Assessing Candidate Behavior in the Hourly Job Market – A Staffing Perspective

The Hourly Full-Time and Temp Job Market:

Staffing companies across the nation fulfilling hourly full-time and temp job contracts consistently face two questions:

1. Is this candidate going to show up for work on Monday? and;
2. Will they act professionally in a manner to satisfy this role?

Unfortunately, two key issues characterizing the hourly labor market make it hard to answer those questions: large applicant pools and a need to assess candidate behavioral characteristics without sufficient resumé information.

So what do we look for in candidates?

The behavioral makeup of an employee, especially in the hourly job sector, is the main determinant to their success in a given role. Staffing companies must assess the determination, motivation, and need for employment for each individual they are looking to place. Further, many factors often make it difficult to discern essential information from candidate references including:

• How did this person interact with co-workers?
• Were they able to work with a team?
• Were they engaged on the job?

These behavioral questions are essential to understanding an employee’s fit, however, large applicant pools make it difficult and inconvenient to get answers.

The Pain Points:

Staffing companies face many issues in collecting behavioral information, however, the largest pain point for companies (and especially their recruiters) is the ability to directly communicate with the prospects.

Candidates working hourly jobs are difficult to reach during standard work hours, which places an undue burden on recruiters who are forced to connect very early in the morning or late in the evening. This burden limits the volume of candidates a recruiter can successfully reach and subsequently place. Further, these conversations are typically not recorded which prevents a recruiter from collaboratively reviewing, sharing candidate interviews with team members, or returning to the conversation to reassess the candidate at a later time (potentially for other positions).

JabaTalks as a Staffing Assistant:

JabaTalks is an automated voice-screening tool that provides you with insight into a candidate’s soft skills and experiences directly related to the job without you ever picking up the phone. Through automating the initial phone screen, we allow you to reach the best candidates who are qualified for the role. By focusing on the ease of candidate use and experience, we have created a tool adding convenience, flexibility, and organization to a recruiter’s day-to-day life including:

• Avoiding scheduling conflicts to reach more job prospects.
• Creating customized phone screens that can be attached to a job posting or sent directly to candidates.
• Reviewing interview responses on your own time & sharing with team members.
• Archiving candidates recorded phone screens for potential future work.
• Integrating with an existing ATS or CRM.

Bottom Line:

When fulfilling hourly full-time and temp job contracts, JabaTalks functions as a recruiter’s assistant allowing them to assess more candidates in less time. Using the tool in combination with the proper behavioral interview questions, a recruiter is able to quickly assess the viability of a candidate without ever having to perform a full phone interview saving up to 90% of the initial time spent reviewing candidates.

If you are interested in learning more about (and even testing) the process to understand how JabaTalks can work for you, sign up for free at www.jabatalks.com