Do
You Know Who You’re Hiring?
Assessment Tests Take the Guesswork Out Of Your Hiring
Procedures
The uncertainty
comes in answering questions such as the following:
- Does this candidate have leadership potential?
·
Will the candidate fit in with the rest of the
team?
·
Will the candidate be able to successfully
motivate the staff?
·
How well will the candidate interact with our
customers
Usually,
employers rely on their instinct from the interview process to answer these
types of questions. As a result, many employers have elected to utilize some
sort of personality or behavior assessment tool to achieve a more systematic and
objective method of measuring personalities and behaviors. I’m a huge proponent
of these tools as a supplement to behavior-based interviewing. In fact, you can
use the results of these assessment tools to develop specific behavior-based
interviewing questions for a particular position and enhance the effectiveness
of the behavior-based interview.
First, the tool should be proven to be reliable. Second, the
tool should be proven to be valid.
Assessing the Candidates
Some
organizations use employee
assessment skills tests to better evaluate candidates before making a job
offer. Pre-employment assessment tests rate the personality and motivation of
potential employees. Knowing a person’s core behavioral style will enable you to
predict how a person will behave in a one-on-one situation and in a team. The
benefit of this is that properly constructed assessments look below the surface
to systematically predict which applicants will be the best hires for a
position. When used in conjunction with an interview, a solid technical skills
assessment test is a good tool for finding the employee who will be the best fit
for your team.
Employee
performance affects profitability. Turnover costs are especially expensive when
you add up the money spent on recruiting, hiring time, orientation, and
training. According to Workforce
magazine, turnover costs are about 150 percent of an employee's annual
salary. Assessment tests offer an extra measure for fighting high
turnover.
All Tests Are Not Created
Equal
Assessment test
technology has come a long way from the Myers-Briggs tests commonly used in the
past. Look for these key points when choosing a test:
- Test’s measurement is highly reliable
- Test is designed for employment purposes only
- Assessment is a data-driven
Employers
can use employee assessments to determine the strengths of existing staff
members as well. Having this information on hand can enable managers to assign
tasks matched to each employee’s style.
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