These 5 Trends Are Shaping the Future of Pre-hire Assessments

2013年提出的一个重大转折点的开始，人们发现和评估工作（反之亦然）的方式，融合了技术和经济评估的内容将起到很大的作用，这些正在发生的变化。

2013 is going to present the start of a major tipping point in the way people find and are evaluated for jobs (and vice versa), and a blend of technology and assessment content will play a big role in these ongoing changes. This opinion is not founded on trends within the pre-hire assessment industry, but rather on the bigger picture of emerging trends in internet technology. I m talking about major changes in the way humans use information and connectivity to support business and social interactions. The following are key technology trends that are bigger than any individual industry but are already impacting products being offered in the pre-hire assessment market. I know about many of these companies because I ve worked with many of them over the past year. In many cases their products are still not fully completed (and some have even asked not to be mentioned due to this), but 2013 will be a year that sees a ton of new companies live and open for business. Social Connectivity While this is nothing new, the progress toward increasingly intelligent and deep levels of connectivity cannot be understated. The ability of data to drive useful connections with others who share the same interests and the ability to share information across relationships is rapidly gaining teeth. It is now possible to use personal preferences, connections, and interests to provide meaningful insights into almost everything (like Facebook social graph search). While far from perfect, the insights offered via social technology have a ton to offer when it comes to helping people efficiently and effectively find relevant jobs (and vice versa). Immediate relevance to hiring and assessments: In terms of hiring, connectivity continues to make sourcing (and job searching) easier no more needles in haystacks. We are about to see a number of new B-to-C focused companies in which assessments will be part of the matching intelligence powering the system. These technologies are different in that they bring a B-to-C focus that is all about empowering the job seeker. The need to make more intelligent matches has led to a large number of new approaches (even eHarmony is getting into the job matching game). In each case the goal is to stock the pond with job seekers so that employers will pay to fish in the pond. While this is no different then the model job boards were founded on, matches are more precise because they are based on meaningful data (such as assessments) and artificial intelligence. While there are many who will attempt to work out the matching equation via purely AI-based approaches, the winners will be the firms that add insight via reliable and valid measures of key traits/competencies critical for success at a job or organization. The market is about to be flooded with new companies who are taking this approach in order to offer something more than the lackluster matching currently available from the brand-name job boards. Many of these plug into existing venues such as LinkedIn in order to provide an additional layer of insight. Examples include: Company X (did not want to be mentioned yet); Clearfit; Hireology, Matchpoint Careers, Willbehired, and Findly. Collective Intelligence The emerging Internet has introduced many sites and businesses who offer the ability to collect input from multiple persons, aggregate the data, and report on it such that one overall opinion creates an accurate representation of the views of many. When combined with increases in connectivity, we gain the ability to collect insight about a person, product, or service that may not be exactly in line with what is outwardly represented. This provides entirely new levels of insight into the reality behind all kinds of things, and helps everyone to become a much more savvy consumer. A facet of this is crowdsourcing, described by Wikipedia as The practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers. Crowdsourcing will be a real game-changer when it comes to generation of ideas, opinions, and information to help persons find job opportunities for which they are well suited (and vice versa). Immediate relevance to hiring and assessments: There are a number of new (and soon-to-be-emerging) companies on the market that are using ratings from references (or current co-workers) to help further an understanding of an applicant s abilities relative to a specific job opportunity. Determining the effectiveness of pre-hire assessments has been difficult, due to challenges with collecting post-hire performance data. Collective-intelligence-based systems are providing the ability to look at performance via aggregated ratings collected from sources who have worked (or are working with) an individual in order to gain a reality-based picture of what they bring to the table relative to a specific opportunity. Firms in this area include: RightHire, Chequed.com, Checkster, and Skillsurvey. Collective intelligence also provides a way for pre-hire assessment systems to capture the performance data that is needed to determine their effectiveness. This is a big deal because the inability to collect useful performance data has held personnel selection science back for decades. Companies such as FurstPerson and Logi-Serve are leading the market when it comes to creating closed loop validation systems. These systems have software that captures performance data streams and use this information to better understand the financial impact of assessments and to optimize scoring algorithms to ensure the systems are delivering maximum ROI. Crowdsourcing is also starting to generate new and interesting developments in talent acquisition. For instance, one new company is using collective intelligence/crowdsourcing to develop and maintain skills testing item pools. This allows the test developer to tap into the collective wisdom of experts in an area to create and monitor tests. Another interesting facet of collective intelligence is the ability for distributed groups of individuals to provide collective opinions about aspects of a company that may be relevant in the job search. Glassdoor is already providing a quantum leap in this area. In the near future, expect to see companies that provide insight into even more specific aspects of companies (such as culture or the fit with a specific boss) via collectively sourced ratings. This information will be used to drive job searches and will bypass official input from a company about their culture, in favor of the opinion of those who have experience working there. It s truly revolutionary stuff. ManageUp is an example of a firm working on this kind of matching process. Gamification Attention spans are getting shorter as we interact with a growing number of devices via touching screens, swiping, and using easy-to-access apps. Business are developing ways to make accomplishing things such as learning and research more fun and are having a good deal of success. Many of the major trends in gamification are relevant for the staffing industry. This trend cannot be ignored. Those entering the workforce in the near future will expect to be entertained and engaged at a meaningful level. Failure to meet these expectations will not do your employment brand any favors. Immediate relevance to hiring and assessments: Even an advocate for pre-hire testing such as myself can admit that most tests are no fun at all. Few people like slogging through hundreds of ra