Screening of under-graduate applicants

Challenge

As one of the largest employers in Germany, Siemens receives each year a huge number of applications from school leavers want to start their professional career with a technical or commercial apprenticeship with Siemens. The company’s traditional approach was to screen applicants based on biographic data and school grades. These preselected candidates were then invited to take a series of tests, followed by a structured interview. This process produced reliable and valid results, but was rather inefficient in terms of costs, administrative complications, and time-to-hire.

Solution

cut-e advised the client on the design of an online recruitment process including a series of psychometric screening instruments, measuring short-term memory (scales stm) and work style and interests (shapes admin). In a predictive validation study, the screening instruments were administered to about 500 current apprentices. The results were compared to the candidate’s assessment scores at the on-site assessments, producing a set of rules that best predicted the client’s final hiring decision. The set of rules was then cross-validated with another segment of the sample.

Benefit

Based on the screening tests, the client is able to the majority of unsuitable applicants out without loosing any suitable new hire. The number of candidates that had to be assessed on-site for filling the apprenticeship vacancies was reduced significantly and therefore achieving a repeated saving which far outweigh the costs of the process.