Spherion Workforce Study Uncovers Employers’ Attitudes about Interviewing Process, Identifies Trends in Use of Screening and Assessment Programs

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., June 8th, 2006 — According to a recent comprehensive national study released by Spherion Corporation (NYSE:SFN), a leading recruiting, staffing and workforce solutions provider, the typical hiring manager interviews eight people on average for an open position, and 42 percent of employers believe their hiring managers are interviewing too many people to find qualified candidates. The Spherion^® Emerging Workforce^® Study, conducted by Harris Interactive^®, surveyed a large, nationally representative sample of U.S. employers to gain insight into their attitudes about the interviewing process, as well as identify trends in the methods and screening programs used.

The Study also found that an increasing number of employers are turning to prescreening tools to “screen” potential candidates in or out, and assessment programs to help streamline the process and identify best-fit talent. In fact, 60 percent of companies have increased their use of assessments in the past five years, and about half (51 percent) increased their use of prescreening programs in the same time period.

“Changing demographics, shrinking supplies of qualified workers and the growing importance of retaining top talent are just some of the reasons employers are re-evaluating their approach to the screening, interviewing and hiring process,” says Roy Krause, president and chief executive officer of Spherion. “In today’s labor market, employers cannot afford to spend time and money interviewing unqualified candidates. In addition to lost productivity, hiring managers risk losing talented workers who won’t be available in this market for long. Our Study found that the most innovative organizations are leveraging advanced screening and assessment tools to broaden their applicant pools, streamline the application and screening process to quickly identify best-fit talent, and control employment costs by accelerating the hiring process. Perhaps more importantly, these organizations have found that these tools also free up their hiring managers to focus on more strategic activities.”

Larger, Emergent Employers More Likely to Utilize Prescreening/Assessment Tools and Feel Their Hiring Process is Less Cumbersome
According to the Spherion^® Emerging Workforce^® Study, larger organizations, particularly those that employ HR best practices, are more likely to utilize screening and assessment solutions and benefit from a more streamlined interview process. The Study found that two-thirds (66 percent) of larger companies ($1 billion or more in annual revenue) have increased their use of screening and testing over the past five years, compared to only 39 percent of smaller organizations ($500 million or less in revenue). Interestingly, these same large organizations are generally less inclined than smaller organizations to feel they interview too many people.

Further, as part of the Emerging Workforce Study, Spherion identified a group of employers that far exceed their peers in the use of HR best practices. Dubbed emergent employers, these companies generally enjoy more financial success and stronger employee growth than their traditional counterparts, as a result of their use of HR best practices.¹ In the interviewing process, these emergent employers utilize significantly more prescreening and testing methods compared to traditional companies.

In addition, emergent employers are more likely to interview fewer people on average for open positions than traditional companies. Specifically, only 15 percent of emergent employers interview 10 or more people for an open position, compared to 25 percent of traditional employers. In fact, fully 42 percent of emergent employers only interview between one and four people for an open position compared to only 21 percent of traditional employers.

Smaller Organizations More Prone to Cumbersome Hiring Process
The Emerging Workforce Study also found that smaller companies are most concerned with finding qualified/skilled workers and keeping employment costs under control, rating them as their top two HR concerns over the next few years. Yet, they are the most bogged down by the interviewing process.

The Study found that smaller organizations generally interview more people for open positions than do larger organizations. Specifically, 27 percent of smaller companies interview 10 or more people on average for an open position compared to only 14 percent of larger companies. Also, smaller companies are more likely to agree that their recruiters and hiring managers have to interview too many people in order to find qualified candidates.

“Our Study found that 68 percent of employers mention an item related to recruitment as one of their top HR concerns,” commented Krause. “Therefore, we’re not surprised to find an increasing number of organizations seeking more efficient, economical solutions to identify top talent quickly and more accurately. Utilizing screening and assessment programs appears to be a growing trend among organizations seeking to efficiently capture an increasingly scarce commodity and avoid costly bad hires.” 

For additional information on the Emerging Workforce Study and to take surveys to rate yourself and your organization as emergent, migrating or traditional, please visit www.spherion.com/emergingworkforce.

Methodology
The Emerging Workforce^® Study was conducted by Harris Interactive^® on behalf of Spherion Corporation and consists of surveys of both U.S. employers and employed adults.
 
The results of the employer survey are based on 502 telephone and online interviews with senior human resources executives at U.S. companies conducted by Harris Interactive^® on behalf of Spherion^® between March 21 and April 27, 2005. Companies were selected from a list provided by Dun & Bradstreet and the sample was stratified to ensure a certain number of interviews in each revenue category. The data were weighted by number of employees so that the total sample reflects the distribution of employees across company size. In theory, with a probability sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results have a sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points of what they would be if the entire population of senior human resource executives at U.S. companies had been polled with complete accuracy. Sampling error for the sub-samples of smaller companies ($500 million or less in revenue) (n=207) and larger companies ($1 billion or more in annual revenue) (n=148) is higher and varies. The online sample is not a probability sample.

About Emerging Workforce Study
Nearly a decade ago, Spherion launched the Emerging Workforce Study, a research initiative designed to provide a comprehensive portrait of changes in the American workforce in the context of ongoing social and economic events. Since that time, Spherion has tracked the rise of an emergent workforce and the resulting implications for U.S. employers. While the growth of emergent workers has been tracked for nearly a decade, there was no barometer for tracking the changes employers were making to meet the needs of this growing workforce segment. For the first time, the Emerging Workforce Study has been expanded to include data collection from employers, allowing Spherion to provide a more complete picture of the employment landscape and classify workplaces as emergent, migrating or traditional. Crucial workforce issues such as retention, training and development, work/life balance and workforce planning are explored in great detail.

About Spherion
Spherion Corporation (NYSE:SFN) is a leading recruiting and staffing company that provides integrated solutions to meet the evolving needs of companies and job candidates. As an industry pioneer for 60 years, Spherion has screened and placed millions of individuals in temporary, temp-to-hire and full-time jobs. Positions range from administrative and light industrial to a host of professions that include accounting/finance, information technology, engineering, manufacturing, legal, human resources and sales/marketing.

With more than 650 offices in the United States and Canada, Spherion delivers innovative workforce solutions that improve business performance. Spherion provides its services to more than 8,000 customers, from Fortune 500 companies to a wide range of small and mid-size organizations. Employing 375,000 people annually through its network, Spherion is one of North America’s largest employers. To learn more, visit www.spherion.com.

About Harris Interactive^®
Harris Interactive Inc. (www.harrisinteractive.com) is the 13th largest and fastest-growing market research firm in the world, perhaps best known for The Harris Poll^® and for pioneering and engineering Internet-based research methods. The Rochester, New York–based global research company blends premier strategic consulting with innovative and efficient methods of investigation, analysis and application, conducting proprietary and public research globally to help clients achieve clear, material and enduring results.

Blending science and art, Harris Interactive combines its intellectual capital and one of the world’s largest online panels of respondents, with premier Internet survey technology and sophisticated research methods to market leadership through its US, Europe (www.harrisinteractive.com/europe) and Asia offices, its wholly owned subsidiary, Novatris in Paris (www.novatris.com), and through an independent global network of affiliate market research companies. EOE M/F/D/V

To become a member of the Harris Poll Online^SM and be invited to participate in future online surveys, go to www.harrispollonline.com.

^{1. Source: Lehigh University Study, University of Southern California Study, Spherion Emerging Workforce Study.}