Assessing assessments - How the usage of pre-employment testing impacts recruitment outcomes

Abstract

The usage of pre-employment testing, or PET in recruitment processes has steadily been increasing in the past decades. Previous research has focused on the value-proposition PET brings the company in terms of cost, efficiency and forecasting productivity. Limited attention has been given to the applicant perspective and outcomes of implementing PET in the recruitment process. This paper takes a marketing perspective of the usage of PET in recruitment processes and aims to investigate the relationships between fairness, the employer brand image and word of mouth, as well as understand how recruitment methods moderate these relationships. Findings from an experimental sample of 115 university students show that there are significant positive relationships between fairness, employer brand image and word of mouth. Further, significant differences between the three experimental conditions were identified implying that different recruitment methods result in different outcomes. Our results imply that the choice of recruitment method impacts outcomes such as employer brand image and word of mouth which acts as a representation of loyalty. This confirms and extends the existing literature and provides useful insights for employer branding practitioners. The thesis concludes with a discussion of limitations and suggestions for future research.