Have you ever seen anyone fired for poor knowledge? Possibly...
Have you ever seen anyone fired for a poor attitude, laziness, or an unwillingness to cooperate with others? This is much more likely.
That situation could easily be avoided through the proper use of quality assessments in the early stages of your candidate selection process.
Oh the stories I could tell…
* The new hire who was assessed after she was hired, and who turned out to be a total disaster. She caused a world of disruption within the office, brought an unfounded lawsuit against the company within the first four months and the sad reality was, she would never have been hired (due to her behavioral scores, feedback, and lack of objectivity on the assessment results) had we assessed her before she was brought into the company.
* Then there was the candidate who argued with me. He said that he “successfully completed every project he had ever started.” Really? “Successfully completed every…,” Wow! He argued with me and would not simply get in and objectively complete his assessment. Just think how he will react once hired when asked to redo a task. And who would want to hire someone who would be rude to anyone associated with the hiring organization? It was bad manners to say the least!
The following is an Assessment Checklist to use for reviewing your current hiring assessment process, and will be especially helpful if this is your first exposure to the proper and possible ways of incorporating hiring assessments into your organizations hiring, succession management, and professional development practices.
1. Do you currently have a program in place for hiring and for succession management / professional development?
If so, examine the various ways you are using assessments within your organization. Are you consistent with the assessments used in your hiring and interviewing procedures? Do you utilize assessments in your training and development programs to enable you to train around real development needs not just what you think the needs are?
2. Are you paying attention to the results?
I totally understand, but resist the temptation to undervalue, explain away, or ignore the assessment feedback you are receiving. Use any “caution or concern” areas/scores as a guide for where to steer the conversation during the second or third interview.
3. There are specific assessments that are ideal for various needs within organizations.
Some assessments have gone through validation for their use as hiring tools; others are not validated for use in hiring, but may be used successfully for training and development. There are a few assessments that overlap. Make sure you are using assessments for the purpose they were designed. It is also wise to have an assessment provider who answers questions and is available in providing ongoing support.
4. For hiring, do your assessment results relate to job specific behaviors / skills and are they consistent for all candidates?
When used in hiring, results from assessments must be measured against “job specific” criteria not broad “style” ranges of personality.
5. View your candidates / employees as whole people.
Assessment programs are incredible tools for providing insights and information that would otherwise take you a long time to identify. (Think of those new hires that you discover 30-60 days out, who really don’t pay attention to detail like they lead you to believe!)
It may, at first, seem confusing and a bit intimidating, but by combining assessment with your interview process you will be able to fairly assess and evaluate each final candidate competing for your attention.
Image: istockphoto
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