Assessments in the Hiring Process: An Employer Perspective

The Ask

In your job search, have you ever gotten to the final rounds and been asked to complete some psychometric assessments? Now these aren’t Buzzfeed quizzes so your potential new employer knows what type of bread you are. They’re also not trying to diagnose you or dig up your childhood trauma when asking you to interview with a psychologist.

But Why?

Honestly, they’re asking you to do an assessment process because they’re scared of making the wrong decision. Assessments, when administered and interpreted properly, give employers objective data. Interviews are incredibly biased with people often being hired on “vibes” or because the hiring manager wants to grab a beer with the candidate. It’s not always based on actual culture fit, needs of the team, and possession of characteristics needed for the job. Assessments are a way to get rid of the noise and provide data, plain and simple.

Beyond the hiring decision, assessments provide useful information for employers when creating an onboarding plan for their new team member. Skilled and experienced assessors can create management recommendations in their summaries. An example I’ve provided to clients in the past looked like:

With the candidate’s fast pace and autonomous style, set clear guardrails immediately on which decisions require management input and which can be made independently.

What's Next?

If the employer and assessor offer (which I highly recommend) assessment debriefs for candidates, hired or not, candidates get something back for their effort. They learn more about themselves, helpful for their job search or overall professional development.

Employers want to hire a good fit for their team, and they want them to succeed. Hiring is time consuming (for employers and candidates) and expensive. The cost of failure ranges from half to two-times the employee’s salary. If you’re applying for a $100k per year role, that means the employer spent between $50,000-$200,000 searching for the right candidate. Trust me, they want their new employee to succeed. The assessments can help employers create a custom onboarding roadmap (if they have the time/ability/skill, but that’s another story) to get new employees up to speed quickly.

In Conclusion...

So the next time an employer asks you to do some assessments, feel free to ask a few questions. But hopefully, the information shared in this article will help ease some of the anxiety you may feel about this process. Just be yourself, answer honestly, and get ready to learn more about both you and the company cultures that fit with your personality.

Want to learn more? Reach out to samantha@ygiservices.com with your questions or to start an assessment process for potential hires or current employees.