Designing skills assessment checklists

Puzzle with 'Competence' on pieces including competency skills

What should be on an Essential skills assessment checklist?

What should be on an Essential skills assessment checklist?

Firstly, is The Assessment Valid?

One of the most important things that needs to be kept in mind while purchasing a pre-employment assessment is its validity. If the assessment is not valid and cannot effectively analyse job performances, it will only mean throwing questions at the candidate without any assurance of accurate results.

Therefore, when purchasing a pre-employment assessment, one must ask certain questions to the vendor. It must be asked if there is any scientific evidence to demonstrate that the assessment is related to job performance. Also, it must be asked if various groups and people across different jobs have demonstrated the assessment.

When the shopkeeper answers the questions, it is important to remember that a positive correlation between job performance and assessment scores influences the analysis of employee success prediction. When the vendor is giving answers related to the validity of the assessment, it must be remembered that a well-structured pre-employment assessment is lined with 0.5 and 0.2 job performance.

Secondly, Does The Assessment Measure Both Cognitive and Psality Traits?

A pre-employment assessment measures many job-related characteristics. Pre-employment assessment not only provides a candidate’s well-rounded picture, it also gives the possible relationship between job performance and assessment scores. According to many experts, general mental ability is the ability of a person to understand complicated problems, ideas and learn from those experiences.

In general mental ability, problem-solving assessment is mainly used to understand the person’s general mental ability. It is not dependent on the candidate’s past knowledge and it is also less likely to differentiate a candidate based on their experimental or educational background.

Social intelligence is also a predictor of employee success. It is the ability of a person to understand social cues and the effect of their actions on others and behave well in social institutions. 

Thirdly, Does the Assessment Allow For Custom Evaluation Criteria?

One of the first steps necessary while using a pre-employment assessment is understanding what the job entails. This will give a good idea regarding what should be accessed instead of assessing candidates in places that seem job-related however, they are dispensable. The main way of effectively doing this is to conduct a job analysis.

For instance, a software developer has high problem-solving abilities and this candidate might excel in the soft developer position; however, some cultural factors must be considered. For example, the candidate might have low-stress tolerance and if the organisation goes through a rapid phase of change, this might falter the stress tolerance of the candidate.

However, low-stress tolerance is less important for the job role compared to the candidate’s problem-solving ability. So, job analysis helps in undertaking the main factors and characters that are important for the job role. It is also important to note that there are also many niche roles that have certain specific attributes.

Hence, the job analysis process will help understand the specific characteristics required for the niche job role. According to the job analysis results, better employee selection can be made.

Fourth, is The Assessment Legal To Use?

In Europe, the United States and Canada, it is completely illegal to discriminate against a candidate based on his age, ability, culture, gender and religion. Based on the characteristics related to gender, culture, religion, age and ability, pre-employment assessment can assess candidates.

For instance, the personality measurement of an individual is less likely to have an adverse impact. There are also many problem-solving assessments such as Raven’s Progressive Matrices, which have less impact than cognitive ability tests. 

Fifth, is The Assessment Designed For Top-of-the-Funnel Use?

The different types of methods that are used in order to screen a candidate, for example, application or resumes and keyword searches. Its are all ineffective since these methods mainly measure the educational background of the candidate and don’t measure the main characteristics of the candidate that are important for the job role.

These methods are also invalid since, many times, the educational background of a candidate might not fit the desired profile. However, that candidate might have effective skills and capabilities. 

According to a survey, 89% of applicants are rejected for employment because they lack soft skills, whereas 11% of applicants are turned down only for lack of technical skills. A psychometric assessment at the top funnel is one of the main methods that can be used as an effective alternative to the usual methods.  

This method will help the managers to effectively select suitable candidates. 

And finally, does The Assessment Have A Great User Experience?

Pre-employment assessments are important for both candidates and hiring managers. When a candidate gets positive results on their pre-employment assessment, they are more likely to take the offer, think great of the company, and recommend the employer to others. Hence, only positive parts from the pre-employment assessment must be shared with the candidate.

On the other hand, psychometric assessment tools are quite complicated and many managers face huge difficulties in working with these tools. Many assessment methods have taken note of this issue and aim to make the psychometric assessment process easier and more convenient for hiring managers. 

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