FAQ Categories

Designing An Assessment Strategy

What are the basic guidelines for using assessments when hiring?
Where in the process should I use assessments?
Can assessments integrate with my Applicant Tracking System (ATS)?
Should I show the applicant their results?
How much can I expect to reduce turnover?

What are the basic guidelines for using assessments when hiring?

Objective assessments can be powerful tools when applied to the hiring process. The following is a list of dos and don'ts that may be helpful:

Do

• Ensure you have a clear understanding of the job before selecting an assessment.
• Understand the key benefit you are looking for by inserting an assessment into your selection process. Typically, benefits include higher performance, reduced turnover, or increased hiring process efficiency.
• Use only assessments that measure attributes related to job performance, no matter what benefit you are looking for.
• Review the technical manual for the assessment to ensure that it measures the attributes you want to measure, you are administering it correctly, and you are interpreting the results correctly.
• Train your staff on the proper way to use the assessments and their results.
• Monitor your processes for disparate impact on legally protected groups.
• Use assessments consistently for each job, ensuring all applicants use the same process.
• Monitor the results of your program using pre-established performance metrics, such as turnover rate or sales per day.

Don't

• Use the same assessments for every job, without doing a Job Analysis for each job type.
• Use assessments that are known to have some degree of disparate impact without doing a proper Job Analysis.
• Establish mandatory cutoff scores without careful analysis.
• Apply assessments inconsistently for a job.
• Create your own assessments for hiring without following the established professional standards.

Where in the process should I use assessments?

That depends on the purpose of the assessment. Typically, an assessment is used for either pre-screening or selection. Pre-screening assessments are of shorter duration and are used earlier in the process. These tools are designed to eliminate the "clearly unsuitable" candidates early, before you spend a lot of time with them. Selection assessments are used later and are often used to provide input to the interview process. These are typically provided just prior to the interview. Still other assessments are issued in parallel with interviews and are used as additional input to the final selection committee or hiring manager.

Can assessments integrate with my Applicant Tracking System (ATS)?

Absolutely. Most assessment vendors, including Brainbench, can and do integrate with ATSs, and most ATSs have established standard interfaces, or APIs to enable this process.

Should I show the applicant their results?

This is your choice. Generally, however, results are not shown to the candidate unless the candidate can benefit from them. For example, it may be appropriate to share unsatisfactory skills test results with a candidate to enable them to learn the necessary skill and improve their ability to score well in the future. Personality assessment and employment behavior survey result, on the other hand, may only make the candidate angry because they do not understand the relevance to the job, or they do not agree with the result.

How much can I expect to reduce turnover?

Of course, this depends on your specific situation. However, properly implemented assessment programs have achieved reductions in voluntary turnover by more than 25 percent.