In a field where there are limitless options of assessment tools, many with very bold (and often baffling) claims from vendors, it can be difficult to know where to start when evaluating new assessment tools or technologies.
Here are the 8 key questions that you should be asking of any new assessment tool before deciding to implement it in your process.
This may seem like an obvious question but being clear about how the results of the assessment correlate to performance in role is often overlooked and warrants investigation and evidence.
Ask yourself, if the same person takes the assessment a couple of months apart, or if two equally well-suited people take it, will you get consistent results? If not, there’s an issue. A tool can’t be predictive if it’s not reliable.
At a time where every candidate counts, using the assessment process to make you positively stand out from the crowd will result in more offers being accepted. Look for tools that make you stand out from the rest.
Not every assessment needs to give a definitive hire/no hire answer, but the evidence that any one tool provides must give actionable insight. If you have a tool that hiring managers choose to ignore or rationalise away when they don’t like the result, it’s not worth having.
Aside from the fact that tools that are not fair may be subject to legal challenge on the basis of discrimination, which could be extremely costly both financially and reputationally. Limiting the talent pool by creating barriers and making some feel excluded is going to make your life much more difficult in a tight talent market.
We’d expect any one assessment to add to the broader picture in an overall selection process. So how the results of any particular assessment aligns to the rest is important. Additionally, truly aligned assessments can provide valuable insights that can inform onboarding, development and other talent management initiatives.
If people drop out of the process directly before the assessment, or they begin and don’t complete – never to be heard of again, that assessment may be unnecessarily limiting your pool. Additionally, for each candidate that drops out, how many others are there that completed but got a negative view of the organisation? The candidate experience must be prioritised when designing an assessment process, assessments should be relevant and appropriate for any given role, particularly in a candidate short market.
You could have the most robust assessment process in the world, but if you don’t have the budget, time or expertise to run it, it’s not going to be much use. Think, practically, about the specific resources you will need to deliver the assessment and evaluate if this is realistic and appropriate for the benefit the assessment will provide.
Of course, no one assessment tool or stage is going to solve your recruitment and retention problems, but well selected and deployed assessments can be game changing in the results they achieve.
Omni’s resourcing transformation team are highly experienced in designing and deploying assessments, evaluating new tools and technologies or auditing existing processes. If you want advice on tool selection, or have a particular assessment challenge that you’d like to bounce off someone that has tackled more than their fair share of assessment shaped problems, contact us on 0161 929 4343 or enquiries@omni.com
Omni offers a comprehensive range of assessment solutions tailored to meet your organisation’s unique needs. Our services include custom assessment design, psychometric analysis, skills-based framework development, assessment centre design and delivery, development centres, expert assessor training, and flexible support. Whether you’re seeking to improve your hiring process or develop your existing talent, our evidence-based assessments ensure reliable and effective evaluation.
Absolutely. Omni’s development centres are specifically designed to unlock the potential of your existing employees. Our structured assessments, aligned to your internal frameworks, are designed to identify individuals’ strengths, skills gaps, and areas for improvement, informing targeted developmental activities that drive real impact on individual and organisational performance.
Our assessment solutions are designed to elevate your hiring process by identifying the best candidates based on their skills, potential, and fit for the role. We help you define the critical competencies required for success, develop tailored assessments that accurately evaluate these competencies, and provide deep insights into candidates’ aptitude and personality traits. This evidence-based approach improves productivity, reduces turnover, and ensures a positive candidate experience. There are several benefits that personality profiling can bring to the recruitment process, such as supporting inclusive hiring, improved decision making, and increased efficiency.
The Resourcing Effectiveness Assessment (REA) is a rapid and flexible audit of an organisation’s resourcing maturity. The REA takes an integrated approach with key data derived from surveying recent hires, regretted candidates, and hiring managers; focus groups with strategic leaders, hiring managers and HR/TA teams; align with desktop research. Evaluation uses Omni’s four-level maturity index across five key areas: Strategy, People & Experience, Process, Tech & Data and EDI, with a further 20 sub-categories.
At Omni, we prioritise an evidence-based approach that ensures reliable and effective assessment processes. Our team of expert Organisational Psychologists brings extensive experience in designing and delivering robust assessments that are inclusive, skills-focused, and tailored to your unique organisational needs. We also offer flexibility and support throughout the assessment process, ensuring successful implementation and tangible results.
