Why Use Assessments?
I’m often asked, “Why use assessments?” The answer is simple, when you have the right people fully engaged in doing the right things, everything gets better. Further, assessments, when used properly, can have a significant impact on reducing turnover; improving employee-manager relationships; lowering stress; and increasing work ethic, productivity, sales, quality, customer service, and profits. Organizations that focus on doing better things, as well as doing things better, invariably use assessments that provide insights to an individual’s core competencies; i.e., their critical thinking styles, behavioral traits, and occupational interests.
That having been said, it’s critical to use the right assessments, valid, reliable assessments that provide insight to the individual’s strengths and blind spots in relationship to that person’s job. Organizations that want to be “Employers of Choice” will use assessments across the full spectrum of employment – hiring, promotion, as well as succession planning and leadership development.
Hiring
In the hiring process, organizations need to use an assessment that measures the candidates’ core competencies in order to discover the “right” candidate over the “top” candidate (i.e., those candidates who simply interviewed well). How many times have you hired a person who interviewed well only to have their evil twin show up 90 days later? Organizations that embrace core competency assessment tools as a part of their hiring process have a clear competitive advantage over organizations that rely on less effective and inefficient traditional hiring practices.
Promotions
When promoting individuals, the use of a good core competency assessment will help you promote the right person, one who has the attributes to be a good manager/leader as opposed to someone who has been a good worker. I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve heard executives complain that when they promoted their best worker into a managerial position they ended up losing on two counts – they lost their best worker and ended up with a lousy manager. Being a good worker doesn’t necessarily equate to being a good boss; i.e., someone who is extremely effective working with, motivating, developing, and managing other people.
Succession Planning and Development
Developing the future leaders of an organization is one of the primary responsibilities, if not the most important responsibility, of management. Employees (but especially millennials) want a
workplace that provides incentives and opportunities for growth and advancement. They want learning and development opportunities that will not only help them with their immediate work, but will prepare them for future opportunities (and this is now the number one reason they leave employers who don’t provide these opportunities). While research has shown employees tend to be more engaged when given opportunities for development, growth, and career progression, it’s also shown there is no one best way to approach succession planning and development (reference “Career Management Today”, Bersin by Deloltte, 2016). So, regardless of the career planning and leadership development strategy an organization pursues, a core competency assessment (such as the PXT SelectTM), when combined with a 360-degree multi-rater feedback assessment, will give your organization insights as to who is ready to lead today and what it will take to develop your potential leaders for tomorrow.
Information uncovered from the use of valid, reliable assessments helps leaders and managers make smarter people decisions. We have the tools, means, and experience and we’d like nothing more than to help you and your organization. Give us a call at (248) 388-0697 or send us at email at [email protected].