For the last few years, companies were instituting hiring processes that included a number of best practices, but were avoiding the use of tools, such as personality assessments, to assist them in identifying the best candidates. Today, we are seeing a significant increase in the use of particularly effective personality assessments to enable hiring managers to learn more about the candidate’s natural motivation and talents before they make the hiring decision.
The reasons were varied as to why personality assessments became less used. I believe that one reason was that we saw too much litigation from unhappy and unsuccessful candidates. As a result, employers began to shy away from using any tool that could significantly differentiate one person from another.
But the world is changing. Today, companies understand how expensive it is to hire a new person, how much time it takes to train a new person, and then how much effort it takes to address the disillusionment that arises for the rest of the team when we dismiss that person because they simply did not fit very well in the job or the company’s culture.
So, if you are around long enough, the trends always return. Today, companies are again looking for valid and reliable tools to assist them in making better hiring decisions. Today, however, managers are also much more aware of what makes a good test, the importance of ensuring that the test is job related, and they are doing the diligence ahead of time to be certain that the criteria used for selection purposes is in fact able to identify superior candidates.
Here are some best practices to use when you choose a tool to use within your selection process:
- Make sure that the instrument you choose is valid and reliable. Ask the test provider for study documentation and test user references to prove to you that other reputable companies are using the tool for selection purposes and that the tool meets the Department of Labor’s standards for selection.
- Be sure that the instrument does not probe into private information about the candidate and that the content is job related.
- Look at the way the test results are scored. Does someone have to interpret the results? If so, you risk introducing rater bias into the process.
- Does the test provider give you a recommendation for each candidate? Some companies like this feature, while others prefer not to have the recommendation. The important thing is not to put too much reliance on the recommendation itself. As the hiring manager, you know your requirements best, so don’t rely on others to tell you whom to select. Performance and match to the job are at the end of the day the most reliable predictors of success.
- Use the results to ask more questions so that you can really get to know the candidate more fully. If you only conduct one or two discussions with the candidate, you will make mistakes and choose someone who doesn’t really match the position at some point in your selection process.
- Make sure you know what you are looking for in the candidate. What skills, abilities, talents and capabilities do you really need to move your organization forward? Think about this before the first candidate comes in, not after you become enamored with someone who has a whole lot of capability, but is not really a good match for the job.
- Check references. Don’t use the excuse that you can’t get good information about a candidate’s background or prior performance. Hire a good reference checking service to help out with this part of the process. Better to know the bad news before you make the hiring decision if it is there to be uncovered.
If you would like to know more about personality testing and how such a tool can help you make better hiring decisions, call us to talk. We can help you build a best practice selection process that includes the necessary steps and tools to find the best new hire possible.
Filed under: Employment Testing | Tagged: assessment tools, ECI Behavioral Insight, fair hiring practices, using personality tests
