Using Assessments for Professional Development

In a recent column of SHRM’s HR Quarterly, the CEO of SHRM addressed the looming talent crisis by writing this: We must start challenging lazy recruiting tactics that synonymize degrees with “smart.” We need to embrace other ways of measuring competency. This starts by having clear hiring needs - knowing the ins and outs of what a job will entail and what kind of skills should be required for someone to succeed in that role. Shifting the talent acquisition process will require reassessing how hiring is done, making strategic decisions about how to evaluate alternative credentials and committing to upskilling and reskilling employees once they're in the door.

?Coincidentally, on September 26 we hosted our quarterly Succession Planning Forum the topic of which was using assessments for professional development purposes: which ones to use, why use them, how do they help the individual, and how do they benefit the organization??

The conversation with our two guest-experts, Erin Eason , HR Director of H+M Industrials and Misha Homara , CEO of TriCore Panels leaned quite a bit towards the use of assessments when recruiting and onboarding new hires and when transitioning employees to new teams or hiring a new leader from outside the organization.

?Here are some of the reasons they use assessments and the advice they offered for companies that are looking to start using assessments with their employees.

But first, let’s define what an assessment is:

An assessment is an evaluation or an estimation of the nature, quality, or ability of someone

H+M uses assessments as a way to guide interviews and choose new team members with more than just a gut feeling. Assessments help the company to identify specific things about a position that can be measured and that will help to determine if someone is likely to be able to meet those criteria and be successful. Eason stated that the hiring managers/engineers of the company are extremely appreciative to have data that they trust and can use in their decision making besides their own judgment.

Assessments are also used to help develop role descriptions, analyze the abilities and habits of people who succeed or did not succeed in particular roles, and thereby build “profiles of success” for future candidates.

A third beneficial way that H&M has used assessments is to round out teams with someone who is able to bring something new to the team.

Assessments have also been used sparingly to provide 3600 feedback so that managers and leaders can gain meaningful insights about their behaviors and performance from those they work with. “I’ve seen those make a difference,” said Eason.

According to Eason, assessments are well received, add speed and accuracy to personnel decisions, and improve teams and team performance.

STORY

Enzo is loved by his employees. He works in the field with them as well as socializes with them after work, one or two nights a week. He spends his nights and weekends running the company and unfortunately that sometimes means he misses deadlines, paychecks are late, and RFPs are never submitted because he has run out of time. He prides himself on the “good working relationship” he has with his employees, but an assessment reveals that he is actually too collaborative and often fails to make decisions.

TriCore Panels’ Homara praised assessments for providing her leadership team members with insight into why others do things the way they do; which enhanced respect and understanding and allowed for better conversations and relationship building. Using herself as an example, Homara explain that she has a lot of ideas which she constantly “springs on” her team and through assessments she has learned to identify when she should share her ideas vs. when she should table them for a later time.

She went on to explain that assessments are “particularly important when the company has onboarded someone new in a leadership role with direct reports. Assessments give the new leader insight into who their team is instead of requiring that new leader to spend a couple of months trying to figure out people’s “personalities.”

A third use of assessments at TriCore is to identify if someone will be a good cultural fit with the company. This has been particularly important in the last five years as Homara has grown the company from 30 individuals to 50, and added critical leadership roles in HR, Operations, and others.

STORY

Beth had been with her company for nearly a decade. She was promoted to run a branch office and hit it off well with her new direct reports. She had the business intelligence as well as the social intelligence to motivate her team while simultaneously directing and eliciting good work. Unfortunately, Beth found that she missed being in the field meeting customers, making in-the-moment decisions, and seeing the “fruits of her labor.” After three months she asked to be “demoted” back to her former position. Had she had the opportunity to take an assessment, she might have known that a leadership role would not fulfill her.

Here are the tips and advice that both Erin and Misha shared about incorporating Assessments into your leadership toolbox:

Ask your network about the assessments they use and why (what they like and don’t like)

• Test all assessments on yourself first; don’t implement something you haven’t checked out fully

Take a few different assessments before deciding on one

• Only implement one assessment to begin with; ensure you use it properly and purposefully so that it becomes part of the culture / part of the “language” of your organization ?
• Don’t discount the effort that goes into implementation; it takes time
• Make it easy for people to use; if you’re making it another thing on people’s “to do” list you won’t be as successful and therefore won’t reap the rewards
• Use a consultant to help you introduce and administer the assessment for the first few rounds; then you can take over managing it yourself
• If you don’t choose to use a consultant, be sure that whoever is “in charge” internally has the ability to truly dedicate themselves to the process (for example, Homara first owned the process for a few years before the company hired a full time HR role and then handed the responsibility over to that person)

Eason summarized the Forum nicely by stating that assessments are “an excellent way to move into the next phase of construction – when things are moving so quickly - to make sure you have the right team to help you get there.”

The Training Doctor, LLC works throughout the United States helping small to mid-sized companies to develop succession plans filled with ready and capable future leaders.

Nanette Miner, Ed.D. is the Managing Consultant of The Training Doctor. She is a frequent speaker at industry and trade association conferences, and regularly speaks to Vistage Worldwide groups on the importance of succession planning. Nanette gives back to her community and small businesses as a SCORE mentor and spokesperson.

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