With analytics and measurements coming into the fore in HR,
it’s little wonder that assessing employees has taken so much mind space of HR
leaders. The benefits cannot be discarded – from hiring the right person in the
right role to identifying development requirements for your high potentials. If
well used, they are said to have no adverse impact and yet deliver results that
predict (not foretell) your employee’s performance on the job.
So what are ways in which to make the use of assessments
more effective in your organization?
Here are five for starters:
Involve the line manager. It cannot be over emphasized
but assessments that are designed for business leaders would be better suited
to deliver results that business leaders require. By starting with the output
in mind, involve your business stakeholders to agree on a set of outcomes using
which they feel comfortable to take relevant actions (for hiring and / or
development) that support operational decision-making.
Don’t let go there; consult with them on the first few
process steps to get them to become more comfortable with your assessment
process and become your ‘Assessment Champions’. Before you know it, they’ll be
speaking fluent HR!
Automate the administration process as much as possible. ‘As
much as possible’ is key. Oftentimes, organizations continue to hold on to
earlier process steps, such as first level interview screening, even after
using Assessments predominantly to screen applicants early on in the process.
Similarly, while identifying high potentials, managers can often bypass
assessment results with their developed bias. Failing to trust the validity of
the assessment process is a key reason why many well-intentioned assessment
initiatives fail.
When using assessments for recruitment, also look at using
the data to develop the person during on boarding. According to Aberdeen
Research[1], 75% of Best in Class companies use Pre-hire assessments for
creating targeted development plans during post hire. That translates into a
91% retention of employees in the first year by Best in Class companies versus
others.
Beyond selection, there’s prioritization as well. Oftentimes,
hiring managers do not have depth in their pipeline to effectively use
assessments for selection. In such practical situations, its important to still
prioritize the candidate pool for interviewing. This will ensure that you
capitalize on the probability of hiring a high performer and also not lose out
on the possibility of selecting a trainable candidate who can over-achieve by
stretching himself/herself.
Better, more informed sourcing based on assessment data. An
established assessment process can work wonders to your sourcing strategy. You
can generate enough data to create a detailed DNA profile of a high performer,
which you can then work backwards to identify sourcing channels that provide
you those characteristics in future hires as well. This feedback loop also
helps recruiters to constantly calibrate their assessment process and make it
relevant for the future.
These are just five approaches to effectively use
assessments out of many more possible approaches. Do you have any such
approaches that you recently used? Tell us how you used assessments
innovatively in your organization and we’ll profile your work in our upcoming
U&I quarterly newsletter.
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