Recruiting and hiring the right people for the right position is an essential piece of an organization’s success. Employee selection is much more complex than an impressive resume and a feeling that they’re a cultural fit. When your employee selection is approached incorrectly, it may result in high turnover, low morale, increased stress, and decreased productivity.
The goal of employee selection is to find the maximum “fit” between the individual and the job, thereby maximizing individual and business performance. Reaching this goal requires a multi-faceted approach including job analysis, best athlete modeling, selection assessments, and competency modeling, just to name a few components that would make up your customized hiring approach for your organization. Employee selection is a strategy that could bring your organization to the next level.
One of the most important facets of employee selection is the use of assessments. Assessments can make the process of identifying what that maximum “fit” is, making it easy for organizations to make their candidate selection.
Selection assessments are pre-employment tests that measure a variety of competencies. When it comes to using these assessments for employee selection, it’s important to conduct a job analysis to determine what the competency guideline is for the position you are aiming to fill. It’s also important that the competency guideline is backed by research and facts. It’s also important to remove potential personal biases from the job analysis.
During the recruiting and hiring process, the execution of administering selection assessments is relatively simple, especially if you are using a firm for administration and reporting. It can be as simple as shooting off an email for a candidate to take an online assessment, gathering the results, and comparing multiple candidates against the competency guideline created from the job analysis, resulting in choosing the candidate with the maximum “fit” to be successful in that position.
It’s also important to be aware that you can measure objective, cognitive abilities, as well as subjective, personality characteristics. The combination of both objective and subjective competencies can give you the most accurate needs assessment.
There’s also a number of EEO regulations and laws that you must follow, so it’s recommended to use a professional in developing your employee selection assessment process to ensure compliance.
BLR recommends the following suggestions should be followed by all employers implementing a testing program:
- Avoid starting a testing program without professional advice
- Procure tests from established sources
- Keep complete records of all test given, both to employees and to rejected applicants
- Keep test results separate from the personnel file do that comparisons can more readily be made for validation purposes
- Use hiring policies and procedures consistently
While assessments are important for employee selection, they should only be considered one-third of the total hiring decision-making process. The other two-thirds that play a critical part include cultural fit, the candidate’s background and experience, and the interview.
