Measure twice, cut once. This sage advice for tradespeople emphasizes that an accurate fit can only be achieved by taking the time to measure, and then to make a second measure to verify, before cutting. The same can be said for building a workforce that achieves superior results. Using a multimethod pre-employment assessment allows talent acquisition pros to measure twice or even seven times within one candidate experience to help ascertain job fit.
Determining job fit is a complex endeavor. Even in entry-level jobs, the variables that drive success are complex and can be difficult to measure objectively. Jobs with complex demands require rigorous evaluation methods that integrate an assortment of evaluation types to deliver a whole-person examination of diverse knowledge, skill, traits, and characteristics required by the job – well beyond common assessment practice combining a personality/work-style questionnaire and a reasoning test.
Multimethod for the best fit
Multimethod pre-employment assessment makes it possible to obtain two or more measurements or evaluations of each job-relevant performance domain. When attempting to predict candidate behavior across six to eight competencies, a well-developed multimethod assessment can evaluate each skill with multiple measures, delivering a certain job-fit measure.
Multimethod measurement
Here are some common job competencies that can be integrated into a multimethod assessment.
- Situational judgment: choosing among options about how one might respond to everyday interactions with customers or coworkers
- Problem-solving: accessing and considering information to address questions, resolve issues
- Idea generation/brainstorming: recalling or synthesizing options for a given scenario
- Work history: identifying job-relevant career experiences, achievements, work habits, and career management behaviors
- Data analysis: computations, trend analysis, comparisons, and concluding various information sources
- Diagnostic reasoning: applying rule-based logic to system analysis
- Prioritization: evaluation and ranking of relative importance and potential consequences of workflow demands
- Delegation: discerning appropriateness of an approach to assigning work to others
- Multitasking: splitting attention among competing demands while performing complex tasks
- Work style: comparative description of preferred behavior patterns
The elegance afforded by many of these assessment methods is the ease by which the content can be created to reflect or mimic the actual demands of the job. For example, a day in the life of a manager may include working with operating statements to identify an issue that needs attention, coming up with a variety of ways to handle the action items, selecting action items to delegate to team members, and being prepared to handle a range of team member responses. A multimethod assessment can combine a series of exercises that present that entire sequence; data analysis, idea generation/brainstorming, delegation, situational judgment.
Whole Person Job-Fit Profile
The complexity and diverse range of job-fit attributes measured with this approach allow candidate results to be presented on a job-specific competency model. This is done through the use of HR analytics and a scoring algorithm that weights and values candidate responses according to their relationship with actual on-the-job performance.
In addition to obtaining the evaluation information, the candidates are invited to step into the job and get a glimpse of what it is like to handle the workflow. The assessment can become a form of realistic job preview.
Modern Hire’s Virtual Job Tryout® enables employers to share comprehensive information about the job as well as track candidate feedback. Candidates can immerse themselves in realistic job previews and job simulations while learning more about the role, the company, and the employment experience. They gain the insights they need to decide if the opportunity is a good fit for them.
Walmart developed the world’s highest-volume hiring engine with a data-driven approach. Its Retail Associate Assessment is an award-winning, custom pre-hire assessment developed in partnership with Modern Hire that efficiently and accurately predicts candidate performance and retention. By assessing retail candidates’ core competencies such as Reliability, Manages Priorities, and Pursues Excellence with Modern Hire’s assessment, Walmart’s recruiters can quickly advance candidates who will learn the job faster, be more productive, and are likely to stay on the job. This has paid dividends for the company.
“A conservative return-on-investment analysis showed savings in the hundreds of millions annually,” says Josh Allen, Director, Global Selection and Assessment Strategy, Walmart. “This estimate only includes eliminating replacement costs from not hiring the lowest scoring candidates. If we included estimates of lost productivity and training costs, the real impact might exceed $1 billion annually.”
Pre-employment testing has evolved a great deal in the past few years. The web has provided a format for delivering a highly engaging and robust multi-method assessment experience. In an environment of talent scarcity and candidate mobility, having the most qualified workforce possible has never been more important. Multimethod pre-hire assessments are a form of “measuring twice” that can deliver superior results.