Assessments Results to Make Smart Hiring Decisions

By Dr. Charles Handler

Reprinted by Permission. This article originally appeared on the Electronic Recruiting Exchangewww.erexchange.com.

As assessment tools continue to become a more central part of the modern hiring process, the interpretation and use of their results are becoming animportant issue to those who are making hiring decisions.

The overall issue is that people making hiring decisions have difficulty clearly understanding how they should make use of assessment results in their decision-making process. This is completely understandable, as assessments represent a relatively new area for most folks, and the interpretation of their results takes experience and training.

This approach means that hiring should be viewed as a set of steps designed to foster a two-way dialogue with candidates, for the purpose of making informed predictions about the mutual fit between the candidate and the organization. A process approach is built on the premise that there are successive layers of information to be gathered via a dialogue between job seeker and hiring personnel.

It is important to understand that assessments are but one part of this dialogue, and that, while assessments can provide a good deal of information about a candidate at different stages of the process, they are not designed to show the whole picture. Rather, assessment results should be but one of many pieces of information that are used by expert decision makers to help collect the data they need to make good, accurate predictions.

1. WHEN SHOULD YOU "KNOCK OUT" CANDIDATES BASED ON ASSESSMENT RESULTS?

Perhaps the biggest challenge related to the use of assessment tools is determining when to use assessment information to completely remove an applicant from consideration. This is a big decision. While it is relatively easy to justify based on above-the-surface stuff like basic qualifications, it gets a bit more touchy when based on fuzzier things, such as a set of personality test results. The bad news here is that there is no one hard-fast rule for how to manage this challenge. Rather, the solution is completely dependent upon the situation in which the assessment is being used. The good news is that there are several approaches that organizations can use to manage this challenge. These approaches all require careful planning in the development of the hiring system.

It is critical that the organization take the time to clearly document job requirements and the most critical factors that contribute to the job. Any time you are removing an applicant from consideration, this decision must be made based on job-related criteria only. Therefore, you'd better be able to justify any knock outs made using assessment results by tying them directly to job performance requirements.

2. HOW MUCH WEIGHT SHOULD BE PLACED ON TEST SCORES?

Using assessments in a non-compensatory manner -- that is, where there is no mandate as to how a specific test score should impact a hiring decision -- can often create real problems for an organization. Perhaps the biggest one is helping those using the test results to understand how to use the information to make good decisions within the hiring process. This can be really difficult, because most providers of assessments will clearly state that their test should not be used as the sole criteria for making hiring decisions. At the same time, if an applicant demonstrates a range of "unacceptable" scores, it is often hard for hiring personnel to think of them as an acceptable applicant. The most common situation I have come across related to this issue is hiring managers who rely too heavily on assessment results by automatically disqualifying an applicant based solely on his or her test scores. Of course, the opposite situation, completely ignoring test scores, is also a common problem.

3. HOW DO I GET BUY-IN FROM MY HIRING PERSONNEL?

The greatest hiring system in the world will not be effective if it is not used properly. Lack of interest in using assessment tools among hiring personnel is a common problem. This is often the case when an assessment is "grafted on" to an existing hiring process and creates confusion or extra work for those involved in making hiring decisions. Of course this is a very frustrating situation because it is not possible for organizations to reap the benefits of a good process if the process is not used properly. Even more frustrating is the fact that staffing personnel are often unaware that those on the front lines are not on board with the process, making it difficult to gain an understanding of why the system may be lacking in effectiveness. This often leads to the blame being placed on the assessment tool itself, resulting in push back for its use.

Here is my advice for avoiding this situation. First of all, any change in a hiring process requires a champion whose opinion matters to those making hiring decisions. The higher up the message originates, the more weight it will have. Secondly, the message sent must be one that focuses on the real value to be obtained via the use of the process. Perhaps the most important way to ensure buy in for assessment tools is to clearly document the results they can have when used properly. This often requires a pilot study with a group, in which a change is needed most and in which leadership is willing to support a new approach. Time and time again I have seen situations in which organizations build a legacy of data to show how effective their hiring personnel can be when given the tools they need to systematically make informed decisions.

While there are many complexities associated with the use of assessment tools, their basic purpose is very easy to understand. These tools are nothing more than decision-making aids. The degree to which they are useful as such depends entirely upon the way they are woven into a process and the degree to which those making decisions rely on this process to make effective decisions. Organizations seeking to ensure assessments aid in the accuracy of hiring decisions should work to ensure that the challenges outlined in this article are addressed.

Dr. Charles Handler chandler@rocket-hire.com, is the president and founder of Rocket-Hire.com. Throughout his career he has specialized in developing effective, legally defensible employee selection systems. He has taken what he learned developing recruiting and selection solutions for a wide variety
of organizations and combined it with his love of technology to help clients develop new models for employee selection. His philosophy focuses on combining sound science with innovation and practicality to create online hiring strategies that provide ROI and demonstrate the value of human capital. Charles has a Master's and Ph.D. in Industrial Psychology.