The Metiss Group's Blog

Here are a few questions from an assessment a hiring manager used to evaluate a candidate:

     What is your favorite color? red / blue / green / black / yellow

     What pet are you most like? dog / cat / reptile / fish / rock

     What tree best describes you? maple / magnolia / pine / oak / citrus

Apparently the results of this questionnaire are supposed to describe one’s personality and help managers determine whether or not someone is a good fit for an organization.  Sadly, some hiring managers use this tool and, more concerning, some actually act on the results.

Assessment tools are becoming more and more common in the hiring process.  Unfortunately, poorly designed and misleading assessments also are becoming more common.  When evaluating assessment instruments consider the following:

• Time to complete – don’t let a too lengthly questionnaire discourage candidates; very short questionnaires often are not comprehensive enough
• Multi-dimensional – a good assessment should evaluate multiple aspects of human behaviors (personality, motivations, skill sets)
• Reliable and valid – the assessment must measure what it is intended to evaluate with reasonable accuracy
• Tied to job requirements – the assessment should measure characteristics required for a job
• Expert interpretation – a good assessment requires certified interpretation
• Invest $300 to $2,500 – the investment for quality assessments and interpretations varies but the adage “you get what you pay for” certainly applies

Empower your hiring managers with quality assessments and they will make more successful hires.

This entry was posted on January 4, 2015 at 7:56 pm and is filed under Selection. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.