Job candidates aren’t the only ones taking personality and other tests
While 93 percent of companies currently use assessment tests in the hiring process, significantly fewer — 60 percent — say they’ve incorporated them into their talent development efforts, according to a 2018 SHL report.
However, in addition to helping with recruiting, assessments can potentially provide valuable information that employers can use to make more informed employee management decisions.
Could your organization benefit from offering tests to current employees that were designed to identify culture fit, personality traits and other qualities — regardless of whether or not they’re used in hiring?
If your company has been thinking about utilizing employee assessments, you may want to take the following considerations into account:
Post-employment assessment tests can help with organizational planning
Although your current personnel presumably have proven they have the skill set to perform their current job, assessments can be helpful if you’re considering moving an employee into a different position. Personality, culture fit and other testing can uncover proficiencies companies may not have realized certain employees have — and help employers find out more about their employees’ interests to help place them in roles they’ll thrive in.
The process can also help companies that aren’t exactly sure how to identify skills gaps they’ll need to fill in the future. Finding out what skills your current workforce does — or doesn’t — possess can help you determine, based on how many employees you have who can be moved into other roles, what training the organization may need to offer and what succession planning and talent pipelining plans should be established.
One test may not be enough
Employers might want to consider using two or more types of employee assessments for increased accuracy.
Multi-measure tests — ones that gauge cognitive ability, personality, interests and other elements — have been found to be one of the most effective hiring methods, according to an analysis of research published in the Harvard Business Review. Presumably, using multiple tests would also work well with current employees, given the research indicated using a personality or emotional intelligence test alone may provide less valuable results, because those tests tend to be less accurate predictors of job performance.
Measuring results can strengthen assessments’ impact
A larger amount of employers (62 percent) are collecting metrics to determine how employee assessments add value to their talent development efforts, compared to the number (49 percent) of organizations that are tracking how useful assessments are in the hiring process, according to SHL. Knowing exactly how assessment test input has effected staffing and other decisions’ outcome can help employers determine which tests to offer in specific scenarios.
For more on assessment use, view our blog post on why companies are aiming for deeper insight in recruiting. To find out more about how Talent Intelligence helps organizations better understand and develop their talent by providing insight into key attributes and characteristics that predict employee performance, view this information about the assessment services we’ve developed.