A Cool New Way to Use Your Hiring Assessments

More and more of our clients are taking advantage of hiring assessments to improve their interviewing and hiring processes. They make use of what they learn about a candidate from the assessment to help them select the right talent with the right competencies and attitudes for the specific job opening and corporate culture. 

Does your company include assessments as part of their hiring process? If so, you as a talent leader can put them to another and very productive use. Don’t let those assessments languish in a file in the HR office. Bring them to light so that you can apply them effectively as training needs assessments.

Without conducting a separate (and likely overlapping) survey, you can benefit from the valuable information on individuals for whom you have the responsibility to engage, develop and retain in at least three areas:

1. Strengths and weaknesses
The hiring assessment should tell you the initial areas of strength (proficiency and fit) and the areas of weakness (where the employee needs further development).  These skill, knowledge and attitude gaps that need to be bridged in order for the employee to succeed are a great starting place for a 90-day on-boarding and individual development plan. This baseline information allows you and the employee’s manager to coach toward targeted performance improvement. You get to focus early on what the employee needs to initially succeed in their new job.

2. Learning style
The hiring assessment often also pinpoints the employee’s preferred learning style so you can adapt content delivery and development approaches appropriately. The more tailored the approach to learning, the more successful the transfer of training will be to on-the-job application.

3. Motivation
The hiring assessment should also tell you how well the new hires know themselves. The data can be a helpful tool in discussions with the employee about where they excel and where they need further development. Assuming the company hired someone who is committed to self-improvement, and who is willing to put the time and effort into continuous learning, the assessment results will provide a great baseline for performance management.

Consider the hiring assessment as another tool in your talent management toolbox to better understand the training needs of individual employees. You can target learning programs and individual development plans to better address the most critical competencies for the roles they fulfill, now and in the future.

Learn more at: http://www.lsaglobal.com/training-needs-assessment/