The use of Assessments in the Recruiting Process
There is an important role for assessments in the recruiting process. But it should not be used to replace any step of a good recruiting process. I have seen employers who use assessments but they do not speak with references (see my previous blog on the importance of references); or, they do not invite good candidates in for a 2nd interview. I have seen assessments replace background checks. This is not the purpose of assessments. Every step of the recruiting process is critical in choosing the right candidate. It is also important that the assessments are administered by, and feedback given, by a qualified professional.
I have recently partnered with Dr. Sandy Gluckman (www.sandygluckman.com) to integrate assessments as a part of my recruiting process. Dr. Sandy Gluckman has a PhD in Clinical Psychology and a post graduate degree in leadership and organizational development. She has been working with business leaders, employees and teams for over 30 years. We are offering two assessments to clients – the Discus and the HBDI. Both are available for assessing individuals as well as teams. The Discus represents a superb new generation in professional profiling solutions. Among the many extremely useful reports that Discus offers is the Job Match’ report, that examines a candidate’s suitability for different roles, and indicates strengths, weaknesses and training requirements for a particular candidate. Other reports offer objective insights into how the person behaves in various business situations, how they approach their work, relationship assessment, team building, job matching, negotiation profiling. The HBDI is a cutting edge tool for senior positions that involve strategic thinking, top level decision making, leadership skills, communication, and creativity. It is based on identifying the different thinking styles as related to the left and right brain, and reveals how to leverage these natural talents and address the gaps in thinking.
The ideal way to use these assessments is to administer assessments for the team before the hiring process even takes place. This will give employers a strong understanding of the teams’ strengths and what gaps may exist in style and capabilities. Offering a team assessment will also facilitate us in targeting the right candidate to fill in the “gaps” within the team and avoid creating teams that consist of individuals that are like-minded clones of each other.
The most effective and economical way to use assessments within the recruiting process is either before the second interview or after the interview process before a decision has been made. Consider the various parts of the recruiting process:
- We start by communicating the open need (i.e posting). Sometimes hundreds of candidates respond.
- Resumes are screened and then phone interviews begin.
- Typically after the phone interview 2-3 professional references are checked. At that point, strong candidates who have been interviewed over the phone and have strong references will be invited in for the first interview.
- After first interviews a short list of candidates will be invited back for a second interview. This is a great time to administer either The Discus or The HBDI. After administering the assessment and Dr. Gluckman analyzes the results, questions for the candidate will come up. These questions can be asked during the second interview to have an even better understanding of the candidate and their fit within the organization.
- Not only can the assessments be used to support the recruiting process and determine a candidates fit within an organization, the results can also help assess a new employees’ development needs. This information can help both employers’ understand training and development needs of their new employee. And, The individual will be able to use the information derived from the assessment to encourage responsibility for addressing areas for improvement.
In my search process for an appropriate assessment to be used as a part of my recruiting practice it was most important for me to find an experienced and credible administrator. I also wanted to make sure that the assessments would not “break the bank”. Given the number of clients I have who see the value in assessments in the recruiting process, Dr. Gluckman was able to give me a very good rate to offer my clients. So there is nothing stopping you from integrating the use of assessments in the recruiting process! Contact me and we can move forward!
If I had a nickel for everyone who told me that checking references was a waste of time because a candidate would never submit as a reference someone who did not like them….I’d be, well, not rich but I would have a lot of nickels!