economy and low unemployment rates. This means that there are more job openings than there are unemployed people to fill them.

In May, employers posted 11.3 million job openings in the United States, a signal of an extremely tight job market. The beginning of 2022 saw more workers quitting, however that has slowed now, and firing has risen. In May, 4.3 million workers quit their jobs, while there were 1.4 million layoffs and discharges.

Workers Continue Their Job Search

Job seekers continue to look for new jobs regularly, making it a good time to be hiring. However, there are a few tips to keep in mind during the hiring process to ensure it goes smoothly.

Hire for Potential

One tip is to hire for potential. When looking at candidates, don’t just consider their current skills and experience, but also think about their potential to grow and develop in the role.

This can be difficult to assess, but there are a few key questions you can ask during the interview process to get a better sense of a candidate’s potential:

  • What are your long-term career aspirations?
  • What are some skills you would like to develop in the next few years?
  • When was the last time you learned a new skill?

Review Candidates Based on Your Current Organization’s Needs

Another tip is to review candidates based on your current organization’s needs. Consider not only the skills and experience a candidate has but also how they would fit into your company culture.

It can be helpful to create a list of key qualities you are looking for in a candidate and then use that as a guide during the interview process.

Use the PXT Select Employee Hiring Assessment Tool

One tool that can be extremely helpful during the hiring process is the PXT Select Employee Hiring Assessment offered by Corexcel. PXT Select is a innovative hiring assessment that can help you identify which candidates have the necessary skills and abilities for the job. It can also help you predict job performance and assess fit within your organization.

The PXT Select Hiring Assessment is a fantastic way to identify optimal candidates for the job and ensure a successful hire.

It works by candidates first taking an assessment that evaluates three key areas: Interests, Behavioral Traits, and Thinking Style.

Thinking Style: The thinking style portion of the assessment measures how an individual approaches problem-solving and decision-making.

Behavioral Traits: The behavioral traits portion of the assessment measures an individual’s approach to work, including their motivation, adaptability, and teamwork.

Interests: The interests portion of the assessment measures an individual’s preferences and interests in relation to work tasks and activities.

After taking the assessment, you will receive a detailed report that highlights their strengths and areas for development.

If you’re looking for a better way to identify the optimal hire for the job, then consider using the PXT Select Employee Hiring Assessment. This assessment tool can help you make better hiring decisions by finding the best fit for your organization.

Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/hiring-demand-remained-strong-as-summer-started-economists-estimate-11657099801

Six Essential Steps to a Great Hire

Essential Hiring StepsWhen your organization has a job opening, you want to hire the right person. You also want the hiring process to be as smooth as possible. Whether you’re filling a new position or replacing an employee, follow these steps:

1. Update the job description or create a new one.

Clearly state the education, experience, and skills that you seek. Include the job’s compensation.

2. Publicize the job

Post the job opening on LinkedIn, Indeed, or other job boards. Also, post it on your internal job board, so that your current employees have an opportunity for career growth. Spread the word through your network of contacts as well.

3. Screen and narrow your pool of candidates

Review the applications/resumes for experience, education, and work history. Does the candidate’s experience match what you’re seeking? Are there unexplained gaps in job history? Has the candidate jumped from job to job? The answers help narrow down the pool to those most qualified.

4. Conduct phone interviews

Phone interviews help you gauge each candidate’s energy. If you’re filling a customer-facing job, assess the candidate’s speaking ability. If you’re hiring for a solitary job, the individual’s enunciation on the phone is less important.

5. Use a hiring assessment tool

Now that you’ve spoken with a candidate, you’ll want to “look under the hood.” We recommend using PXT Select™, an online tool that measures behavioral and thinking styles, interests, verbal and numeric skills, and even assertiveness. Importantly, it helps set apart candidates who otherwise seem equal. With PXT Select, you can compare an individual’s results with the job’s performance model—and with other candidates’ results. This adds a layer of objectivity to the hiring process.

6.Conduct in-person interviews

Interview your final, select group of candidates. PXT Select provides personalized interview questions designed to clarify discrepancies identified in the assessment.

Now you have the information you need to select the best candidate. Once your offer has been accepted, you can use PXT Select’s onboarding tips. Happy hiring!

Webinar: Does Your Best Candidate Already Work for You?

Find Out with PXT Select!

Prospective Job Candidates

In today’s tight job market, it is more important than ever to choose right when hiring for an open position.

It is also critical to keep current employees interested and excited about future opportunities.

Solve both challenges by considering candidates often overlooked – those right under your nose!

Join us to discover a unique, new assessment that gives you objective data about your current employee’s thinking style, behavior traits and interests – PXT Select.

PXT Select will give you the data you need to make an informed decision about your team member’s capabilities and their ability to fill your open position.  You may find hidden talent and you will be better equipped to develop career paths for those employees you want to retain.

In this webinar you’ll hear:

  1. How PXT Select can help you match current employees with other positions.
  2. How  you can coach your current employee for success in their new job.
  3. What PXT Select measures and why it matters.

Date:  July 25, 2018

Contact Us to request the webinar recording.

Webinar: Discover PXT Select Pre-Hire Assessment

Identify Your Best Candidate from Sales to C-Suite

You spend hours evaluating resumes finding several candidates. How do you decide who becomes your next employee?  The wrong choice costs 30% of an annual salary and results in lost opportunities and increased employee conflict.

Most large companies have a well-established hiring process that includes a validated, data-driven pre-hire assessment. Yet many small to mid-sized compaies still rely on the resume, a few hastily thrown together interview questions and intuition to determine whether a candidate’s fit for the job.

It’s simpler thank you think to implement a pre-hire assessment.  In this webinar, you’ll learn:

  1. What makes a pre-hire assessment valid and reliable.
  2. The role of validated, data-driven selection tools.
  3. What PT Select measures and why it matters.
  4. How the PXT Select Hiring Assessment can help with hiring and onboarding.
  5. Simple steps you can take to get started.

Date:  March 29, 2018

Contact Us to request the webinar recording.

Learn more about PXT Select, request a demo or make a purchase.

Webinar: PXT Select™ Pre-Hire Assessment is Here!

You spend hours evaluating resumes finding several candidates.  How do you decide who becomes your next employee?  The wrong choice costs 30% of an annual salary and results in lost opportunities and increased employee conflict.

Most large companies have a well-established hiring process that includes a validated, data-driven pre-hire assessment. Yet many small to mid-sized companies still rely on the resume, a few hastily thrown together interview questions and intuition to determine whether a candidate’s fit for the job.

It’s simpler than you think to implement a pre-hire assessment.  In this webinar, you’ll learn:

  1. What makes a pre-hire assessment valid and reliable.
  2. The role of validated, data-driven selection tools.
  3. What PXT Select measures and why it matters.
  4. How the PXT Select Hiring Assessment can help with hiring and onboarding.
  5. Simple steps you can take to get started.

Date:  December 21, 2017

Contact Us to request the webinar recording.

Learn more about PXT Select, request a demo or make a purchase.

Recruiting Solutions: PXT Select Can Minimize Bad Hire Costs

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – ‘tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.” — Mark Twain

As a recruiter, this statement relates to your work as you strive to avoid the cost of a bad hire while instead, pinpointing the candidate that will enable the workflow to flourish. In other words, if you’re looking for lightning, you do not want to hire an insect. Often times during the hiring process, however, an unqualified or unsuitable candidate ends up getting the job. The results of this are exponential, and can manifest as conflict between employees, a negative mindset in the workplace, poor attendance, high turnover, diminished sales, stifled productivity or potential lawsuits.

Ugly Truths About Bad Recruits

Hiring Assessment Minimizes Bad HiresAccording to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average cost of a bad hire is approximately one third of that person’s salary for their first year. Using this model, if an employee is hired on a salary of $80,000/year and they have to be dismissed, the loss to the company is over $26,000. A recent article by Forbes reports that aside from the tangible financial fallout from hiring the wrong person, there are other unseen factors that are just as detrimental. Productivity and morale can suffer long term along with client relations and public image.

The costs of playing referee between workers, dismissing problem employees, or hiring new talent and training them far outweigh the cost of the time it takes to hire the right person from the start. You can do this by implementing comprehensive hiring assessments that measure every dimension of a candidate’s aptitude in relation to the position at hand. It is also possible to compare a candidate’s applicable strengths to those of other potential hires and to demonstrate how an individual’s personality will most likely interact with other staff. The key to obtaining this information lies in re-thinking the recruiting process, and by going about it using a systematic, proven set of tools to avoid bad hires.

PXT Select from Step One

Upon initial contact, a candidate will undergo an assessment that will evaluate their strengths and abilities. These questions will measure numerical skill and reasoning, verbal skill and reasoning, conformity, assertiveness, sociability, pace, accommodation, outlook, decisiveness, independence and judgement. This information is then aggregated, assimilated and processed into a series of reports that enable you, as a recruiter, to gain crucial insight into a candidate’s strengths and potential future with your company. Before the interview process continues, you can assess with efficiency and relative certainty if spending more resources grooming an applicant is warranted or if the person is simply not right for the position and would be a bad hire.

A Simple “Yes” or “No”

The Comprehensive Selection Report is the primary hiring report generated by the PXT Select Hiring Assessment tools. It provides a summary of an applicant’s results as well as where they fit within a range of scores that indicate success in a particular position. These metrics give you tangible measurements of a candidate’s strengths concerning verbal skills, numerical ability and reasoning capacity. An applicant who performs well here can move on to the next interview, in which the interviewer is aided by the personalized interview questions based on areas of concern found in this report. You can consider this the initial recruiting solution that flags would-be bad hires while pinpointing those who could become assets to the company. Someone who performs poorly here does not move on, plain and simple.

The Right Place for the Right Person

The Multiple Positions Report helps determine where a candidate will fit best in your company. This report summarizes a candidate’s tests results in relation to multiple positions, as well as their potential for success in those areas. These results are based on their interests and their scores in numerical skills and reasoning, verbal skills and reasoning and several other parameters. This report summarizes a candidate’s tests results in relation to various job roles. When you are recruiting with the intention of avoiding bad hires, this step allows you to ensure that you do not put the right person for the company into the wrong position in the work flow.

Recruit the Best of the Best

The Multiple Candidates Report allows you to compare all candidates for all positions with one another to see which set of strengths is going to benefit your company the most. You can evaluate the vocabulary, problem-solving potential and reasoning abilities of every applicant and assess their potential based on interest and the range of scores that indicate success in any given position. This allows you as a recruiter to avoid having to rely on gut instinct or the flip of a coin to choose two seemingly identical candidates, and instead, move forward with confidence by measuring and comparing actual data.

Additional Reports for In-depth Insights

Next, the PXT Select Hiring Assessment Toolbox will provide you with several more reports about a candidate’s thinking style and how their strengths relate to those of their future manager. These metrics provide insight as to how the two will work together, particularly by highlighting similar areas of interest that can spark constructive communication and camaraderie. Additionally, a Team Report is provided that demonstrates how a potential recruit is going to fit in with the rest of your personnel, giving you reassurance that a promising individual is not actually a bad hire in disguise. Finally, a Performance Model Report provides an outline of the ideal traits a potential candidate would display should they be optimally poised for success in a given position, allowing you see at a glance if a candidate is worth pursuing.

If you are looking to hire the right person for a position in your company, consider the PXT Select Hiring Assessment tools. This recruiting solution enables you to maximize your hiring efforts through detailed analysis and graphics while avoid the exponential costs of bad hires.

How Two Acclaimed Theorists Laid Groundwork for PXT Select

Job satisfaction, job success and coworker compatibility are top concerns among recruiters, human resource managers and the engineers of the PXT Select Hiring Assessment Tool. When all three aspects are effectively aligned, business flourishes and profits soar.

The science of successfully matching the right person with the right job is largely due to the work of two 20th Century visionaries — Frank Parsons and John Holland. When assessing a recruitment tool like PXT Select for your company, consider the studies it was founded upon.

Delving into the work of pioneers who developed career counseling and modernized effective candidate selection can help you better understand the recruitment selection system as a whole.

Frank Parsons Lays the Groundwork

In 1909, Frank Parsons of the Vocational Bureau in Boston, MA laid the groundwork for career development theory with a simple outline for successful employment decision-making. This triad of factors consisted of self-understanding, available jobs and the relationship between the two.

Essentially, Parsons believed that if you know your strengths and preferences, and if you are aware of what is required to be successful in specific jobs, you could make sound career decisions rather than leaving your future up to chance.

Parson’s philosophy was especially useful in the wake of the Great Depression, when large-scale unemployment created the need to determine the most effective way to classify the exact strengths of an individual. Shortly thereafter, the Second World War had a similar effect from the opposite direction.

This prompted the development of the U.S. Employment Service General Aptitude Test Battery that helped address job placement concerns arising from manpower shortages. Strategies for dealing with both crises were based on Parson’s work, which by this time had been renamed the Trait and Factor Theory.

The Trait and Factor Theory provided the basis for the PXT Select Hiring Assessment an evaluation system that measures eleven specific traits, allowing you to determine exactly where a job candidate can excel in your workplace.    

John Holland Expands on Parsons’ Theory

Half a century later in 1959, a Professor Emeritus at John Hopkins University named John Holland expanded on Parson’s premise. He created an in-depth occupational classification system known as the Holland Codes.

Holland distilled the thousands of human personality distinctions down to six fundamental categories, which were then mirrored by six types of workplace environments. The realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional archetypes (RIASEC) became a sound basis for matching people with careers that best suited their personalities and interests.

Holland’s work affirmed the notion that people search for and thrive in environments that best fit their personality type. This prevents negative scenarios where work environments do not match individual personalities.

The indications of the Holland’s Hexagon (an infographic for RIASEC) allows you to see how an artistically driven person can adapt to social and investigative settings but may not respond well to environments that require a conventional, realistic mindset.

Conversely, the system demonstrates that an enterprising person may get along well with others of the same mindset as well as those inclined towards being social or conventional, but people who focus on work through an investigative or realistic lens may deter them.

The PXT Select Hiring Assessment Tool expands on these proven theories and research, providing detailed graphs, metrics and reports on the strengths of your job candidate. In turn, these point to the specific positions in your company where they will thrive the most.

Minimize Bad Hires and Maximize Employee Skills

The inception and growth of the career assessment has evolved into the sophisticated science behind the PXT Select Hiring Assessment Tool. This tool allows you to minimize the incorrect placement of people throughout your workforce and to avoid hiring the wrong people altogether.

Both of these scenarios can come at great cost to your bottom line, if unhappy employees become prone to being late, combative or absent altogether. On the positive side, saving money on recruiting, you can watch your company’s productivity expand because people are working in areas that suit them alongside others with similar mindsets.

PXT Select provides you with information based on a candidate’s answers to a lengthy inquiry. It begins with a questionnaire measuring skills and reasoning in their verbal and numerical capacities. It also evaluates specific personality traits including pace, assertiveness, outlook, sociability, conformity, decisiveness, accommodation, independence and judgment.

These metrics are then assimilated into a series of reports that show you the best position for a candidate or a current employee. It also gives you insight into areas where the person could benefit from coaching and how they measure up next to other individuals.

Additional reports suggest alternate positions that might suit a candidate, how the person will fit into your team and how you can expect them to interact with you and your managers.

Empower Your Employment Process

Based on these proven theories and actionable formulas, your current employees and future recruits stand an excellent chance to experience career satisfaction. Utilizing PXT, you can take steps to assure that they are working in areas and with others that match their strengths and interests.

As an employer, you can benefit from a high level of productivity while the entire team enjoys a general sense of balance within the workplace. These essential facets of personnel management are the fundamental principles behind the PXT Select Hiring Assessment Tool.

If you want personnel who love what they do and a company bottom line that shows it, consider the mechanics of Corexcel’s PXT Select career assessment tool. Determine who are the right people for your company and exactly where to place them in your workforce.

Contact us to learn more about streamlining your hiring process, minimizing the costs of turnovers and bad hires and maximizing your recruiting efforts with the PXT Select Hiring Assessment Tool.

[Holland’s RAISEC Model]. (2017). Retrieved from Corexcel’s Ready to Hire Simpler and Smarter PowerPoint Webinar.

Webinar Recap: Ready to Hire Simpler & Smarter?

People are the Most Valuable Variable in Business

“My inventory goes home every night.” — Michael Eisner

In case you missed our live webinar and don’t have time to listen to the recording, here’s a high level recap of our June 2017 webinar, “Ready to Hire Simpler and Smarter?

Although technology often drives business success, the number one asset to any company is personnel. Human resources supply the brainpower, capabilities and distinctive personalities to drive the business.

Putting the wrong person in a job can result in negative attitudes, conflict with other employees, poor attendance and high turnover. An assessment that evaluates the strengths, attributes and interests of employees and potential hires can help minimize poor job placement and create an efficient, productive workplace.

With the PXT Select hiring assessment, you can identify the best person for each role. As the business changes, you can use PXT Select to identify future roles for employees that build on their strengths and a maximize productivity within the organization.

Costly Miscalculations

Unsuccessful hires cost money and hurt morale. Resources spent on advertising, interviewing and training an individual are wasted when new hires don’t work out, regardless of the reason.

In November 2016 Career Builder sponsored a poll by Harris on the cost of poor hiring decisions. They surveyed 2,379 HR professionals and hiring managers across private sector companies and business of various sizes. 75% of the managers surveyed affirmed they had made a bad hire. On average, the reported cost of a bad hire was $17,000.

NOTE: 20% of those surveyed knew they had made a hiring mistake within the first week. 53% knew within the first three weeks!

The Challenge of Successful Recruiting

Successful recruiting requires that an organization have a clear description of the skills and attributes necessary to fill a position. They also need a way to compare individual candidates to see if they are a good fit for their positions. Many companies rely on interviews and “gut feelings” alone to determine which candidate they hire.

Most hiring managers admit that even with a good job description, interviewing requires skilled questions and observations. To make matters worse, poor interviewing skills and lack of time to conduct multiple interviews can result in a choice between several unqualified candidates. Picking the lesser of two evils is never the right way to select a new employee.

 An Innovative, Easy-to-Use Hiring Solution

Corexcel clients now have access to PXT Select, a new online hiring assessment that tests a candidate’s verbal and numerical skills, verbal and numerical reasoning, behavioral attributes and interests. A series of powerful reports compare the candidate’s results with multiple positions and with other candidates. Most helpful, managers also get a series of questions to ask the candidate and tips on “what to look for” and “what to listen for” during the interview.

An assessment is required for each candidate. Once a candidate logs on to the testing platform, the assessment takes 60-90 minutes to complete. Candidate results are measured against a Job Performance Model that describes the skills and attributes necessary to perform a specific job. Corexcel works with clients to select performance models that match their needs.

The price of an assessment includes 9 reports. We’ve highlighted four of them in our blog. We also have samples of all of the reports posted on Corexcel’s website.

The Comprehensive Selection Report provides insight into a candidate’s verbal skills, numerical aptitude, reasoning facilities, behavior style and interests. It also identifies potential areas of concern such as mathematical deficiency or behavior trait that might warrant further probing, depending on the skills and/or needed for the position. It gives recruiters suggestions on what questions to ask and what to look for in an interview.

The Multiple Positions Report summarizes a candidate’s fit across several positions within a business while elaborating on their behavior style’s personal interests and showing how their score could affect their success in any given position.

The Multiple Candidates Report measures several potential hires alongside one another. This report also compares the behavior traits and personal interests of multiple candidates along with numerical and verbal ability.

The Coaching Report is designed to offer insight into the mindset, capabilities and aptitude of an existing employee. This helps managers determine areas where a candidate or new employee could benefit from coaching related to the position that they have been hired to fill. 

Join the Recruiting Revolution

PXT Select is founded on the belief that people perform best when they are placed into positions that are most suited to their abilities and traits. It simplifies the process of identifying and placing individuals where they are most likely to succeed.

Contact us for a demonstration so that you can streamline your hiring process and save valuable man-hours and recruiting resources. Let us help you put the right people in the right positions.

Recorded Webinar: You’ve Hired The Best, Now What? PXT Select™

PXT Select™ is a new, easy to use online hiring assessment that makes hiring simpler and smarter.  PXT Select helps managers select and compare the best candidates for your organization but it also does a lot more.

Join us to continue your discovery of PXT Select .
In this recorded webinar, we covered the history and methodology used to develop PXT Select and how it helps to provide a clear picture of a candidate’s:

  • Verbal skills
  • Verbal reasoning abilities
  • Numerical abilities
  • Numerical reasoning
  • Behavioral traits
  • interests

The webinar covers the importance of onboarding and supporting new hires. It talks about how the PXT Select hiring assessment can help you:

  • Introduce new hires to your existing team
  • Understand their areas of opportunity and challenge
  • Keep them interested and engaged in their job
  • Coach and develop your new employees

We also review:

  • All 9 PXT Select reports available for one price!
  • The training available for your team so you can get started right away!

Contact Us Today for the Recording

PXT Select Part 1 was held on June 15th, 2019. If you missed Part 1, we’ll be happy to send you the recording to review. Simply send your request through our contact form.

“PXT Select” is a trademark of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.