Technique shown to speed hiring time; reduce turnover by using skills assessment

BOSTON, MA –Today, Tufts Medical Center, in partnership with Innovate+Educate’s (I+E) Innovative Business Hiring Council, announced the launch of the Tufts Medical Center Core Score Assessment and its first ever skills-based Hiring Fair on September 14, 2017, at the Revere Hotel Boston. Applicants interested in one of the more than 100 available positions will take a simple skills assessment that will be used to best match their knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviors to individual positions.

“Simply looking at a job application doesn’t give an employer enough information to adequately assess someone’s full range of offerings. Often good people are weeded out just because they don’t have a degree or meet some other generic metrics,” said Sean Sullivan, Vice President of Human Resources at Tufts Medical Center. “Using this new assessment tool developed by Innovate+Educate, we can hire new team members that are job-ready based on their true capabilities.”

“Simply looking at a job application doesn’t give an employer enough information to adequately assess someone’s full range of offerings. Often good people are weeded out just because they don’t have a degree or meet some other generic metrics.”

— Sean Sullivan, Vice President of Human Resources, Tufts Medical Center

More than 300 candidates are expected to attend the job fair and take the assessment tests for positions ranging from practice and administrative coordinators to patient transport aides to admitting representatives. After taking the assessment, candidates will receive a Core Score report, which notes their competencies in key areas such as customer service, communication, critical thinking, and leadership. Interviews will be conducted and contingent job offers will be extended on-the-spot to appropriate candidates. Job seekers can also receive support from career coaches to help with job readiness.

Innovate+Educate is a national nonprofit that has multiple employer-driven projects across the U.S. with a focus on developing strategies for new employment pathways based on their framework of assess, hire, train, advance. Research shows employers who hire by skill scores experience a 25-75 percent reduction in turnover, a 50-70 percent reduction in time-to-hire and a 70 percent reduction in cost to hire. Tufts Medical Center, a major teaching hospital, is one of the first health care organizations in the area to adopt this innovative skill-based hiring method.

"The IBHC and Tufts Medical Center partnership is one of the leading projects for Rockefeller around their national work that is shifting employer hiring strategies by reducing barriers to employment and advancing new approaches to hiring and advancement."

— Jamai Blivin, CEO, Innovate+Educate

Tufts Medical Center was introduced to this new way of hiring by the Innovative Business Hiring Council (IBHC), an initiative funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. The Council is comprised of business leaders responsible for developing and implementing the people strategy in top companies across industries. It focuses on identifying and leveraging innovative, competency-based learning and hiring solutions to improve economic mobility for candidates and incumbents and increase the hiring/selection return on investment for employers.

“We are thankful for the funding from the Rockefeller Foundation to support advancing innovative business hiring practices for employers. The IBHC and Tufts Medical Center partnership is one of the leading projects for Rockefeller around their national work that is shifting employer hiring strategies by reducing barriers to employment and advancing new approaches to hiring and advancement,” said Jamai Blivin, CEO of Innovate+Educate.

Interested candidates are invited to register for free ahead of time for the September 14 job fair at www.tuftsmcjobfair.org. The event begins at 4:00 pm and runs until 7:00 pm.