Recruiting new employees requires an evaluation of their capabilities. Leaders often look for candidates that exhibit the necessary skills, education and experience, and motivations to satisfy a pending role.  Since jobs or roles have different requirements for success, talent assessments can help you choose the right candidates.

Why Talent Assessments are Utilized

A talent assessment is often part of the recruiting process that involves evaluation of a candidate’s skills or talents.  They are performed by employers or recruiters at some point during the search process.  Talent is often referred to as soft skills.  According to a report published by LinkedIn, nearly six in 10 companies evaluate candidates’ soft skills in their recruitment strategies.  A talent assessment enables deeper or more specific evaluation of a candidate’s soft, or natural abilities, and from this data you can improve estimation of role fit.

Know the Difference

Although assessments vary in type, they help you to increase the likelihood of success.  The first part of the mind, cognitive, is shown on a resume; education, skills and work experience are highlighted in this written form to verify what a candidate has learned to date.  The resume is the first step in evaluating core capabilities of a candidate.  A talent assessment will provide insight about affective attributes, the second part of the mind.  The talent assessment reveals core values, motivations, personal preferences, emotions and feelings.  These insights help to understand why a candidate desires the work and their personal relational preferences.  The third part of the mind, conative, is validated in the third critical data point.  The Kolbe Indexes, validate how a person gets things done; this data guides decision-making about whether a candidate will meet the expectations for how a role is executed.  All assessment data brings important insight into whether a candidate is a right fit for your company, and more than one data point will ensure you have your best hiring criteria.

Benefits of Talent Assessments

A benefit of conducting talent assessments is the ability to match candidates to your company culture.  All companies have a culture, no matter the size. “Culture” refers to your collective values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors.  When looking for a candidate to fill an open job position, cultural fit is a data point can help you to achieve motivational and relational synergy.   Affective assessments will provide insight into candidates’ belief system, an indicator that will help you to determine whether they are a cultural right fit.
Your company may benefit from a lower turnover rate by utilizing talent assessments.  Statistics show that the average annual turnover rate among U.S. companies is about 12% to 15%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).  However, by conducting talent assessments you are armed with more than cognitive or learned data for engaging and aligning talent.  You can improve and correct negative turnover trends from a holistic framework for hiring and retaining your teams.

Offering Talent Assessments

Although there are different ways to perform assessments, use of these tools is on the rise.  A talent assessment is a written or a digital exercise when offered online or via email.   Talent assessments consist of questions that gauge a candidate’s skills and talents.  It’s considered a type of pre-employment screening.  Most assessments are offered digitally.
You can also ask talent assessment questions during interviews.  Most one-on-one interviews with a candidate give you the opportunity to clarify and evaluate his or her education and skills, motivations, relational, and career experience.  You can ask the candidate questions about specific work experience such as solving problems, meeting deadlines, managing change, and more.  The interview offers a more personal setting that can integrate conversational inquiry about talent sweet spots that aren’t found on a resume.
The right blend of information is crucial for hiring right.  The relationship with workforce planning and recruiting consultants is not a corporate luxury, it is a necessity for every size business and the work should be scaled to meet your needs.  We are your small business advisory team, ensuring you have the right selection process for achieving long term associations.