The following blog was written by our partner – Talexses and highlights important elements to consider when using assessment for selection and development.
The idea behind hiring assessments is to distinguish a person’s qualifications during the hiring process. Employers use assessments as tools to narrow down those candidates being considered for a specific job. The assessment is completed by the candidate, either in person or online, and reveals underlying qualities that are otherwise difficult to portray on their resume or during the interview. In some cases, if someone has already been offered a position, the assessment may be administered to evaluate his or her potential for future development.
It’s important to remember that different types of assessments are designed to serve different purposes.
Employers must be selective when choosing their assessment tools to avoid wasting time, money, and effort. The first step in choosing an assessment is to determine the type of information you want to derive from assessment results. Employers can select from any number of different assessment types including personality inventories, interest inventories, integrity tests, skills testing, aptitude tests, and ability testing. Some companies use several different assessments together depending on what they’re trying to find out about a particular candidate and the job they’re hiring for.
When using any of these assessments, employers must pay careful attention to the assessment’s validity and reliability. Not all assessments are created equal. Assessments that don’t make the grade can negatively impact your hiring practices. Even aspects that seem minuscule, like the way a question is worded, can influence the results. Having biased or poorly worded questions can ruin the validity of an entire test and make the results worthless. Using a proven, valid assessment is a great way to avoid any biases or unvalidated frameworks.
Having a dynamic assessment that provides deep insights into an individual’s traits can be a blessing for hiring managers by assessing not only job fit but also potential for development. When you know an individual’s strengths and areas of development, you can create a meaningful development program. This helps keep employees engaged and developing over the longer-term, supporting retention and high levels of employee satisfaction.
When employers assess all new hires and existing employees, they can build a more diverse and robust workforce. High-performing companies use assessment data to not only create development plans but also build high-performing teams. When properly using assessments, companies can see long-term value across hiring, retention, and development.
Both professional aptitude and personal assessments are powerful tools that go much deeper than a resume or an interview can. Using validated assessments can provide insight into a candidate’s work style and how they will fit into your company’s culture. Talexes offers assessment products that help hiring by identifying candidates with the necessary skill set, cultural fit, and development potential needed for success.
To successfully execute your business strategy, organizations need to have the right people in the right place at the right time.
Unfortunately, great employees don’t just walk through your front doors; they’re strategically hired and carefully developed. An assessment strategy helps organizations develop a clear point-of-view and results in integrating assessments for selection and development into your talent and decision-making practices. This strategy leads to identifying the ideal assessment tools to fit your needs and provides leaders with predictive insights focused on selection, job fit, cultural fit, and development.
At the LAK Group, we work with organizations on all aspects of talent selection and development.
Our methodology centers around deploying research-based tools to help you select and advance the best and brightest employees so your business can outsmart and outperform your competition.
Explore our assessments and learn more about how LAK Group can help improve your candidate experience and selection process or create a framework for integrating assessment for selection and development into your overall talent strategy.