7 Steps To Make The Most Of Assessments For Hiring

Do you know what is the most difficult job in hiring? is it taking the interview, shortlisting the CV, or conducting a skill assessment test; some would say it is the entire assessment for hiring. You know, in any sort of hiring, the most important factor that takes the decision call is the final assessment of hiring, and because it is a crucial factor, it must be accurate. But why are we discussing this here? What can a simple tool do to ensure that each hiring assessment is accurate and in benefit of the organizational goal? Let’s dive deep into this in our article. 

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What is the benefit of using assessments in the hiring process?

So, I did some research and found out that companies that use pre-employment assessments have a 35% reduction in hiring costs; this data is published by SHRM Foundation. It is a crucial factor that suggests that hiring assessment tools are a very important aspect if we are looking to reduce the cost of hiring candidates. These tools help companies identify skilled individuals with top-notch mental aptitude, great behavior traits, and innovative thinking skills. 

Another study by Bersin by Deloitte suggests that using assessments during the hiring process has a 27% lower turnover rate in the first year of employment. This suggests that assessments are also important to retain employees for a longer period of time. In addition, these assessments are very cost-effective. The best part of such assessments is that these assessments can be done online or offline, depending on what works best for the recruiter and the specific job role. 

Another benefit that you get with assessments for hiring is the level of diversity and inclusion it helps increase within the team. Another report published by AI for Good suggests that well-designed and validated assessments can reduce unconscious bias in hiring decisions by 25%. This is a positive sign for recruiters and companies struggling with not having a diverse talent pool. 

Also Read: Overcoming Talent Acquisition Challenges

Steps To Achieve The Highest ROI While Using Assessments:

1. Choose the right assessments:

You know, choosing the right assessments for the right candidate can automatically reduce your time to hire. It’s a common phenomenon, however, the first and foremost thing before selecting any kind of assessment for candidates is to decide what they are testing for. In an ideal scenario, there are three types of assessments (Cognitive, Work simulation, and Personality), and each of these assessment techniques changes as per the candidate’s profile. 

2. Identify job performance and culture fit

See, the organization is like a machine; each part must collectivity in order to function properly, and each part must fit the other part. Similarly, while hiring and assessing a candidate, it is important for you to check if they would be the right fit or not. The hiring tools help the hiring managers predict the likelihood of their candidates. It assesses the candidate’s personal profile and helps decide the factors that are enough to fit in the work culture of the company. If the candidates are a good cultural fit,  they will likely be more successful in their roles. 

Also Read: 8 Recruitment Strategies to Reduce Time to Hire

3. Understanding the Candidate’s behavior

We have to agree to the fact that each candidate is uniue in terms of personality. And require certain assessment techniques in order to understand the behavior of the person. This is part of the personality trait assessments, and it helps decide if the assessment tools analyze the behavioral traits of the candidates. Such information will be helpful and always come in handy while making onboarding decisions. 

4. Assessing leadership quality and long-term goals

To make the most of assessments for hiring and improve quality hiring, we need to ensure that candidates getting onboarded have long-term goals to stay with the company. Otherwise, it becomes a haphazard scenario, as most of the time, candidates leave the company without prior notice. Using personality assessments can be a good tool to identify employees with leadership potential and can even be used in succession planning. Taking the importance of this assessment into account, companies are using assessments throughout the employee life cycle at much higher rates. 

Also Read: 25 Innovation Interview Skill Questions To Assess Excellent Candidate

5. Think about the budget before getting a hiring assessment tool

We have to agree on the fact that budget is the most important thing one should consider before choosing an assessment tool. You see, a hiring assessment tool can surely help you with all your hiring needs, but it is important to remember that each organization might not require a hiring tool. Small and medium enterprise organizations might not have a hiring requirement to that level; for those companies, opting for an interview as a service might be the right choice.

6. Follow up and calibrate with the team

Unity is strength! It should be mandatory to keep the hiring decisions of employees with all the team members. This will build ownership and accountability for the team members and create a trust factor. The key step to measuring assessments for hiring with the team is to ensure that the complete process is working as intended to be. And the hiring decision is in contrast with the team’s idea and work culture requirements. It will also help hiring managers see the overlaps that they might have missed in their own assessments of the candidate report. 

7. Know when you should “knock out” candidates based on assessment results

You know, It’s easy to make a quick decision based on basic qualifications, but when it comes to personality tests and technical assessments, it can be a bit trickier. Hence, it becomes important for hiring managers to seek the help of experts in the domain to analyze the assessment report and come up with the correct feedback. the assessment is correct, then it automatically becomes quite easy to see which candidate you want and which you don’t. 

Also Read: Tips For Making A Good First Impression in Virtual Job Interview

At the end

When hiring managers don’t have a lot of experience in the assessment of hiring, they tend to choose candidates based on certain things like how much they like them, whether they have things in common, or if their friends approve. This is a common problem with the majority of hiring managers, as it is in human nature to find similar ground within people while talking. Hence, it becomes highly crucial for hiring managers to use skill assessment tools for a more stable and accurate hiring process. In terms of team level, using talent assessments is a great way to make the recruitment process more efficient and get positive feedback from the team. When there is a team, they can overlook the issues and challenges that might have been missed by the hiring manager and, in the process, make the hiring process more transparent and efficient.