Assessment is the process of measuring a person's knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal style to evaluate behaviors that are relevant to successful job performance.
In contrast to performance evaluation - which looks backward in time - assessment focuses on predicting future performance and potential.
Assessment can be used in a variety of ways.
Most of my clients utilize the technique for selection of external candidates or for promotion of current employees.
Other clients use assessments to help identify high potential employees.
Some clients use the process as a general development strategy for more senior managers and individual contributors.
Finally, assessment also is used as a basis for working with individuals who have been identified as having significant development needs that need to be communicated and addressed.
A recent survey of Human Resource professionals indicates that assessments for selection are most frequently used at the technical/professional and managerial levels.
In my consulting practice, I conduct assessments for middle-management and more senior organizational positions.
Survey results also indicate that the use of specific assessment tools for selection is increasing.
There are essentially two categories of assessment tools.
One category includes instruments that measure an individual's competence, such as cognitive tests (to measure problem solving skills), skills tests (such as reading skills), or work simulations (such as role plays).
The second category of assessment tools involves instruments that measure and predict how an individual typically will behave.
Personality tests are an example of this latter type of assessment instrument.
There are a number of reasons that assessment tools are becoming more popular.
Many instruments, such as personality tests, can be completed on-line.
Candidates therefore can complete many of these tests at home at a time that is convenient for them.
This feature adds efficiency to the overall selection process.
Next, because these tools help identify quality candidates more quickly, less time is wasted interviewing less qualified candidates.
They therefore can save companies both time and money.
Third, assessment tools bring fairness and consistency to the selection process, in that all candidates go through the same process.
Finally, they help to measure characteristics and attributes that are difficult to evaluate though other means.
I use both types of assessment instruments in my own consulting practice.
My typical battery of assessment instruments consists of cognitive tests and personality tests, with the occasional use of a simulation.
I use the results from these tools in conjunction with an in-depth interview to make selection and promotion recommendations to my clients.
I like to have candidates complete personality tests before I interview them, as the results help me prepare for my interview and provide me insights into the candidate before we even meet.
It is essential that assessment tools be professionally developed.
There are many excellent firms that publish assessment instruments.
Reputable publishers require users to complete a form which documents their qualifications to purchase certain instruments.
Qualifications may be in the form of education, experience, and/or specific training.
In general, instruments which require a more sophisticated level of interpretation, such as personality tests, will require more advanced qualifications.
Work only with test publishers that have research evidence of the validity of their selection instruments.
In other words, make sure that the test publisher can provide documented evidence of the relationship between performance on the test and performance on a job similar to the one that you are attempting to fill.
A test that predicts job performance for administrative assistant positions may not, for example, predict job performance for managerial positions.
Similarly, make sure that the selection tool is based on a normative rather than an ipsative scoring system.
Ipsative scores are found in any instrument in which the individual is forced to choose between different options or give a yes/no or true/false response.
Scores on one scale are compared against scores on another scale in ipsative Tests.
In normative tests, candidates are given a number of response choices, and scores are compared against an appropriate reference group.
Normative selection tools can be used to benchmark the ideal candidate against your organization's specific performance data.
It is also essential that the content of the instruments you utilize in your selection process correspond to the content of the job in question.
Even though a test may be valid predictor of job performance, what the test measures may not be relevant for your particular position.
In other words, if mechanical aptitude is not a necessary job requirement, then it is inappropriate to use a test for mechanical aptitude, even if that test is valid.
A job analysis is therefore an excellent starting point to direct you to the instruments that may be helpful in identifying quality candidates.