Why Use Assessments ?

Historically, employers have depended upon resumés, references and interviews as their sources of information when making hiring decisions. In practice, these have proved to be inadequate for consistently selecting good employees. When training employees, a "one size fits all" approach has failed to provide the desired results. When selecting people for promotion, otherwise excellent employees have too often been miscast into roles they could not perform satisfactorily. Clearly, an essential ingredient for making "people decisions" has been missing from the formula.

During the past generation, the use of assessments has become more and more important to employers who wished to put the right people into jobs, provide effective training, aid managers in being more productive and promote people into positions where they would succeed. The use of assessments has resulted in extraordinary increases in productivity while reducing employee relations problems, employee turnover, stress, tension, conflict and overall human resources expenses.

Several factors contributed to the failure of traditional hiring methods. Resumés often contain false claims of education and experience while they omit information employers would like to have before making hiring decisions.

References are of little value because most employers will tell you nothing but "name, rank and serial number" regarding former employees.

Thus, the interview too often became the most important factor in deciding whom to hire or promote. But experience has shown that there is only a coincidental correlation between the ability to deliver well in an interview and to deliver well on the job. Studies have pegged this correlation at 14% - one good employee in every seven hires. Is it any wonder employers resort to "throwing mud against the wall to see if any sticks?"

The first assessments used to improve the selection process measured personality characteristics. They helped raise the hiring success percentage to 38%.

Then, when applicants were assessed for abilities as well as personality, employers found they hired the right people 54% of the time.

Becoming more sophisticated, an interests assessment was added to the mix, which improved results again, to 66%.

But the most impressive results have been achieved with the introduction of integrated assessments that not only measure a combination of factors, but also introduce the component of "job match." These advanced assessments employ cutting-edge technology combined with empirical data to evaluate "The Total Person" in such a way as to measure how much candidates are like the employees who are exemplary in performing their duties. These 21st Century assessments successfully identify potentially excellent employees better than 75% of the time.

An extremely well documented study, published in Harvard Business Review concluded that "Job Match" is by far the most reliable predictor of effectiveness on the job. The study considered many factors including the age, sex, race, education and experience of approximately 300,000 subjects. It evaluated their job performance and found no significant statistical differences, except in the area of "Job Match." The conclusion: "It's not experience that counts or college degrees or other accepted factors; success hinges on a fit with the job."

The only reliable method for evaluating "Job Match" is with a properly designed assessment instrument that measures the essential job-related characteristics particular to each specific job. Profiles International has assessments designed for this purpose.

For your information, here is a chart showing the elements of the hiring process and their effectiveness in picking the right people.

Raia & Associates Inc.
401 B Venture Drive - Lewis Center, OH  43035
Phone: (614) 785-6882 | Fax: (614) 785-6884
Email: raia@raia-assoc.com