Hiring Assessments & Selection Workshops

Three Stage Assessment

Human resources departments need a range of assessment tools to streamline the talent acquisition process. Kutsko Consulting's three stage process incorporates a number of assessment tools human resources can rely on pre hire to not only undertake talent assessment, but to more effectively define the role for hiring as well as uncover existing team dynamics to make sure candidates are a good fit with the existing group and mitigate the chances of disruptive conflict and unhelpful behaviors on the job.

Stage one occurs prior to screening candidates. It occurs over a 1-3 week timeframe and involves pre-employment guided discovery of the role at hand. Often there is turnover in a position because there's a conflict between the person doing the job and the job itself. Our assessment tools at this first stage of the hiring process help us to review and align your existing job description with the types of candidates you want to attract. You may need to describe some elements differently in order to attract the right candidates. Talent management starts with attracting the right talent to a specific, relevant job description. We follow a proven, patented process to facilitate a brainstorming session with Subject Matter Experts on your team who understand the role best. This process eliminates any bias which may be present when any single human resource professional or hiring manager writes a job description in a vacuum. The outcome of this phase is a Job Benchmark Report which you can compare candidates against using our talent matching software together with advice from our experts before you make a choice on candidates.

The role definition process

Defining the most precise match for any role involves the following steps:

1. Review your existing job description
2. Facilitate a brainstorming session with 3-5 subject matter experts on your team
3. Capture 3-5 Key Accountability Statements for the role
4. Gather input from the Subject Matter Experts using certified psychometric talent assessments
5. Combine the results of the assessments into a single Job Benchmark Report
6. Review results and confirm we have captured an accurate picture of who to look for

From here, your HR or recruiting team can start attracting the right potential candidates.

Uncovering existing team dynamics

The second stage of assessment tools pertain to talent management. Addressing existing team dynamics helps organizations assess personality traits of their talent to effectively determine whether new candidates will fit well with the existing employee mix.

In addition to problematic job descriptions that might attract ill-suited candidates, another reason some positions have higher job turnover than others is that of ill fitting team environments or interpersonal conflicts. To address this, Kutsko Consulting's assessment tools cover the existing team. We do an appraisal of talent looking at their behaviors, motivation and emotional intelligence. That way, before making any new hires, the human resource team has an accurate picture of current employee engagement to best determine what kind of interpersonal interactions will cause friction and what styles to look for in new talent in order to be more natural and energizing for the team.

Using assessment tools in this way is beneficial not only for the hiring process, but for optimizing the existing functioning of teams and employee engagement. These aren't just pre employment tests, but tests the human resource team can use to their advantage in a range of contexts, for developing strategy and skills, to review competancies, develop collaboration skills and drive success in teams.

This stage of assessment can be done concurrently with stage 1, and takes 2-3 weeks.

Recruiting

The third stage of the hiring process is the part that really helps hiring managers to predict the best fit for a role. After exploring existing team dynamics and writing a specific, relevant job description, the human resource team requests that each candidate complete an assessment during the application process. The results of this assessment will be compared to the Job Benchmark Report so that team members making hiring decisions have the data and confidential guidance they need to predict which candidate will be the best fit for the open role.

This process brings plenty of insight, but can't eliminate all risk. We advise clients to rely on hiring assessments for about 33% of the hiring decision. The applicant's resume and the hiring manager's instincts will continue to play an important role in determining which person is the best fit. The interview process is integral and we provide behavioral interviewing questions to determine if a candidate's strengths and work style align with the Job Benchmark that was created in stage one. It's also important to ask questions which determine whether they align with team culture, specific job tasks, and any technical skills, education, or experience required to perform the duties of the job successfully.

“When I started as the Chief Talent and Culture Officer and began getting to know my new team, the work that Kutsko Consulting had done before I arrived was incredibly helpful.  It was a crucial part of my first 30-day plan and made it much easier for me to do my job.  We are now off and running!”