Re-thinking Assessment

You know what it’s like.?

The candidate arrives and you rush to print out her CV.?If you’re lucky, you’ve managed to review it ahead of time but chances are, you’re only reviewing it for the first time.?You have a quick skim, jot down a few questions and then greet her.?You sit down, pour coffee, exchange a few pleasantries and get down to business.?You summarise the role you’re looking to fill, highlight how critical the role is to the growth of the business, and answer any questions.?You walk through her CV, inquire about her motivations, drill down into some of her experience, ask about achievements and targets, and find out the reasons for her departure.?You talk about where she feels she meets the brief, gauge her level of interest, and then wrap things up.?You decide she seems sensible, credible and smart, and that she should go further in the process.?

The next stage looks a lot like the first stage, but with more people involved.?Various conversations with different members of the team or board, and a presentation from her at the end.??When she leaves, everyone agrees she’s very good.?References are taken, which are positive.?An offer is extended, she accepts and the job is done.?Great result.

Fast-forward 2-years.

Growth hasn’t materialised in quite the way you expected.?New product releases are behind schedule and cash is running low.?Investors are reluctant to invest further until more progress is made.?She admits she’s struggling to perform given the budget and you start to wonder whether she’s got the drive to keep going.?

This is not where you wanted to be.?You reflect on where it went wrong.?Her CV was excellent, she referenced well and you and the team put her through a formal interview process.?Why isn’t she delivering??Why didn’t this work??

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Sound familiar??You’re not alone.?Unfortunately, the narrative above describes far too many ‘successful’ executive recruitment exercises.?I say ‘successful’ because the position was filled and at the time of the appointment, it was believed she would succeed.?Yet she didn’t.?Could things have been done differently??Could this have been predicted?

Some of it could have, yes.?A properly structured interview process would have helped.?

“But she was assessed!" I hear you say.?"She went through multiple rounds of discussions, where multiple people met her (smart people too), reviewed her background, talked through business plans.?She met the team, presented to the board - if that wasn’t an assessment process, what was it?”

That was a ‘sense-check’ – or rather, a series of ‘sense-checks’ – with an experienced, articulate executive who talked about herself and the companies for which she’s worked.?She sounded the part, looked the part and referenced out well.?After 20-years in business, why wouldn't she??

What didn't happen was an exploration of what she would actually do.?How will she get on with the team??How will she work under pressure??How will she handle the challenges? How will she perform her role??

“But she was asked?how?she would handle these things and she provided good answers.”?

Asking someone how they’ll approach a challenge taps into a person’s self-view.?If they have a high regard for themselves, they'll give you a confident answer.?If they have a lower opinion of themselves, they'll give you a less confident answer.? But these answers will not necessarily correlate with how they'll perform.

And that's the point of any assessment process - determining how an individual is likely to perform.

So what are the alternatives??Here are some suggestions:?

1. Plan?– first and foremost, before any candidates are called or considered,?we need to know what we want and we need to know how we're going to test for it.?How will you test for the qualities you're looking for??If you don't have the answers to these questions, you're not ready to assess anyone.?Once you do know, there are a number of tools available to you. But the first step is planning.
2. Get real?– if the desire is to test how someone is going to work in a particular situation,?put them in that situation!?Want to test how someone will be able to manage the commercial or product teams??Sit them down and have them host a commercial or product review.?Get them to evaluate the pipeline or product market fit.?Or get them to work with the team on preparing for a pitch.?Have members of the team fire questions at them.?Test the depth of their knowledge.?See how they treat the team and watch how the team respond to them.?Get them to review project plans, technical specifications, marketing programmes, quality assurance, project management, balance sheets, etc.?The great thing about these exercises is that candidates, regardless of their sophistication, find it difficult to ‘bluff’.?And you will see them in action.?Such insight from these sessions is hugely valuable.?How well did the candidate listen? How will did they lead the session??How effectively did they communicate? How well did they think on their feet? How did the team interact with them? What are their energy levels like? How patient are they? These sessions are goldmines for data gathering, which is exactly the point of a high impact assessment programme.
3. Get creative?– don’t be so obvious about what your intentions are. Mix things up.?For example, if you want to test how a candidate handles life in a start-up, which can be full of ups and downs, test them out.?Plan a?certain?agenda, and then change it up when they arrive. Alter some of the tasks, change the order, spring a surprise on them.?This way,?the performances don't feel so rehearsed.?How do they handle?it??Do they get flustered and frustrated, or do they go with it and continue to get stuck in??Here’s another one – give them 45 minutes in the middle of an assessment programme and tell them there's been a change in the schedule, and they can now do whatever they like.?It's free time.?If they want to go and speak with a team, or an executive – they can.?If they want to sit quietly on their own and do emails or go for a walk, they can do that too.?See how they use their own free time - it will tell you a lot.?Examples like these test for multiple qualities and are a rich source of insight.
4. Psych Test?– cognitive and psychometric testing are valuable tools. Whilst not perfect determinants of performance, they provide a ‘peek inside’ an executive, assessing the quality of their intellect, their problem solving ability, their view of themselves, their preferences and ‘shadow’ personality traits.?Feedback from clients over the years has been mixed regarding their predictive ability (note: some clients swear by them, others think they're poor predictors).
5. Tech Tests?- for technical or highly analytical roles, technical tests are important, often used as an early-stage filter.?For executive recruitment they're less relevant. Good at understanding working styles, analytical ability, intellectual horsepower and work rate.
6. Get outside?– work doesn’t happen just in the office, and neither should assessments. Getting candidates out of the office for social events, like a dinner, after-work team drinks, or a company sports activity provides another perspective on how they engage. Information gleaned from these activities is just as useful as that gathered from more formal sessions.?

Don't get me wrong - ‘sense-checks’ and referencing have a place, but only as part of a diverse assessment strategy.?The point is to test how candidates will perform - not just talk.?These exercises provide rich?colour, allowing a number of perspectives about someone’s suitability to be obtained.?

The?best assessment approaches are multi-dimensional.?They don't just focus on conversations and hypotheticals.?They focus on action and performance.??If you want to attract become high impact at assessment, it's time to mix up your assessment strategies.