Finding suitable talent for your open position isn’t always easy. Although suit-and-tie interviews do work, it may be time for your organisation to consider investing in recruitment technology or employing new assessment techniques.
Below, we’ve rounded up six of the most popular methods of talent assessment and determined whether we think they are effective for the modern employer.
1. Structured interviews
The typical interview can be predictable and boring for the interviewer and nerve-wracking for the candidate. However, the structured interview approach does allow you to ask the same questions of your candidates, get subjective results and gain an understanding of their experience and communication skills.
It’s still the most widely-used form of talent assessment, and its results pay off. However, employing a mix of a structured interview and another talent assessment technique could help to increase your ‘hit rate’.
2. Work simulation
As a form of pre-hire assessment, work simulations are great. Not only can you gain first-hand insight into a candidate’s decision-making skills, but you can also see how they would perform in your role if it were theirs. Simulation usually requires giving candidates a task to complete using job-specific skills.
However, although the task usually mirrors a job and gives an insight into a candidate’s suitability for an advertised position, the task is usually fictitious. Therefore, this assessment technique often doesn’t reflect the true nature of a role and its effectiveness will vary from company to company.
3. Problem-solving tests
Testing candidates’ cognitive ability and logic skills can be another good way to assess whether they are right for your vacancy. This method is cost-effective and can demonstrate intelligence, insight and leadership skills within individuals. However, some candidates may underperform because of the pressure.
4. Personality tests
Working out the thought processes and behavioural traits of candidates is useful for many positions. You can pinpoint useful attributes like creativity, attendance and leadership, and evaluate them easily alongside the attributes of other candidates. However, personality tests are not effective as a standalone means of determining a candidate’s suitability for a role, so should only be used as a secondary activity.
5. Unstructured interviews
With no set formal questions and a more relaxed atmosphere, unstructured interviews are often great for creative or new positions. Not only do they offer the employer more freedom to take the interview in a particular direction, but they can also give the candidate more opportunity to express themselves.
6. Assessing experience
Most roles require at least some industry experience, but locking away your positions to candidates with X years in X industry can be bad for talent recruitment. This could effectively restrict you to candidates who represent a poor fit for your company culture, rather than less experienced candidates who would nonetheless perfectly fit in with your firm’s values.
Talk to Webrecruit today about the most suitable ways to assess the suitability of candidates for your own organisation’s latest – and potential future – vacancies.
