Going paperless with your hiring process is another great way to attract the environmentally conservative. Help your recruitment process. Help the earth. Go paperless.

 Posted by  Adam Hilliard

Spring has sprung, green is everywhere around us, and with summer on the way, I thought it'd be a good time to approach "green" hiring processes.  Now that people are going paperless with their banking, communications, and even retirement plans - why not hiring processes too? Most industries have already made the switch to paperless but we still find the manufacturing industry lagging behind. 

The benefits  of going paperless are a-plenty.  Let me share 3 of them with you:

1.  Freeing Up Office Space.  How many of you have ever had a position opening that collects more applications than you expected?  Normally a good problem to have, but where do those applications go?  Your desk.  Additionally, regulatory agencies recommend documentation of your applicant tracking for at least one year, which could then be easily pulled using your online applicant tracking database.  Save yourself the space.  Go paperless.

Sometimes our clients express concerns that their entry-level candidates (mainly in manufacturing) may not feel comfortable with computers or have ready access to computers.  These days, even if a candidate doesn't have access to their own computer, there are plenty of other options for access to a computer, such as a local library, employment office, community college, etc.  Additionally, a good system will come with comprehensive user instructions designed to cater and teach individuals with low computer proficiency how to complete the test.  After all, computer proficiency is nice to have, but unless that's the focus of measurement, should not detract from the competencies of interest you are measuring in the assessment.

2.  Reviewing Information/Scoring.  When I used to teach in an academic setting, one of the banes of my existence was hand-scoring multiple choice item tests for a hundred students at once.  The monotony ensued, and to make matters more stressful, as I got through upwards of 70-80 in a sitting, I began to worry if my own human error became the difference between two letter grades.  No more of that, as technology can do the scoring for you.  Our assessments, as well as others, tabulate responses with dynamic algorithms immediately and with no risk of human error.  Oh, and those applications you used to page through one at a time?  Our technology can filter that application for you.  Save yourself the time and stress.  Go paperless.

3.  Environmentally Friendly.  One tree is about 80,500 pieces of paper.  Running some numbers on my busiest clients, and approximately 3-page applications, saved about twenty 60-feet pine trees last year on employment applications alone.  Using a rough approximation, our "Fit" series of pre-screening assessments would run another 4-5 pages per, and our in-depth inventories and technical tests likely between 20-80 pages.  Organizations across the country are using "green" initiatives as part of their marketing brand.  Going paperless with your hiring process is another great way to attract the environmentally conservative.  Help your recruitment process. Help the earth.  Go paperless.