The aim of every organisation is to achieve its business goals. For this to happen, there is a need to have the right people in the workforce. When recruiting prospective employees, every organisation follows a recruitment process— which requires using recruitment assessment tools —whether it is clearly defined and documented or not.
According to a study by Brandonhall.com on broken processes contributing to bad hires, 68% of global respondents agreed it was the interview process, and 48% lay the claim at the feet of screening and assessment. These two factors combined highlight the need to pay a lot of attention to the screening aspect of any recruitment processes.
There are several recruitment screening tools and methodologies, but it is essential to know how to choose the right assessment instruments for a particular role.
A lingering problem even for recruiting professionals is assessing and selecting the right assessment tools for the recruitment process. This is often due to the host of material or tools at one’s disposal and the seeming appeal of each of them. Another reason could be as a result of familiarity with a particular approach which may have yielded results in time past.
Let us consider a scenario that involves recruiting for a Customer Service role. Many hiring managers are likely to conduct only interviews as a screening method for job evaluation, forgetting that the best interview still has its shortcomings.
On the other hand, a good example of an assessment instrument or evaluation tool that can be used alongside interviews is ‘Role Play’. Here, candidates are made to assume specific roles and subjected to the condition associated with those roles, to ascertain whether the candidate can handle the functions and expectations of the role. Rather than a candidate talking through his/her experience on the job, the candidate is made to simulate the work scenario, thereby displaying behavioural gaps that may not have been observed during interviews.
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How to Select the Right Recruitment Assessment Tools
To select the right assessment or evaluation tools to use in your recruitment process, the following is a step by step guide;
Determine What Is To Be Measured
Before selecting an assessment tool, identify the competencies required to be effective in the target role e.g. leadership, problem-solving, business acumen, etc. This can be achieved by conducting a proper job analysis/evaluation. It is recommended that you keep the number of competencies between 6 and 8 for effective coordination and management of the recruitment process.
Determine how the competencies are to be measured
People work in three different ways in an organisation, and all have applicable methodologies to simulate the different work structures. The three work structures and example related assessment tools are stated below:
- Work alone – In-Basket/In-Box Exercise, Analytical Exercise
- Work one to one – Role Play, Presentation
- Work in a group – Assigned Role or Non-Assigned Role Group Exercise
The work structure will help you determine the type of exercise relevant to the competency you want to assess. Bear in mind that the best types of assessments for recruitment are the ones which factor in all three work patterns. This is why interviews alone are not an appropriate tool for screening candidates.
Determine the Level of the Role You Want To Assess
When it comes to screening candidates, one size does not fit all. The exercises to be used in your recruitment process should be appropriate for the role, general level of intellect and experience of the candidate. Your choice of screening tool must truly reflect the variety and demands of your target role. At Workforce Group, for example, we categorise screening tools to cater for the following four levels given below;
- Graduate-level
- Officer/first-line management
- Middle management
- Senior and Executive management
A Junior Accountant, for instance, should not be screened with a tool meant for a Senior Accountant; otherwise, the whole screening process would have lost its fidelity.
Determine the Exercise Setting
Screening exercises are to be designed with certain make-up/specific business functions in mind. In any setting, it is the tasks and criteria that are most important as these two elements will be elicited regardless of the context of the exercise. It is therefore important to review critically when buying an off-the-shelf tool to be sure it addresses the tasks and the criteria.
This is why at Workforce Group, we accommodate the flexibility where our clients can make use of our bespoke services to address any peculiarity in cases where any of our exercises may not speak directly to their industry.
Evaluate the Assessment Tool Based On Your Needs
Before you deploy your recruitment assessment tool, it is essential that it is evaluated. Your evaluation of candidate assessment tools may include considerations such as validity and reliability, legal compliance, level of customisation and so on.
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Other Factors to Consider While Evaluating Recruitment Assessment Tools
Other factors you can consider while evaluating recruitment assessment tools include candidate’s involvement with the tool. Is the candidate immersed in the exercise like it is the actual work?
Selecting the right recruiting assessment tools may have posed a difficult ordeal, but applying certain basic filters will provide the very best tools to deploy to assess your candidates eventually. The goal is to be able to hire right, and your screening process and tools play vital roles in achieving this goal.
In deciding how to carry out these steps, you must have a deeper awareness of what these steps entail, and we recommend that you engage professionals who are experts in this field, who are conversant with selection assessment methods and can proffer solutions to your needs.
At Workforce Group, we always ensure that we put all these factors into consideration when delivering assessment and recruitment solutions to our clients.
For assistance in selecting the right tools for your screening needs or for further help on how to make use of our screening tools, please schedule a consultation with us and you’ll have one of our consultants guide you through.
