How much can we learn about someone from a test? As it turns out, quite a bit! However, the process involves much more than simply asking a series of questions. There’s a science involved, and that’s where KeenHire comes in.
Right now, there are more than 1000 pre-employment psychometric assessment tools in the selection market. Many of them are the same test branded differently. So, if you want to make better hiring decisions starting today, the key to success with these tests is wisely choosing the right assessment tool.
Each evaluation serves a specific purpose. Some are a good “preview” into a candidate. They work well for sorting through massive amounts of applicants and narrowing the pool of potential interviewees. Yet these assessment tools are clearly not positioned to function as effective hiring and selection indicators.
Other psychometric assessments help give insight into a person’s work style and fundamental workplace preferences. These play a critical role in matching, coaching, and assigning new tasks. However, these assessments clearly state they are not to be used as OFCCP-compliant hiring tools.
What’s the Best Approach?
A good pre-employment psychometric assessment test has a purpose, accurately evaluates candidates, and improves hiring decisions. It supports a behavioral interviewing process to uncover a candidate’s values, motivations, habits, work styles, behaviors, and likely future performance in a well-defined role.
First, make sure it’s clear why an Assessment is needed:
Have you benchmarked a role with nine to eleven top performers?
Are you creating a first-rate Top Grading program to attract and hire additional peak performers?
Do you experience higher than expected turnover, or are hiring costs negatively impacting profitability?
Is a role difficult to fill, or challenging to succeed at, where only a certain type of person with specific traits can succeed?
Next, find out what is most important to you in a psychometric assessment. Is it validation, distortion, or the 4/5ths rule, or is it cost, speed, and accessibility? Do you need an assessment to tell you if candidates pass or fail, or are you looking for an assessment that lets you learn about a potential employee and how they can develop to the next level? What will most help you make better hiring decisions?
At KeenHire, We Live This Stuff KeenHire founder Margaret Graziano and her team have spent more than five years analyzing more than 100 top pre-employment psychometric assessment tools in the marketplace. We have chosen a group of assessment tests we are proud to recommend and endorse. Each quarter we review a new set of products and consider adopting those that fit our standards.
As a recruiter committed to improving your hiring practices starting today, you may choose to administer psychometric assessments yourself, or alternatively, you may choose to outsource that part of the hiring process to a KeenHire Consultant.
Get KeenCertified – We Train You How We train KeenCertified Selection Consultants and Recruiters to understand the theory behind pre-employment psychometric assessments and tools. Our training digs deep into the psychometrics and brain activities that impact performance. If you choose to become a certified assessment provider, we’ll train you how to identify the fundamentals needed to select the top psychometric assessment for potential employees. Additionally, you will master interpreting evaluation results and making solid hiring recommendations.
In most cases, there is a particular set of top psychometric assessments that best fit a company. We train you to understand the employers you serve: their corporate goals and hiring objectives, their hiring process, and the role itself, before recommending top assessment tools.
As a KeenCertified Selection Consultant, you’ll then work side by side with an employer to train them on implementing these assessments into their hiring, selection, on-boarding, employee engagement, succession planning and employee development processes.
Just as skill testing and background checks have become commonplace, psychometric assessment tools will soon be the norm. Contact KeenHire to find out more about becoming KeenCertified or to discuss how KeenHire can deliver assessment solutions that help you make better hiring decisions starting today.