Lisa Walker's article "Assessing Competency During the Hiring Process," takes pre-assessment to another level. In the world of higher education, pre-assessment is traditionally used to measure the level of prior knowledge the student brings to an individual course or program. Upon completion of the course or program, they are given a post-assessment and the scores are compared not only to their own scores but to the scores of their classmates. Business & Industry has their own form of pre-assessment and the stakes are infinitely higher than those in education.
Human Resource professionals are using tools backed by sound research and data analysis to determine (or maybe predict is a better term) whether a person will be a "good fit" to their company. That's right! A test can be used to figure out whether HR or the hiring manager should consider an applicant before an offer of employment is made. These are not to be confused with personality tests, since we are not trying to determine who you are but actually what you have done or would you could possibly do. Talent assessment is one of the terms that business and industry uses for pre-assessment and it can be used to give some insight on a few things.
Tendancies, such as leadership style, values, thinking style, and emotional competencies can be identified even before someone is hired. Usually, the test is given after the candidate has been interviewed and submitted a resume'. The test is sent to an email address and the candidate completes it and sends it back. Most of the tests are scored automatically through a web-based tool and results are obtained quickly. The end product is a report that gives various details on the tendancies of the candidate.
Of course, these tests cannot be used autonomously, since there are many factors that predict success of an individual. If these are used with interviews and resume' materials, hiring managers get a bigger picture of who these people are.
My experience with these predictive assessment tools has been good. When I received my results I asked if they called my mom to get the information that they did.
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Thank you for tihs post bringing forth a business and human resources perspective. Vision and leadership style are important considerations when seeking to determine whether an individual is a "good fit" within an organization.
ReplyDeleteSome years ago, I was invited as a student to offer perspective upon individuals being interviewed for professor positions within a department based upoon attending a classroom presentation and an opportunity for direct conversations by a group of students with the interviewee. The applicant expressed preference for a pre-determined set of courses students would take without flexibility in electives. Additionally, the applicant shunned the notion of the "open door policy" that was considered a hallmark of the particular department, suggesting instead of strictly limiting the times of day when students could come forth with questions. I did not believe this person would be a "good fit" within the department and in subsequent conversations with the professors on the committee I learned that they were not interested in hiring that person for those same reasons.