Here are 5 key reasons for companies to use assessments in both hiring and other HR management functions. They are extracted from a recent article in Workforce Management written by Ashley Shadday entitled “Assessments 101”.

1. SCREENING OR JOB FIT: “Assessment tests, when used as part of the hiring process, provide employers with an effective way of deciding which candidates are the most qualified for a specific job. Though it may seem that selecting talent would be easy in the present climate, hiring managers have their work cut out for them with many more résumés to weed through.”
2. GET A BETTER READ ON JOB APPLICANTS: “Assessment tools provide managers a more in-depth read on the individual seeking employment, leading to more accurate and long-lasting hiring decisions. Assessments go beyond the typical means of analysis to highlight candidate qualities that might not be evident during a more basic interview process.”
3. REDUCE TURNOVER & SAVE MONEY: “… losing an employee is costly. ….replacing valued performers can reach more than two times an employee’s salary for high-level or specialized positions. Even replacing entry- to mid-level employees can be expensive, once training and recruitment costs are taken into account.
4. IMPROVE FAIRNESS OF YOUR HIRING PROCESS: “… assessment testing provides the ability to improve fair hiring practices by standardizing the hiring process. Assessments, when properly created and validated, should treat all applicants in the same, non-subjective manner and should not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, religion, disability or age.”
5. CORPORATE CAREER & SUCCESSION PLANNING: “Assessments can be used for employee development to determine a person’s best role. …workers’ roles and responsibilities change over time …Testing … allows organizations to move workers into roles that make the most of their unique qualifications.

Ms.Shadday goes on to cover other subjects in her article that are also very well presented. For the full text of the article, please refer to Assessments 101: An Introduction to Candidate Testing at www.workforce.com.
Posted by: KJ Danderfer February 1, 2010