6 Benefits of Using Retail Pre-Employment Assessments

The stakes are high when it comes to hiring for retail positions where employees work directly with customers. Hiring the right fit can increase sales and customer satisfaction, while the wrong fit could cost your organization business. Here are six ways retail pre-employment assessments can improve retail’s talent acquisition process and drive results.

Retail Pre-Employment Assessments Increase Customer Satisfaction

Retail employees serve as company spokespeople, with the ability to win or lose business with each interaction. To be the salesperson that customers rave about requires a specific set of soft skills. Conversely, certain soft skills can have an undesirable effect on customer satisfaction.

With custom pre-hire assessments, companies screen for the soft skills they’ve identified as success drivers within their workforce, ensuring they objectively hire the best fit for the role. In hiring for the best fit, organizations not only ensure each hire has the skills it takes to succeed but that they’ll thrive in their role. And a recent study found that satisfied employees drive higher customer satisfaction, further improving business results.

Drive Results Later with Pre-Hire Assessments Early

With clear insights into what soft skills drive top performers — based on actual performance metrics, not human biases – pre-hire assessments help recruiters quickly identify candidates with the same skillset. So hiring managers are confident that their hiring decisions will drive results. Since implementing pre-employment assessments in their hiring process, one of our customers—a national furniture retailer—reported a 27% increase in sales.

Retail Pre-Employment Assessments on the Front End Boost Retention Later

The retail industry has a notoriously high turnover rate. It’s as high as 76% for part-time hourly employees, according to a recent survey by Korn Ferr. Ensuring the right fit from the time of hire can help lower this number, saving retail organizations money and increasing morale. Science-backed pre-hire assessments objectively identify candidates with the right motivations and soft skills to succeed and stay in your role, increasing the likelihood of job satisfaction from the start.

Hire for Retail Efficiently Using Pre-Hire Screening

With pre-hire assessments, science does the heavy lifting of screening candidates. This way, recruiters can quickly sift through large volumes of applicants. Configured to grade candidates across multiple roles, pre-employment assessments also help hiring teams get the most out of their applicant pool by identifying who is an ideal fit for other roles within the company. To further improve hiring efficiency, retail companies can follow up their pre-hire assessment with video interviews and structured interview guides.

Retail Pre-Employment Assessments Help Maintain Compliance

Humans are naturally biased. Whether those biases work in favor of a candidate or against them, companies must make every effort to eliminate it from their hiring process. Not only is it potentially unlawful, but it leads to hiring decisions based on factors other than merit and the potential for success. Pre-hire assessments remove this bias by objectively rating candidates on their skills.

However, pre-hire assessments are only as good as their science and the measures they take to remove bias. Identify companies that go above the legal standard to ensure that the playing field is fair for all applicants.

Build Employment Brand Through Feedback

Most hiring processes aren’t designed with the candidate’s experience in mind. With pre-employment assessments, retail companies can provide candidates with customized feedback based on their assessment results. This is a surefire way to stand out against competitors and provide value to applicants. Today’s solutions also allow candidates to complete assessments and video interviews on their mobile devices. This eases the application process and ensures equal access.

A custom retail pre-employment assessment is only one piece of retail’s talent management puzzle, but it’s an important piece. Retail companies with a willingness to leverage new technologies will separate themselves from their competitors, build a high-performing workforce, and ultimately drive business results.