Choosing Among Different Assessment Methods

1. Choosing Among Different Assessment Methods

2. Learning Objectives • Determine which assessment is best to utilize in the hiring process • Learn what required objectives influence assessment design • Learn the operational impact of assessments • Learn the pros and cons of utilizing different staffing assessments in the hiring process

3. Designing Effective Assessment Methods • No one method works equally well for all jobs Why? • Many assessments only work well for a limited range of jobs • Effectiveness of an assessment depends on on a companies operational issues and constraints

4. The Operational Impact of Assessments • Hiring Volumes • Realized when companies use assessments to hire new people • Quality of Applicant Flow • Assessments do not impact candidate quality • Staffing Practices • Assessments only work if decision makers use them consistently • Employee Retention • Can help identify the right candidates with the right motivations

5. Method 1: No Standardized Assessment: Start at The Bottom and Work Up • Look at existing staffing processes • Building on current staffing methods

6. Method 2: Self-Report Pre-Screening Questionnaires: The Value Structure • Increases administrative efficiency • Readily understood by most hiring managers and candidates • Helps create process that systematically screens out the wrong people

7. Method 3: Applicant Investigations: Avoiding Catastrophic Hiring Mistakes • Wrong employees can be a company's greatest liability • Downside: they add cost and time to the staffing process • Downside: may lead to loss of applicants • Little value for predicting job performance

8. Method 4: Structured Interviews: Maximizing Time Spent With Candidates • Unstructured interviews work very poorly, if at all • Not following a well defined agenda and set questions • Structured interviews work reasonably well • Follow a well defined agenda and set questions • Behavioral-based structured interviews tend to work best! • Uses behavioral base questions • Use behavioral-anchored rating scale for evaluation

9. Method 5: Broad Self-Report And Situational Judgment Measures: Asking Candidates for Greater Level of Self-Description • Assess job-relevant aspects of a candidates personality, motives and experience after interview • Off-the-shelf measures of broad personality • Pre-configured assessments for specific jobs classes • Can oversimplify the relationship between candidates and job performance (i.e. sales)

10. Method 6: Broad Knowledge and Skills Test:Testing Basic Job Requirements • Measures general knowledge and skills across board classes of jobs • Good for understanding if a candidate will lack fundamental skills and knowledge (SKs) • Transparent relevance for candidates and hiring managers

11. Method 7: Broad Ability Tests: Getting A General Sense of Candidates’ Ability To Learn and Solve Problems • Measures mental capabilities related to reasoning, critical thinking, and logical problem solving • Challenge: usually has some adverse impact against the protected class • Challenge: candidates perceive them to be difficult

12. Method 8: Integrating Broad Self Report Measures, Knowledge and Skills Tests, and Ability Test: Predicting Maximal and Typical Performance • Predicts task required to perform complex problems • Predicts performance on task that depend on volition

13. Method 9: Localized Scoring: Accurately Interpreting Candidate Responses Norming Process of comparing a candidate’s assessment scores against scores received by other people who have taken the same assessment • Base norms on groups of whose characteristics are relevant to the position being staffed • Norms do not provide predictive information about a candidates likely job performance

14. Method 10: Context-Specific Self-Report Measures: Asking Candidates To Describe Themselves in Greater Detail What do questions hone in on: • I am very good at most of the things I do. -taps into general self-confidence and self-esteem • I am very good at expressing my ideas to others. - taps into confidence in his or her speaking skills • I am very good at making formal presentations to large groups of people. - taps into experience training and making presentations

15. Method 10: Context-Specific Self-Report Measures: Asking Candidates To Describe Themselves in Greater Detail Advantages: • More job relevant and favored by candidates • Gives companies a competitive advantage since they can not be resold

16. Method 10: Context-Specific Self-Report Measures: Asking Candidates To Describe Themselves in Greater Detail Disadvantages: • Requires significant resources to develop • Requires a thorough job analysis • Requires development of new assessment content

17. Method 11: Context-Specific Knowledge,Skills, And Ability Tests: Seeing What Candidates Can Actually Do • Require candidates to interpret information and perform task that are similar to things employees actually do on the job (a.k.a work samples) • Tests are the single most predicative type of assessments • Favorably viewed by candidates

18. Method 11: Context-Specific Knowledge,Skills, And Ability Tests: Seeing What Candidates Can Actually Do Disadvantage: • Expensive to design and time-consuming to administer • May become quickly outdated if the job changes • May show adverse impact against protected class were solving complex problems is required