Hiring Assessments: First, Second or Third?

I am constantly asked: “At what time during the hiring process should we administer assessments?”

My response: “Honestly, it depends.”

Let’s start at the very beginning. My recommendation to everyone is to screen out the obvious misfits first. These are the people you’ve identified:

• Those who do not have the necessary / desired experience or background.
• Those who have obvious mistakes on their resumes.
• And any other red flags that are spotted within your initial pre-screen process

Granted, with the help of professional resume writers and other online tools offering advice, a few mismatched candidates may be difficult to spot, but you should be able to get down to a select few before doing any serious assessing. (Note: for lower level, hourly positions you may decide to pre-screen a larger number of candidates with a short behavioral assessment simply because their resumes/work experience may not tell you as much as you would like to know about who the person is and what behaviors and attitudes they will bring into your organization.)

Here are the steps most of the people I work with use with their final pool of candidates.

• Have an informal interview (this may be a phone interview). This interchange should be pleasant, short and to the point; it’s a time to get to know a little bit about the candidate before moving on to the assessing and formal interview.

Warning: This informal interview is not the time to fall in love with the candidate!

• Assign skills tests.
• Assign behavioral assessment(s).
• Organizations who hire from a distance typically assign behavioral / skill assessments before they fly a candidate onsite for an interview. This saves on expenses if there are definite red flags, and enables them to interview the candidate in person after they have reviewed assessment results and made sure there is a good fit behaviorally / skill level.
• Compare final candidates and review results with the hiring team (and assessment vendor, if needed, and your assessment vendor provides this kind of support).
• Compile interview questions by identifying your position’s environment and how a candidate’s behavioral trait scores, high and / or low, will affect their success in the position.
  Interview candidates.
• Debrief with hiring team, and if necessary your assessment vendor to identify and discuss any discrepancies between the interview and the assessment.
• If you have more questions for the candidate, formulate them, and set up a second or third interview.
• If a good candidate fit is identified, move forward and make an offer.

Remember, at any time during the hiring process a candidate may prove to be “not a good fit.” This can be because of a lack of necessary skills, a misfit of behavioral strengths and / or weaknesses, interview responses, or conduct during the interview that is deemed to be unacceptable in your organization, etc.

The goal for assessment use in hiring is to help you make knowledgeable, objective hiring decisions which bring competent and confident people into your organization.