How Many Days Does it Take to Determine a Staffing Candidate’s Reliability?
September 5, 2014 | Staffing Blog
When it comes to hiring, it’s much easier to test for a certain skill than for character attributes. A potential employee either knows how to weld or she doesn’t. He’s been a forklift operator or he hasn’t. She is proficient in a certain software program or she isn’t. Those aspects of the hiring process are more cut and dry. What becomes trickier is determining a person’s character.
It’s much more difficult to assess reliability, work ethic and quality. Oftentimes you end up taking a potential hire at his word only to discover he’s chronically late. Or an interviewee assures you she’s a hard worker only to find out she takes a few too many breaks.
Basic skill sets are key to a workforce that delivers. Without a good work ethic, even the most highly skilled employees can hinder productivity and profits. And when a company is looking to hire temporary workers, these quality assessments become even more critical. They are often seeking extra hands for a big job or a particularly busy time of year. They don’t want to waste time going through a string of irresponsible workers.
As our owner Tom Landry points out in this video interview with DCVelocity, the responsibility of finding those quality workers should fall to the staffing companies. It’s their job to screen workers so only the best ones are sent to clients’ offices, plants or warehouses.
Traditionally the staffing industry is been one place where people could fill out an application in the morning and be headed out to work in the afternoon. That kind of fast turnaround leaves little time for proper screening to ensure those workers are well trained and have the reliability those clients will need.
That’s why Allegiance Staffing has implemented a 3-Day Hiring Process. Everyone must come to one of the Allegiance offices three times to be tested, screened, interviewed and vetted.
“We try to avoid the accident waiting to happen or the habitual unemployed just trying to fill out their application,” Landry says.
Potential employees are asked to return on three specific days and on certain times. Not everyone comes back a second or third time. Or people arrive late for an interview. It’s telling of their commitment to the job and how they will perform.
It may seem like an intense process but it works. The results are reflected in worker retention numbers and client satisfaction scores. So, it seems, there is a way to determine a person’s character – it just takes three days.