Why HOBAN’S Clients Use Assessments When Hiring…and Why You Should Too!
I’ve heard recruitment described as both an art and science. However, with a degree in Psychology and a Masters in Science, I am a firm believer that recruitment falls in the realm of the latter. An evidence-based approach to recruitment helps hiring managers and recruitment teams make better hiring decisions and find the right people to build great teams.
Assessments provide objective data points and additional insights to support the overall recruitment process. At HOBAN, we use personality, ability assessments, skills-based, and bespoke assessments. As we are not affiliated with any specific assessment providers, we are truly agnostic and can provide an unbiased approach to the assessments we select.
HOBAN consults and partners with our clients to recommend a complete hiring solution that adds measurable value to their processes. Our assessments can also be tailored to industry, role level, and can explore a combination of behavioural and technical skills specific to the role requirements and challenges.
See below for the benefits you can experience – just like our many clients – if you choose to use assessments when hiring.
Improved prediction of job performance
A client had systemic people issues as a result of staff not having the resilience to keep pace with the demanding nature of the working environment. Through an in-depth role analysis, we identified the skills and traits required to perform well and worked to develop suitable assessments to recruit the right people.
Remove unconscious bias to create a more inclusive process
Recruitment teams and hiring managers can look beyond the information presented (such as candidate name, where they worked, or where they studied) and focus on the skills and attributes required to fulfil the role successfully.
Improve the experience for candidates and hiring teams
Most assessments are mobile-enabled and typically take 15-20 minutes to complete. This allows candidates and hiring teams to quickly and easily determine if they are a high potential for the role– saving on investing too much time upfront.
Tap into the candidates’ innate abilities
There are many benefits to assessing candidates’ underlying capability but here are two: firstly, it allows you to look beyond technical skills and experience to leadership qualities so you can invest internally and grow your talent. Secondly, it can overcome any bias or shortcoming of CVs and the interview process (which is better suited to explore experience). This is particularly helpful when looking to hire front-line or entry-level staff in which the candidate pool may have limited experience and the ability to adapt and pick up new information quickly is more relevant to success.
Assessing skills and attributes that are difficult to gauge using traditional methods
HOBAN can create tailored assessments such as work samples or case studies to help clients assess role-specific abilities relevant to the success of the role, these may include critical thinking or communicating with influence. This also provides candidates with a richer experience and a snapshot of the actual role (in turn impacting engagement and attrition rates).
Provide development opportunity – for successful and unsuccessful candidates
Regardless of the application outcome, candidates can receive results from their assessments. The feedback is a great development opportunity and is helpful beyond the selection process. Many clients have used it to assist with onboarding, training, and management of individuals. The insights prove to be of such great value that clients often request that assessments are undertaken by the whole team to leverage individual strengths and help them work better together.
Overall, assessments help us make better hiring decisions. They are inexpensive for clients and quick for candidates to complete. Hiring teams report increased confidence and the statistical data behind reliable assessments makes them legally defensible. Using assessments saves time by ensuring the right person is hired. Assessments are also a great way to support diversity and inclusion hiring initiatives. HOBAN’s Disability Confident Recruiter accreditation allows us to further customise our recruitment approach to support D&I efforts.
Want to take an evidence-based approach to your hiring? Reach out to me directly on 0477 000 514 or katieb@hoban.com.au to see how we can assist.
Assessment and Design Specialist
