You are a senior executive at a company. Since the pandemic, you and your team have suffered tumultuous employee turnover. Those left on your team are disengaged, and finding new talent has never been more challenging. Hiring a great candidate used to take weeks, but now you have been sifting through dozens of resumes for the last two months.
Does this scenario sound familiar? Emily Rose McRae, Sr. Dir of Research at Gartner states:
“It’s not just hard to find talent. Sometimes, the talent is not there, or hiring takes so long that the business is seriously impacted.”
Resumes, references, and interviews only tell you part of the story. Businesses have started utilizing pre-hiring assessments to pinpoint high-quality candidates. How can an employment assessment help you select the right candidate for the proper role, keep them engaged, help them grow, and maximize your company’s success?
Conducting a behavioral assessment allows the organization to focus its hiring efforts on a candidate’s thinking style, behavior, interests, and growth potential. Every human being is motivated and driven by different influences. Taking the time to find the unique job-related qualities that make a person productive is a proven predictor of job fit, job success, and long-term engagement.
But finding top talent is not enough. The right assessment tools guide leaders and managers to create a positive employee experience and gauge potential throughout the entire employee lifecycle, not just recruiting but throughout onboarding, training and development, and succession planning.
Follow these three steps to ensure a successful high-impact assessment:
Step 1: Identify the Business Need
Conducting a needs analysis allows an organization to focus on recruiting top talent, employee retention, and needed job competencies.
Some questions to consider include the following:
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What are the job performance criteria needed for the position?
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What characteristics are required to perform the role successfully?
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Which specific interview questions will help you understand a ‘candidate’s potential areas of strength and opportunity?
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Where do employees need training and development?
Step 2: Perform Gap Analysis
Gap analysis involves assessing the current state of the company’s human capital capabilities against the upcoming growth and strategic corporate and HR goals. The difference between the existing state and the desired state is the gap. There are many different methods for conducting a gap analysis.
Depending on the situation, SovranHR can help you use one or more gap analysis assessment tools, such as the following:
Performance Data. Performance review data includes a review of top and bottom performers, overall team performance review data, employee turnover rates, evaluation of fluctuations in productivity, revenue, change in customer service data and trends, and a review of sales data.
HR Records. HR records can include accident and safety reports, job descriptions, job competencies, exit interviews, and performance evaluations.
Individual Interviews. Individual interviews may be conducted with senior leadership, employees, supervisors, senior managers, clients, customers, supply chain partners, and outside vendors.
Observations. Sources for data include a supervisor’s direct observation and input, on-the-job simulations of work settings, and written work samples.
Step 3: Evaluate Assessment Options
Not all assessments are created equal. They vary by methods, industry, and company goals. Some measure a candidate’s soft or hard skills, while others measure a candidate’s expertise in a specific area.
However, many of these, including Personality tests such as the DiSC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness), the Big Five Model, and the Myer Briggs Personality Type Indicator, cannot be used for employment-related decisions such as hiring, training, or promoting employees. Any hiring assessment tool must meet Department of Labor guidelines to ensure no adverse impact.
Find Department of Labor Guidelines at www.dol.gov
Here are factors to consider when determining an assessment as a viable option:
The solution to a problem. For example, finding top talent and retaining candidates that meet the job criteria has been identified as an issue. As a result of the assessment, the company would recruit, hire, and retain based on job fit.
Cost. According to Gallup, the cost of a bad hiring decision can equal to two times the employee’s annual salary; therefore, the benefits of an assessment can outweigh the initial investment. Cost analysis should also include data like the current cost of turnover and the current cost of loss of revenue due to customer complaints.
Metrics. Of equal importance is ensuring that the assessment tool you choose is compliant with all Department of Labor guidelines, has proven validation studies, meets your organization’s DE&I program, and will not adversely impact your team and organization.
As the senior executive at your company, after completing a gap analysis, you realize you need the right tool to engage your employees and increase productivity. After evaluating many options and choosing the right one for your organization, your team is now more engaged, productivity is improving, and your recent high-quality hires have proven successful on the job.
SovranHR can help you evaluate and recommend the best assessment tools so that you can make the best hires and get ahead in 2024.
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