Assessments are powerful tools to use in hiring the right
people. They can also improve communications, reduce
turnover and improve retention of top people. Assessments
represent an opportunity to do all these things while
returning the highest ROI of any single people directed
investment you can make!
The following recommendations can help you better utilize
these very valuable tools in a variety of ways.
Recommendation #1: Use assessments to provide information
in the areas that are most likely to result in success or
failure. Assessments add to the elements of experience,
technical skills, accomplishments and education by adding
another dimension to the decision making process. They can
identify Behaviors, Values and Personal Skills that are the
real drivers of success in every organization. Assessments
can provide as much as 33% of the information used in the
hiring process – a critical 33%, since experience has shown
that most people succeed or fail in positions because of
their Behavior Fit, Value/Culture Fit and Personal Skills
Fit.
Recommendation #2: Choose assessments that are designed for
business use, so that your managers and leaders can use and
trust the reports. If your managers don't feel the
information is specific, directed to their interests, and
delivers value to them in their relationship with the
person assessed, you will lose most of the leverage the
assessment could have. Choose based on the question "How
can our managers use this information?" Use assessments to
help make business decisions.
Recommendation #3: Use assessments after candidates have
passed the technical skills, education, experience and
accomplishment phases of the interview process. Do not use
assessments as early knockout tests, unless there are
specific criteria that are absolutely essential to the
success in the job, and that can be measured by very
specific assessment tools.
Recommendation #4: Choose an assessment that provides the
ability to benchmark the position using stakeholders input
as a key part of the front end process. The term
"benchmarking" means a process to help define the critical
elements of the job that need to be met in order for an
applicant to be considered.. Make sure you select to the
job requirements and not to the experiences of the
candidate pool – don't let the candidate pool dictate the
position requirements.
Recommendation #5: Choose an assessment that can be handled
administratively with little added burden to your people.
Nothing will ensure the failure of a process more than the
perception that it adds work out of proportion to its
value. Ensure that the means for completing questionnaires
and communicating results is as seamless as possible, and
is not handled as an exception item in the process.
Recommendation # 6: Choose an assessment that has multiple
uses for your organization. Many of the assessments
available have little value beyond providing some
information about elements of a person's "personality
profile". Look for assessments that can help in
establishing development plans, benchmark positions, create
constructive talking points for performance reviews, create
the climate for proactive development discussions, as well
as help get a better understanding of who the candidate
really is. Do the assessments result in the kind of
information that can be applied in many ways? Are they
designed to make it easy for you to develop, among other
things, profiles of people who have been successful – and
unsuccessful, in their jobs?
Recommendation #7: Choose assessments that have fast
turnaround and interpretation by a qualified professional.
If you have a person or persons trained and skilled in
interpretation, great. If not, make sure the assessments
you use gain you 24 x 7 access to professionals qualified
in interpretation, and who have a business orientation.
There are a lot of assessments available on the Internet
that provide quick turnaround of superficial information
that looks good when first seen, but that doesn't stand up
to the hard light of day when it comes to using the
information in the decision making process.
Recommendation #8: Determine the value the assessment adds
to your organization first, then its cost. If the process
does not add value to your selection and development
decisions and plans, any price is too high. I can guarantee
you that the $20 Internet assessments fall way short of
giving you the level of information you need. Look at
value first, then at price. In the overall scheme of
selection and development, assessments can be the best,
most cost effective people selection investment you can
make.
Recommendation #9: Choose assessments that provide well
documented validity studies. Many organizations become
concerned about the use of assessments because of what they
see as the potential for misuse. In my experience,
inconsistent use of any selection tool can cause problems.
Validity studies provide assurance that the conclusions
reached by the assessments are valid and well researched
and free of biases.
Recommendation #10: Try before you buy. Have people in your
organization take the assessment or assessments you are
considering, then review the results with one question in
your mind – " How much added value will this information
have in helping me be more successful in making future
selection and development decisions?" You must experience
the process to understand what it can do for your
organization.
It's estimated that no more than thirty percent of the
organizations that could benefit from the use of
assessments are currently using them.
If you're in that thirty percent, use these 10
Recommendations to audit value. I can almost guarantee the
assessments you are using have greater application than
they are currently getting.
If you aren't in the thirty percent, use the 10
Recommendations to see how assessments can help your
organization hire the right people in the right jobs. I can
guarantee you will increase your success in selection
through the use of effective assessments. Start today
----------------------------------------------------
Andy Cox founded Cox Consulting Group in 1995 after
extensive experience in leadership positions in Fortune 500
corporations. His focus is on helping clients select,
develop, retain and enhance the performance of leaders and
emerging leaders Click on http://www.coxconsultgroup.com
for more information on the selection of the right people
for the right jobs.
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