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How to select and recruit the right people for the right role has long been a question that many organisations have wrestled with. There is a lot of evidence where the selection process has definitely “got it wrong”. You can probably think of a few examples yourself, perhaps some people in your organisation or even in your own team may fit into this category. So your question really is – “How did they make it in here through our systems and processes?” And how do you identify affordable recruiting solutions that help you avoid costly hiring mistakes?
The answer to that often lies in the selecting and recruiting process itself, and of course, the recruitment tools that are used. Let’s try and unravel some of the misunderstandings and get some clarity that will help you moving forward.
You Can’t Rely Solely on Interviews
First of all, it’s important to acknowledge that the interview process is an important part of the strategy for recruitment – whether for external candidates looking to join the organisation, or for internal individuals looking for promotion. The skill level of interviewers can vary considerably, and I suggest we can all think of examples on both ends of the spectrum of how successful that interview process has been.
So, whilst we appreciate the importance of interviewing and its part in the selection process, it should be stressed that relying on interviews alone is a recipe for a whole range of problems. And that raises the issue of bias, both intended and unintended. Taking bias out of the process is a vital and key part of the selection process.
So how can you remove bias? One way might be some training for your Interviewers, and there are a number of solutions available to support that initiative. Even better would be to remove any bias in advance of the interview.
For a number of years now, the application of a recruitment tool such as a psychometric assessment has been the natural step for inclusion in the recruiting strategy. The key benefit of any such platform, and this certainly applies to our solution, is that it is absolutely unbiased. The program does not register any level of bias in its algorithm whatsoever. It is ignorant of any form of gender, race, political or religious preferences, disabilities or personal preferences. This then should be the first step in removing any potential for bias in any selection strategy.
This could well be a very important factor in your considerations for selecting the right recruitment tools. Of increasing importance in an increasingly litigious world is that our selection assessments are Legally Defensible (more on that later).
If we consider the options for selecting an assessment platform, there are a number of key things that you should consider. Let’s spend some time now getting some clarity on what to use, and how to use it.
Ensure your chosen platform is best-in-class
In a market where there is so much “noise” from so many different suppliers, it can be overwhelming – if not distracting – wading through it all and making a selection. It can be a challenge to cut through and make some sense of it all so you can make an informed decision. Let’s see if we can help here.
In this incredibly “noisy” situation, you can often find a very broad range of solutions available in the market. From the overly complex, and hence often expensive, solutions through to the vague and often pointless solutions at the bottom end, where everything seems so extremely cheap and in actual fact, isn’t. Clearly anything that doesn’t really work, that doesn’t deliver the outcomes you require, isn’t cheap as it is just a cost with no real benefit. Selecting the right solution for your needs based on price alone is a high risk and should be avoided at all costs.
Here is a note of caution as you evaluate and select your solution of choice – be extremely careful and evaluate with all the information you need. Identify one that has sound science as its base, one that is validated regularly and indeed annually, one that is Normative in structure rather than Ipsative, and one that can demonstrate a sound background of delivering very real and tangible business outcomes and benefits.
Not all psychometric assessments are created equal
On some reputable supplier sites, you will find a very clear message stating why the solution should not be used for selection. This raises an issue that some people do not recognise – that not all psychometrics are designed and structured the same way to deliver the same selection report. In fact, they are structured for purposes other than selection, a fact they have found it necessary to clarify with their customers.
One such example is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The MBTI site itself claims that it should not be used for employee selection for the following reasons:
- The MBTI identifies people who may like doing a particular kind of work, but not how well they might do that work.
- The MBTI does not identify the skills or abilities that predict success at any job.
- The questions on the MBTI are transparent ¬ respondents can “come out to be” any type that appears wanted for a job.
- An organisation that uses the MBTI for selection risks its credibility with prospective and current employees who are aware that use of the MBTI for selection is inappropriate.
It is therefore clear that not all solutions in this area are the same or can deliver you the same outcomes. Again, your selection protocols need to be sufficiently robust to ensure that you can remove all the “noise” and “promise” to cut through to the solutions that can, and do, deliver on your selecting and recruiting requirements. Such solutions have the sound science that you can rely on to support your selecting and recruiting process, have the track record of success that clearly earns your trust, and hence help you to avoid the mistakes.
Are the assessments you are currently using legally defensible?
For our part, we give you easy access to the latest science for all your selection, promotion, and development investments via our extensive range of assessments. An important part of our offering, and one that should be an important part of your selection criteria, is that the assessments are legally defensible.
Every organisation should strive to ensure that all of their employee selection methods are equitable and legally compliant. As long as the tests are assessing skills and traits that are job-related, using consistent and unaltered tests will make hiring decisions more defensible by adding an extra layer of objectivity to the hiring process.
Organisations that implement testing programs in accordance with legal guidelines are therefore better prepared to defend these procedures should a legal challenge to their hiring practices ever arise.
Our assessments are legally defensible because they follow a consistent process from start to finish and do not allow for deviations to be applied. This results in a solid assessment process from the questionnaire, the capturing of results, the report which shows the results of the respondent, across several areas and plotted on scientifically validated scales. They remove any potential for bias, conscious or unconscious, and hence have been successfully used as evidence in court cases. That is NOT a claim that most assessments available today can make.
The right measurement is the key to success
Let’s be clear, measurement really is the key to success. The question is, measurement against what?
Our assessments measure candidates against millions of profiles of people from over 3,500 organisations, accumulated over decades of work and research. We provide you highly developed and sophisticated ways in which to measure factors of success using a variety of normative profiles.
An example is where a candidate is identified as a High Performer in one of our reports. The data points used in our assessments have compared the candidate to a sample of millions of other high performers, so you can be confident that the results are accurate and validated.
Intelligence-based vs personality-based assessments
Most assessment tools on the market can be categorised as based on either intelligence or personality. The use of these two constructs in predicting job performance has been a central line of research in Organisational Psychology literature for years.
Research to date appears to show quite definitively that IQ tests are very strong predictors of academic achievement and test-taking ability. However, they offer very little in the way of predictive validity when it comes to actual on-the-job performance (McClelland, 2008).
On the other hand, personality assessments have demonstrated strong predictive validity with job performance, in part because of their multidimensional composition. Therefore, just like jobs have multiple requirements and responsibilities, personality assessments provide information on a number of important character traits.
Our assessments allow organisations to find the types of people who possess the inherent attributes that most naturally fit with the responsibilities associated with the role. In addition, because personality is a stable and dispositional construct, very accurate predictions can be made from a personality assessment regarding the behaviours and work habits that the candidate will likely display.
Accounting for socially desirable responding
Simply as a result of the context in which they are used, pre-employment selection tools are extremely susceptible to what is generally referred to as “socially desirable responses”. In other words, people are trying to rate themselves in a favourable manner. Consequently, it is imperative that a valid selection tool has the ability to identify favourable response patterns as the predictive validity of the instrument is inherently tied to the accuracy of the data being entered. A candidate’s scores must reflect their actual personality for the scores to be valid indicators of their inherent potential.
To accomplish this, our range of POP™ recruiting tools has three unique psychometric properties built in to ensure the validity and reliability of the results. To put it another way, our POP™ assessments have a built-in “lie detector”, meaning that you can rely of the results you receive.
Should I spend money on certifications?
Every dollar you invest in assessments must deliver a solid return on your investments. So here at Validity Group, we remove all the unnecessary costs for you.
Our reports are carefully designed and structured by our brains trust team of 5x leading PhD psychologists. The reports provide your hiring managers and HR & recruitment personnel with a distinct level of clarity that is often missing from other reports.
This means that you don’t really need to invest in unnecessary certifications and days of training programs. Rather, you can simply invest in Validity Group Assessments and reports that deliver meaningful, sound data that everyone can understand and apply.
Clear, precise data points will positively impact your business. Today, it is vital to remove all unnecessary costs, bottlenecks and delays in the selection and recruitment systems so that organisations can move with the speed and accuracy that they need.
Our free assessment offer
We invite you to try one of our assessments for free, so you can see for yourself why they are so unique. Our assessments are role-specific, and you can nominate which assessment you would like to try and experience how it can add value to your recruitment tools. I’d encourage you to take advantage of this limited time offer; we believe you will experience the benefits in a real business environment, which is more powerful than just reading about them.
You will also have access to the Interpretation Guides, which add some further depth to your experience and support our contention that expensive certifications are unnecessary.
In fact, rather than taking the free assessment yourself, why not use it to support the development or promotion of someone in your organisation, or to support a potential external hire? This will give you a valuable, real-life experience of the full significance and benefit to your organisation.
Make this your opportunity to create the extraordinary
The original question in this article – “How did they make it in here through our systems and processes?” – was based upon the ability to accurately select and predict the performance of individuals in various roles in your organisation. In this article, I have attempted to demonstrate how our selection platform is carefully designed and structured to support your pursuit of success.
We have even taken it a step further in giving you access to our current offer of a free assessment for your own evaluation.
As your organisation moves forward from the pandemic, it has the opportunity to undertake significant change – to move forward and respond to new opportunities for growth. That gives rise to a review and stocktake of the current talent level within your organisation, and can deliver the opportunity to refresh the talent levels that you need going forward.
Now you really can create the extraordinary with our impressive and powerful selection tools. They can be integrated into your own protocols and systems and your choice of HCM (Human Capital Management) platform, LMS, and CRM.
At last, you have the most user-friendly assessment platform that everyone across the organisation can access and use. Enjoy the very real scientific inputs of making selection and promotion decisions fast, easy and above all affordable, and all without the need for additional expense.
Until now, selecting high-performing team members has been a challenge, and the process too often slowed by cumbersome systems and processes. Don’t be one of those organisations that continues to struggle with the burden of clunky systems. Take this opportunity to apply our user-friendly range of assessments and see how you can move your organisation forward rapidly and successfully.
In conclusion
Your recruitment selections are now made incredibly easy for all your hiring managers, recruiters, and business managers with our Predictor of Potential (POP™) range of assessments. Based on predictive analytics and thorough scientific validation, our extensive range of tools accurately predict Potential, Performance, and Retention for a broad variety of roles and industries. One size does not fit all, and you now have easy access to solutions designed specifically for you.
The predictive model of the POP™ range of solutions is one you can rely on, based as it is on a database of over 10 million assessments, and one that has constantly evolved through multiple editions to be one of the world’s leading employee selection tools. POP™ remains the instrument of choice for many of the most competitive organisations in the world and it has been proven to be highly effective in predicting both performance and retention. And finally, because they are legally defensible, you have the comfort and security you need in today’s market.
It is now your turn to create the extraordinary using our full range of assessment tools for all your recruitment and selection decisions.
Here are some suggestions for using POP™ assessments:
- Select the best candidates for all your roles
- Predict potential of success of candidates – external or internal
- Retention of candidates – reducing staff turnover costs
- Promotions and career development
- Assess achievement motivation
- Measure independence and ideal work environment
- Assess cultural fit
The choice is easy, because your first choice is Validity Group Assessments.
You can find out more at Validity Assessments or email us at info@validity.group.
