• New! Interview Exchange Integrates TalentWise Employment Screening
• Interview Exchange Adds Performance Evaluation System To Growing HR Software Portfolio
• Interview Exchange integrates with HigherEdJobs
• Interview Exchange integrates JobTarget OneClick "Job Posting Distribution Interface"
• Interview Exchange Launches Employee Referral Portal
• New solutions reduce recordkeeping expense, while finding better applicants

Are you prepared to advance your cause?

As we reported in the August issue of Staffing News You Can Use, most recruiters employ some sort of online screening or assessment, according to a survey conducted by Rocket-Hire, a leading voice on applicant screening and assessment. Fewer than half, however, indicate they collect metrics to demonstrate the effectiveness of their screening/assessment tools. (ER Daily, 7-17-03)

Overlooking metrics on applicant screening, which is but one element of most recruiters' playbooks, can be more damaging to HR strategies than you might think.

According to Peter Weddle, editor and publisher of WEDDLE's guides to online recruiting, "Increasingly, HR departments recognize that the best leverage … for convincing officers to open their wallets … comes from metrics … They quantify the potential benefits of an investment in HR so that executives can understand and appreciate it." [CareerJournal.com, 9-21-03]

Properly collecting and presenting metrics that measure the ROI (return on investment) of screening and assessment admittedly represents only a portion of overall HR ROI, but it is a step in the right direction. It indicates a proactive shift in understanding by HR management: namely, the information most beneficial for increasing HR budgets is not so much information that makes HR managers feel good about their operations, but rather information that helps corporate officers succeed.

All Shapes and Sizes
Of course measuring ROI is not a one-size-fits-all operation. With this in mind, the Interview Exchange provides clients a variety of real-time and value-added reports on the effectiveness of its applicant screening and management tools. The suite of tools, which we call ROInsite™, includes:

• Total visitor clicks from all sources
• Total number of visitors who apply
• Conversion rate -- the percentage of visitors who apply
• Applicants' scores on the COREquisites qualifications screening questionnaire
• Number of qualified and unqualified applicants, based on the weighted scoring of the questionnaire
• Visitors / applicants / conversion rate comparisons among all open positions

In addition to the standard ROInsite reports, Interview Exchange clients can order a variety of value-added reports. From an ROI standpoint, here's where the full worth of the Interview Exchange offering shows most brilliantly.

Let's say you like to use four sources of applicants for most of your job postings – a couple of mass market job boards, an appropriate vertical "niche" board or two, plus the print version of the local newspaper. Clearly, for future planning and budgeting, it would be prudent to measure the relative effectiveness of each source.

Interview Exchange reporting tools let you document the ROI for each job posting. We can customize your reports to provide a quick snapshot of the cost-effectiveness of each job board and tools to dig deeper into the numbers as your operations dictate. Here's a summary of the statistics available:

• Total clicks, applicants and conversion rates for each job board
• Source detail on individual applicants
• Average applicant quality from each source
• Comparison of highly qualified applicants from each source
• Job board performance comparison by position

We collect and consolidate these metrics and present them to you in an attractively formatted ROInsite report, both printed and online. Our clients use ROInsite metrics for staff reporting and as documentation to support HR's budget deliberations with corporate management.

Now, we don't pretend that this level of reporting is the be-all and end-all of metrics, just as applicant screening is but a part of online recruiting. Yet it might just establish a precedent on which you can base additional measurement practices across HR operations. And it could well demonstrate to senior management your attention to their priorities.

As Peter Weddle observes, "not every corporate officer will be swayed by such measures … [but] in the competition for corporate resources, there is no better way to pry open wallets."

For more information on Interview Exchange ROInsite reporting tools, please contact us at office@interviewexchange.com or 508.836.3800.

… And Speaking of Metrics …
The Interview Exchange recently conducted a survey of its clients to determine the effectiveness of its applicant screening tools. And the results are eye-opening:

• Up to 34 hours of staff time saved per job, a 90% improvement compared with traditional hiring processes.
• Screening effects of up to 96%, i.e., the ability to identify the relatively few applicants who possess the basic skills and experience required for a given job.

The implications are compelling: From the initial process of sorting job applicants, to assembling a list of finalists, Interview Exchange screening tools save nearly a week's worth of staff time for each job opening, according to users surveyed. This improvement, combined with the ability to efficiently and consistently identify qualified job applicants, enables HR directors to demonstrate significant contributions to the business goals of the enterprise. No other online screening solution delivers this level of productivity improvement at such a reasonable cost.

Contact Peter Weddle at peter@weddles.com or visit www.weddles.com.

Contact Rocket-Hire at (www.rocket-hire.com).