In today’s current labor and skills shortage - retaining and developing your best talent is critical. One way in which organizations can do this is through Assessments. Assessments are a robust tool that allows companies to make informed decisions when managing their human capital strategy at every level of the organization. With assessments organizations can understand and map employees’ strengths, weaknesses, performance and behavioral attributes both internally and for potential new hires.
When hiring a new team member or senior executive, assessments can help a company make the best informed hiring decisions and select the right candidate. Assessments are often conducted for the finalist candidates that are in-process for a role to uncover and map the cognitive, behavioral and cultural competencies within each candidate. This is key when hiring for a senior executive role where fit and values are more important and will outweigh background and experience qualifications. An assessment will provide a company with the following evaluation of a candidate’s core competencies including:
Strengths
Weaknesses
Leadership and Learning Styles
Communication skills
Behavioral Attributes
Critical Thinking Skills
All of these core competencies are evaluated through a combination of the following methods.
In-Person Assessment Interviews
Assessment interviews offer more in-depth insights than traditional hiring-based interviews and will typically last for about an hour to 90 minutes. An assessment interview with a candidate is much more scripted and structured and will often include at least 25-40 questions. The questions within an assessment interview are focused on evaluating the core competencies above and require a series of real-life scenarios or job simulations that may happen for a candidate in the potential role. As the interviewer frames the scenarios or role plays with the candidate, the interviewer will take notes and score a candidate based upon their responses. In some cases, companies will require candidates to complete a “virtual job try-out” to provide even more behavioral data points for the Assessment. These virtual job try-outs are real-life simulations that immerse a candidate in an environment or scenario using virtual reality and allow for the Assessor to completely focus on a candidate's behaviors and responses. In-person assessment interviews and virtual job try outs are incredibly effective for judging and gauging behavioral and cultural fit.
Psychometric Testing.
Another tool for conducting an assessment for a candidate or internal team is psychometric testing. This test is performed through a tool or online platform, such as McQuaig or Hogan Assessments, and helps a company compare a candidate’s or employee’s strengths and weaknesses and measure these against the strengths and weaknesses already found within the existing team. After the test is completed, a profile is generated that summarizes the data points to:
Illustrate team compatibility
Predict potential conflicts
Demonstrate performance motivators
Determine alignment between personal and company values
Show synergies between leadership and communication management styles
Small Group Role-Playing
Assessments are also a great way to reduce turnover, increase efficiency, develop new skills and unify goals across your existing teams. Assessments for talent development and retention will usually consist of a psychometric test as well as a small group or one-on-one role playing activity. Small group roleplaying allows for team members to come together and understand:
How do people experience them as an individual?
How do they react to stress or pressure?
What skills can be leveraged to fill existing management gaps?
How do they create a safe environment to have candid conversations?
How do they give and receive feedback?
The Benefits Of Assessments.
Data and insights gleaned from assessments will help a company make the most informed hiring decisions and plan human capital strategies more effectively. Companies can leverage this data for succession planning, building a more effective development program, promoting team members, aligning and tailoring communication styles, creating a more inclusive workplace and understanding what skills are missing to look for in new hires.