“Screen for Success”: A Priority for Demand-Driven Training Organizations

Many demand-driven training organizations are asking themselves how to improve their screening processes, tools, or staff expertise. Making Cents International offers four powerful recommendations on how to “Screen for Success“, which reflect best-in class models surfaced from our work with the Rockefeller Foundation’s Digital Jobs Africa (DJA) network and leading private sector companies, such as Amazon.

1. The importance of a well-defined candidate competency profile and screening methods.​

It is important to:

• Identify both the jobs-related, technical (“hard”) and behavioral (“soft”) skills necessary for candidates to succeed in the program;

• Distinguish between hard-to-train skills and skill gaps that can be bridged with adequate training (screening-out vs. screening-in skills);

• Distinguish between competencies necessary to graduate from the program vs. those necessary to obtain and retain employment or self-employment;

• Identify assessment instruments for each and all skills listed on the competency profile;

• Improve the predictive validity of screening by combining two or more assessment methods for the same skills (i.e. assessing dependability of a candidate through both a psychometric test and adequate behavioral interview question);

• Periodically refine the competency profile based on feedback from employers, trainers, partners or retention and placement data analytics;

• Train staff on the selected competency profile in order to standardize the interviewing process across the organization (necessary when programs are scaling up);

• Communicate the selected competency profile to recruitment partners to improve their ability to identify high potential candidates; and

• Establish the competency profile as a base for automating any part of the screening process and for introducing digital screening tools.

2. Managing candidates’ expectations of both the training program and the nature of the job is as important as assessing their skills, motivation, values and attitudes toward work.

Optimizing retention of candidates during the training, and in employment (or self-employment), is critical for the success of youth development programs.

Recommendations include:

• Raising candidates’ awareness of the nature of work could be done with video clips or through work sample assessments (not costly and simple to create);

• Short videos could also be used to inform candidates on what are desirable behaviors in the workplace;

• Providing an income calculator online during the application process could help potential candidates to better understand the earning opportunity and make an informed decision whether to join the program; and

• Having candidates sign a letter with explicit commitments to what is expected of them in the program reduces the probability of dropping out.

3. To scale up their programs, organizations should take into account that:

• Scaling up youth development models requires standardization of all operational processes, including the screening process;

• Replication of programs to new locations assumes additional staff could be trained within a reasonable time on standardized processes – it is therefore necessary to have well-defined operational procedures and training materials (videos, manuals, etc.); and

• As programs scale up, their sustainability depends on automating processes, and leveraging technology for greater efficiency and lower cost per unit – however, implementing digital screening tools usually requires an upfront investment that most organizations find difficult – this challenge could possibly be overcome if the organizations could share the setup costs for using the same technology platform (for candidate data management and assessment system).

4. Learning from peers can support organizations to quickly implement improvements to their screening processes:

• Even minor adjustments, such as changing the order of screening activities (i.e. administering certain tests prior to interviewing a candidate) can create significant time-saving or improve screening outcomes – these types of adjustments are difficult to learn from websites, articles or books, but are easy to understand and apply when they are shared by a colleague involved in a similar program;

• Organizations operating similar job training programs in the same city sometimes perceive each other as competitors – however, when in the same network, and when encouraged to share knowledge, same organizations easily find mutually beneficial areas for collaboration; and

• Although organizations differ in the scope, size and maturity of their programs, they value the opportunity to benchmark their organization against their peers – knowing where they stand, and how they can get to the next stage of development, gives them additional motivation and clear vision to reach that next stage.

Making Cents has made best-in-class resources and tools developed as part of the DJA network available to other demand-driven training organizations, including:

• “‘Screen for Success’ Shared Knowledge Report” that identifies and describes best-in-class screening practices, tools, and information that demand-driven organizations can use to improve and scale programs, streamline replication, and standardize processes and training materials.

• Webinar on Youth Employment Program Screening: Assessment Framework that offers in-depth explanation of the Assessment Framework, suitable for pinpointing strengths and gaps in screening processes for youth employment programs and more broadly for candidate screening at an organizational level.

Making Cents International has received support from The Rockefeller Foundation to form and facilitate the DJA network.

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