A recent survey of 502 HR people by Spherion showed that over the past five years, usage of screening and assessment have been increasing by over 50% on average.

Recently, the reasons for increased use have been believed to be security issues—and of course they have played a role. But even as the scarcity of quality workers becomes more acute, the productivity of hiring managers comes under increased pressure. Any time spent on administrative activity is becoming more costly. The true reason we believe for the increased use of screening and assessment is quality.

But it is also simple ROI: What is the point of spending several extra expensive hours of management time in the interview process if you have to reject a majority of those applicants anyway for lack of compliance to your screening standards? Maybe the process should be revisited and you should use automated assessment and screening tools that will pay for themselves by increasing manager productivity!