A lot has changed in the last few weeks — and it’s been an emotional time for all of us. Like many of you, I tend to use my job as a comfort zone. It’s something I can lean on when my life is unsteady; something I can rely on when everything else feels uncertain. Routine can be calming and reassuring. But as the world continues to shift due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), I stand by this: the work we do is nothing without our health and each other.I am always a person first and a CEO second. Now more than ever, my thoughts and attention are focused on the wellbeing of the people I care about — my family, friends, employees, and community … including you. It’s why we’ve made the decision as a company to recommend our employees work from home indefinitely and adhere to the advised best practices of sanitation and social distancing. Social distancing — that’s a newly popular term I’d never heard of until recently. While its importance is paramount, I know we will still find safe ways to stay connected in these challenging times. We need each other more than ever. In the coming days, I hope you’re able to find some semblance of normalcy and routine to keep you on course. Stay safe and be smart. I’m confident that all our businesses, and the world at large, will get through this. Together.

All my best,
Roopesh

Roopesh Nair
CEO, Symphony Talent

Companies that utilize assessments for pre-hire selection have to weigh the costs and benefits of proctoring assessments versus allowing candidates the flexibility to take assessments remotely. This is typically reviewed based on:

• Timeliness 
• Resources – both people and technology – needed to have candidates test on-site
• Risk for cheating

 
SkillCheck clients use both proctored and non-proctored methodologies; however, over the last decade, most of our clients have chosen to move to a predominantly non-proctored environment. As a result, we monitor candidate scores across all of our assessments to ensure score distributions are consistent with the normative samples of our assessments.
 
In this unusual environment, balancing the need to continue hiring and the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommendations for social distancing can be difficult. We understand the concern, especially related to potential cheating, however, at this time we encourage our clients to leverage remote testing. Available research suggests that if cheating on unproctored assessments does take place, it is very minimal (i.e., less than 10%1). To increase your comfort with this process we recommend:

• Ensuring candidates understand the assessment is a part of the application and screening process. In most situations, this means that the applicant’s signature on the application confirms they are providing honest answers and information.
  Note: You can customize your eTicket invitation to reiterate this point (our support team can assist if you would like a tutorial on how to implement this)
• Provide candidates with shorter windows to complete the assessment (e.g., 3-7 days)
• Leverage a shortened follow-up test of the original assessment onsite when candidates arrive for new hire paperwork or day 1

 
The risks  associated with allowing candidates to test remotely – especially in this critical time – are slight.  Ensuring your candidates have the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for your organization while minimizing the health risk for your staff is invaluable.  
 
Our team of Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychologists are available to discuss this further. 

Recruiters and hiring managers often know exactly what they need for new entry-level hires: people who are reliable, hard-working, and work well with others. However, the challenge is figuring out the best way to do it. We have an assessment that can help make hiring for these competencies much easier. 

SkillCheck, a Symphony Talent Cloud Company with over 25 years of experience in the employment assessments industry, recently launched a new job seeker engagement product which allows job seekers to complete self-selected tests. Over 100K SkillCheck Credentials have been completed to date by over 30K users, and the initial results are very promising.

SkillCheck leveraged their 25+ years of assessment experience in combination with insights from over 11 million completed commercial assessments on their testing platform to form a product focused on job seeker engagement. Findly focused their efforts on the hourly workforce specifically the retail, food and beverage and healthcare industries. SkillCheck created over 75 credentials for Findly focused on these industries.

Once engaged, each user completed an average of 3 credentials. 27% of users who completed an assessment selected a test to demonstrate they are hard working and or service oriented. Upon completion of a credential the user is awarded a badge to show off their skills. This badge is then made visible to CRM customers looking for job seekers with a specific skill set. Additionally, 4 out of 5 job seekers would recommend Credentials to a friend or colleague.

About SkillCheck

For over 25 years, SkillCheck has been helping thousands of organizations across the globe identify candidates with the right skills, knowledge and abilities for the job. We offer hundreds of ready-to-use test titles, a mobile-enabled platform featuring integrations with many of the top ATS and HRIS providers, and a proven dedication to providing top-notch client service.

We partner with our clients to provide the best value in the assessments industry by focusing on providing a great candidate testing experience regardless of the device being used, and offering competitive and flexible pricing. Our large library of proven test titles, and our ability to efficiently tailor solutions to fit your needs makes it easy to get started and begin realizing value quickly.
LINKwww.prnewswire.com/news-releases/skillcheck-announces-results-of-their-first-100k-completed-credentials-300285701.html

The assessment industry has been alive and thriving for a long time, and it’s not hard to see why. The idea of using science to understand people and predict what they will do is an enticing one, so it’s no surprise that everyone from the U.S. military to your average retail outlet has made assessments a key component of their operations.
But despite the industry’s long history, the assessment game has not remained static. In fact, there have been plenty of significant changes along the way. For example, as the Internet became an integral piece of society in the ’90s, many assessment purveyors quickly adapted this new technology.
“While it used to be a big deal when a company used technology as a vehicle to deliver assessments, that’s pretty much table stakes these days,” says Lisa Bordinat, senior vice president of assessment science for SkillCheck. “What’s more important now is not simply using technology, but using the right technology – and that’s no mean feat.” 

​READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE: LINK

The SkillCheck company arrive on the scene 25 years ago in 1991. A short while later, in 1999, SkillCheck debuted its online testing platform. It was one of the first of its kind, offering employers a way to dive deeper than candidates’ resumes allowed and get accurate pictures of how their potential hires might perform on the job.
At this point, you may be a bit confused. “SkillCheck? Didn’t the folks at Findly launch that solution in 2012?”
You’d be forgiven for thinking that, but the truth is that SkillCheck has been a major player in the assessment space for years now. Since its inception in the ’90s, it has helped thousands of employers make better hires.
In 2006, SkillCheck went underground – sort of. It never strayed from its mission of giving employers the tools they need to predict which candidates would make the best employees, but it did pass through a few name changes along the way before taking up the SkillCheck mantle again in 2014.
To clear up some of the haze surrounding SkillCheck, we called up Director of Product Management Chris Cella, who has been a critical member of SkillCheck’s team for seven years and counting. He gave us an inside look at this brand that everyone in the hiring and recruiting world should know about.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE: LINK 
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