-- Aberdeen Group research finds First Advantage clients consistently outperform their peers in talent management --

POWAY, Calif., Aug. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The March 2009 Aberdeen Group research report, "Assessments in Talent Management: Strategies to Improve Pre- and Post-hire Performance," found that the use of assessments enabled best-in-class companies (the top 20 percent of performers among all organizations studied) to achieve greater than 30 percent average year-over-year growth in three distinct key performance indicators: quality of hire, employee performance and employee productivity. In a recently published research brief on the report, Aberdeen revealed that, among the more than 500 organizations it surveyed for its assessments research, companies using First Advantage Corporation (Nasdaq: FADV) for pre-hire assessments were more than twice as likely as those using other organizations' services to have achieved Aberdeen's Best-in-Class designation.

"While the focus on sourcing and job advertising has decreased, screening and selection efforts have been stepped up to align with an organization's most important goal of acquiring quality hires," said Jayson Saba, senior research associate at the Aberdeen Group. "First Advantage clients recognize this imperative and have capitalized on assessments to achieve substantially better performance gains across each of our Best-in-Class indicators."

Aberdeen Vice President and Group Director Kevin Martin added that, "Our research has found that structured and consistent use of assessments for pre-hire purposes also lends to strong performance gains in post-hire performance-and this is pronounced with the First Advantage clients represented in our survey data."

Aberdeen used year-over-year improvement across three key performance indicators to determine Best-in-Class performance, including:

• Quality of hire
  • First Advantage: 27 percent
  • Others: 14 percent
• Employee performance
  • First Advantage: 22 percent
  • Others: 13 percent
    

• Employee productivity
  • First Advantage: 21 percent
  • Others: 16 percent
    

According to the Aberdeen Group, Best-in-Class organizations are also focused on:

• Consistency: 87 percent of First Advantage clients have a process to consistently assess candidates for targeted positions and incorporate scores into hiring decisions, as compared to 56 percent of all others.
• Knowledge Management: First Advantage clients are 83 percent more likely to integrate assessment data with other talent management applications.