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82% of organizations require work samples or assessments as a part of the hiring process in accordance with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). 78% of human resources professionals indicated that assessments have improved their quality of hire. So, it’s common for pre-employment assessments to be a component of the hiring process.
Should you’re using pre-employment assessments for hiring, it’s necessary to make certain that you’re using them properly. I used to be reminded of this recently in an article from The Wall Street Journal titled “How Flunking a Personality Test Can Cost You Your Dream Job”. The article talks about what a personality test might indicate a couple of candidate’s “fit” for the job.
When organizations make the choice to make use of a pre-employment assessment, they should discover the aim for doing so. For instance, a company might administer an assessment to candidates applying for an administrative position to see how proficient they’re in Microsoft Excel. Typically, the assessment is directly related to the job.
Organizations can do personality assessments but again, they need to discover the goal for doing so. And give you the option to defend it should they be challenged on using a personality assessment. But we’ll leave that discussion for our friendly legal counsel. There are three criteria that organizations should search for when considering a pre-employment assessment of any kind.
- Validity implies that the assessment measures what it’s alleged to measure. If we use the instance above with the executive position and Microsoft Excel, the assessment should measure proficiency in that program. Not Word. Not PowerPoint. The assessment is valid for measuring proficiency in Excel.
- Reliability implies that the assessment should yield consistent results. If I’m applying for an administrative role and I take the Excel assessment twice, I should receive similar results (not necessarily exact, but close).
- Valid for Intended Use implies that the assessment has been validated for the way in which it’s getting used. On this case, the pre-employment assessment must be validated for hiring and selection because that’s the way it’s getting used. There are wonderful assessments available in the market, but that doesn’t mean they’re all validated for selection.
I would like to take a moment to emphasise the last point about pre-employment assessments being validated for its intended use. You could be aware of an assessment called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). It’s a well-liked assessment often utilized in personal and skilled development. It’s not validated for hiring and selection. So, it wouldn’t be appropriate to have discussions like “We’d like a couple of more INTJs across the office.”.
Organizations should definitely think about using pre-employment assessments of their hiring and selection process. They’ll bring tremendous value. But use them the appropriate way. And if there are other assessments that the organization likes for skilled development – great! – use them too. Again, using assessments the appropriate way will bring one of the best results.
Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby after speaking on the HR Technology Conference in Las Vegas, NV
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