Personality and/or Ability assessment: Why? Why not…

For many people in the world the word ‘assessment’ is synonym for the ‘scary’ test you have to take during a recruitment process. In Asia for instance, it’s not common yet to have assessment tools embedded within the HR processes like recruitment and development; Therefore, it’s time to introduce to you the ‘Personality and Ability assessment’.

Over the years, personality assessment tests are further developed and transformed into tools which are more aligned to the needs of employers and employees. Personality and Ability tests are deployed in many different areas such as self-awareness, succession planning, teambuilding, high potential programs and recruitment.

     Why should an assessment be part of the Human resources process?

And why is communication and awareness about this topic important?

Let’s highlight some reasons:

Avoid disappointment

Employers are looking for the best fits for their organizations. The Human Resource departments (let’s call it HR for now) HR try to avoid the situation that employees are working in a role which is not appropriate for them. Often a mismatch causes disappointment or the perception of failure of the employer and on the other side frustration of the employee. Resolving such situations costs a lot of money, time and energy while the success is generally limited. The key to minimize such situations is the integration of a personality / ability assessment in your recruitment process.

It is known that some candidates only apply for a job because of the salary, the internal terms and conditions or the commuting time. Others are interested in the content of the role but too often we see that candidates overestimate themselves.

Are these the candidates you’re looking for?

The answer is simple: No, but how can you figure out in a job interview of 30 minutes to 60 minutes?

When an assessment tool is part of your process, the results will give an objective picture of the personality and behaviour of the (future) employee. Based on this objective measurement, a more reliable choice can be made to avoid disappointments of the employer and or employee.

Communication: benefit for you and me

There are potential candidates who not apply for a job when an assessment test is part of the process. The key to this problem is: Communication.

How to communicate to these candidates?

Motivate clearly the reasons why the assessment is part of the process. One of the aims can be to determine if the candidate fits into the organization or team. Another reason can be if you are looking for specific characteristics of an employee. Try to make clear to applicants that the results of a personality assessment are never right or wrong; it’s about the preferred behaviour a candidate will show at a certain time, under conditions like specific work situations.

Successful fit

When we wish to on board a new employee or we would like to offer an employee a different role, we have to ask ourselves the following question; What are the development areas of this person? Too often we make assumptions that employees are ready for the next steps in their careers; but are those assumptions based on objective measurements or just based on experiences?

What will convince you that this employee will succeed in the new role?

The answers to these questions are simple; offer employees the possibility to measure their skills and find out if

they have the talent to grow in your organization.

The investment will be worth doing it!

Self-awareness

Employees who are working for a long time in a company intent forget their own strengths sometimes. It also happens that they are not aware of certain skills they have. By offering those employees an assessment, their self-awareness will increase. The HR department (or employee depending on the process) is capable to update the employee profile properly which makes it easier to search for other opportunities for the employee in the organization.

Note: It's also interesting to investigate the option of a motivation questionnaire; this test gives fascinating results on the motivation drivers of your staff.

High potentials

Organizations are looking for ‘fresh breads’ with high potentials. High potential programs have proven their value in organizations.

But how to find the best the graduated student for your High potential program?

During the search for high potential graduates, an assessment tool is definitely an added value. The results of a Personality Questionnaire like the OPQ32, gives you an impression on the preferred behaviour of the candidate in certain work situations. It will also indicate the level of complexity the person is capable to handle.

Succession Planning

Succession planning is often done by simply nominating a deputy and grow him or her in the role. Sometimes this works well, but if there is no real capable successor in a team, often still a deputy is named. This deputy might never be the right successor at the end.

So how to recognize who are potential leaders and/or people managers?

Assessments can help to find out the motivation and ambition levels of your employees.

Professional Organization

On many different social media sites, you can find comments from candidates on their job interviews.

Especially when candidates are rejected, they like to share their analyses on the recruitment / selection

process with the whole world. Everyone realize the impact of such communication. It’s proven that

organizations who have a professional HR policy, have less negative publicity on social media.

The recruitment process is an opportunity for HR departments to manifest themselves as a professional

“independent” department to the external world. Again, communication and transparency around the process is key. The opportunity for candidates to take an assessment during the selection phase will result in a positive reminder that is associated with your organization, even when you reject them!

Attrition rates / return on investment

Several organizations have to manage high attrition rates; recruitment departments are under pressure; management expecting HR to solve this problem. There are many factors that could contribute to high attrition rates such as the work environment, the countries (business) culture, company allowances and benefits, colleagues, company environment etc. Number one in the list of reasons why people resign, within 6 months after starting in the job, is: no fit in the organization or job! Guarantees cannot be given, but by objectively measurement of a candidate before he/she starts, you can reduce the percentage of a mismatch. This will reduce the number of resignations in the first 6 months.Another reason for employees to leave the organization is: Learning and Development ‘My employer does not invest in me’. In many organizations the application procedure for requesting a training course takes a long time and very often ends with no approval from the Manager or Management. Budgets are of the reason or the impact it has on the day to day work (loss of productive time).

But what are the facts?

Loss of productive time: An online assessment will take approximately 30 minutes; you can even ask the employee to take the assessment from home (if internet is available).

The feedback meeting will only take about 2 hours max.

The costs: compare the cost of a recruitment process with the cost of a personality assessment, the assessment costs are a fraction of that (and we are not even talking about the costs of recruitment, on boarding of new employees).

Reduction of attrition rates will reduce the overall recruitment costs.

The results: employer and employee will have a clear view on: the strength of the employee, the development areas, motivation drivers, level of complexity and how the employee fits in the current role.

Background of the OPQ32

The OPQ32 is an occupational personality test which indicates the preferred behaviour of the candidate on 32 competences. The competences are split up in 3 areas:

• Relationship with people

• Thinking style

• Feelings and emotions

The score of the candidate will be compared with the score of the Norm group (reference group of at least 500 people with related education / skills).

How can you use the OPQ32?

OPQ32 personality questionnaire can be used for:

Mass recruitment: if you expect a large number of applicants on some vacancies, it is recommended to indicate key competences for the roles. The reports of the OPQ32 tests reflects clearly the candidates who have a preferred score on your indicated competences.

Specific vacancies: OPQ32 has related questionnaires such as the Customer Contact style questionnaire. This questionnaire is designed to assess candidates who have applied for roles such as: Sales executives; Retail staff; Frontline customer support; Check in services; Telesales.

Fit in a team or organization: if you are looking for a candidate with specific characteristics, the results of OPQ32 will lead you to the right candidate.

The message is clear: Personality and Ability assessments are an added value for your organization!

What can we offer you?

HRconsultancy4u is certified by CEB/SHL to use their Talent measurement assessments tools. We can offer you the OPQ32, the Customer Contact Style questionnaire, the Work style questionnaire but also motivation questionnaires, specific abilities test, Leadership reports, sales reports etc.

Briefly the procedure of an assessment:

• We agree on the type of assessment;

• The candidate takes the assessment online;

• The results will be communicated with the candidate (verbal);

• After approval of the candidate the results will be shared with the employer (verbal).

Would you like to receive a free quotation for an assessment package?  Click here..