How to Properly use Assessments in the Hiring Process

When it comes to assessments within an organization, knowing how to use them properly is essential. It is quite often I see organizations issue assessments to evaluate candidates during the hiring process. These assessments can provide a great data point throughout the evaluation process, if you are using them properly. Let’s talk about ways to properly use these assessments but also how they can have a negative impact to your organization if you aren’t using them properly.

Assessments can be a great tool that provides your organization with some necessary information about the individual. They key here is what you are going to do with this data once you interpret it. There are a variety of different assessments out there, but the most common ones I see organizations distribute measure skills, work style, and personality. These types of assessments can provide you with information that can help you determine how you are going to work with this employee once they are onboarded, where they are going to fall in the mix of the existing employees’ personalities and workstyles, or how skilled they are to do the job. I understand for some organizations hiring for very skilled roles may rely heavily on skill-based assessments. These can provide validation that a candidate knows what they are doing. If you find one of these assessments necessary, I recommend issuing them post-interview which can help you choose between more than one qualified candidate and so you can make an evaluation by understanding the whole picture.

Often times, I see organizations start with issuing the assessments before speaking to the candidate. If you are an organization that starts with an assessment and they don’t pass according to your criteria, you could be missing out on quality talent in all other areas that could have been uncovered through conversation during an interview. Usually, not everything in an assessment is always relevant to the job. So, are you willing to close the door on talent where there could be a lot of potential in other areas that may be more important? It is vital that your organization understands not to treat these assessments as a pass or fail when evaluating candidates throughout the hiring process. Many qualities and characteristics of an individual to be successful in your company can’t solely be measured off an assessment. If an assessment in your organization is necessary, just be sure you aren’t using them for the wrong purpose, but rather to give you a better understanding of a candidate’s skills, work style, or personality.