At my company we give candidates something to cover any expenses they've had to pay to attend an interview and take them out to lunch somewhere nice afterwards. It'd be nice to do more, but companies can't because the government has decided stopping employing immigrants is more important than doing what's right for candidates.
No one is hiding behind anything. The fact is that to pay someone properly for a half day test is not straightforward here in the UK (assuming you want to do it legally; obviously you could just give them cash). I've actually spent time looking in to it.
Wealth funges it.
Seems the problem is one of will.
Doing the dumb tests and assignments.
Also, every job ad we write explains what the hiring process is. Anyone who thinks the test is stupid presumably doesn't apply.
I'm sympathetic. But the last time I put out a job ad I got over 100 applications for a single opening. How should companies try to narrow that to a manageable number?
Just look at the CV and throw it out based on that? What do you look for on the CV that cuts out 80%+ on candidates to get the number down to an amount that I could have a short phone conversation with?
Your job opening should have had some sort of "job specification" with "essential" and "desirable" criteria. Take a quick pass over all the CVs. If they don't meet all essential criteria, then put them in a reject pile. For the remaining CVs, order them by how many of the desirable criteria they meet, then take a cut of the top n to contact. If you don't have the time to do this, then HR should. This won't take long; it's a quick yes/no. You look at the remaining CVs in detail after that initial pass and take into account their education, experience etc.
Any candidate worth their salt will already have tailored their CV for the job specification to make sure that the essential and desirable criteria are clearly shown on the CV to make your job easier. If it's not clear, then reject it. You'll have that number down to a shortlist of 5 in 60 minutes.
There's not a talent shortage in our industry nearly so much as there is a sane-hiring-practice shortage.
Maybe we should start quizzing would-be managers on these basic hiring skills before putting them in positions where they are responsible for hiring people.