Are Pre-employment Assessments Necessary?

Studies show that for every one hundred CV's viewed, 80 percent of them are in some way exaggerated or outright false. Job fit is very important and many companies use behavioural interview questions to try to match the candidate with the job, however very often, a hiring decision is made in haste - sometimes even within the first five minutes of the interview.

Two out of three hires will disappoint during the first year of their employment and high staff turnover can cost a company thousands of rands; however what many companies don't realise is that they could easily have avoided eighty percent of employee turnover by having conducted suitable pre-employment assessments.

There is a lot of misunderstanding regarding the legalities surrounding pre-employment testing. There are many types of personality assessments and profile testing that can be classified as pre-employment assessments ranging from career or competency profiling evaluations to clinically oriented psychological profile tests. There is a clear distinction between non-invasive pre-employment competency profiling assessments and clinical psychological or psychometric tests.

What is Competency Profiling?
Competency profiling is a processed used to identify the specific skills, knowledge, abilities, attitudes and judgement (or competencies) required to fulfil a task, activity or role within a specific type of organisation.

Competency is divided into four main categories:

• Job competency profiling - profiling based on the specific tasks of a particular job.

• Role competency profiling - profiling based on the part an individual employee plays in the organisation's overall success.

• Functional competency profiling - profiling based on the skills required of an employee in a particular function of the business, e.g. marketing or finance.

• Core competency profiling - profiling based on the competencies that every employee should have in keeping with the overall values and vision of the organisation.

What is Psychometric Testing?
Psychometric assessments are designed to assist the employer in gauging whether or not the candidate's skills and behavioural style makes them suitable for a specific role. Psychometric assessments can add value to the selection, development and promotional process, for the prospective/current employer as well as for Job Seekers. Although the information gathered from psychometric assessments cannot be used in isolation to make these decisions, they provide candidates and employers with employment information beneficial to both Job Seekers and Recruiters.

Types of Psychometric assessments include:

• Aptitude Tests - Aptitude tests are also known as ability tests. These tests provide information about a person's ability to perform tasks and will also indicate the person's ability to learn and understand new tasks and information.

• Personality Inventories - these assessments are concerned with how you typically behave, the way you relate to others or the way you approach and solve a problem. They generally explore personality characteristics which are relevant in the workplace.

• Work style questionnaires - these types of assessments generally look at factors such as Interpersonal style, conflict style and leadership style, ways of thinking and behaving in different situations, stress coping mechanisms, motivations, including energy levels and drivers, work values, management style or communication.

In accordance with legislation in Section 8 or the Employment Equity Act, employers may not force job applicants to undergo psychometric tests. And, unless administered, scored, interpreted and reported on by a registered psychometrist or psychologist, these tests are regarded as illegal. Additionally, psychometric tests must be deemed as valid, reliable, fair to all workers and should not discriminate against a worker or a group.

What is an Assessment Centre?
There are a number of companies specialising in providing assessment centres, and while they might not all apply the same methodology, the overall objective is the same in that they assist in assessing candidates in better understanding their level of performance and how they might be able to perform in future in a specific role.

Assessment Centre's usually apply a battery of psychometric assessments along with competency based tasks which are observed by an assessor. These tasks are set-up to simulate the employer's business environment and the specific job for which they are assessing candidates. The aim of the assessment centre is to uncover which applicant has the most suitable personal attributes, problem solving skills, general aptitude as well as which candidate would be the best fit from a organisational culture and structural point of view. Assessments centres reflect the reality of the job and the organisation and any test conducted should be designed to link the applicant with the job description and person specification. It must at all times be fair and should provide the candidate with a number of varying tasks to afford him or her the opportunity to show different aspects of their abilities.

Sources: Cindy Hardy (Industrial Psychologist) - www.cognit.co.za and Stephen Shellabear (Principal Consultant at dancing lion training & consultancy limited.)