I could say that the world of Talent Assessment hit me by storm. I was at first threatended by these new tools being used in the hiring process, and after a short period of time, I became an early adapter. After spending close to 19 years in the 3rd party recruiting sector and enjoying a tremendous amount of success as a big biller and a pinnacle member I embarked on a Talent Management journey that forever changed my perception of recruiter responsiblity. Over a 6 year period I invested over $100k and thousands of training hours certifying myself in organizational development, selection, behavioral interviewing, etc.I implemented the use of an assessment within my recruiting firm (before I sold it) and it made a huge difference in our operational effeciency as well as in our brand identity. It allowed me to ramp up new recruiters much faster and gave us a leading edge in sending the right candidate out. We gave it to all candidates as part of the intake process (on-line; before they even came in for an interview).

The assessment took 15-20 minutes and told us 9 things; the candidate’s mental acuity, the candidate’s propensity in the BIG 5 personality traits, the candidate’s distortion (faking it) levels and it gave us a window into the candidates level of on hte job integrity. Additionally for select roles we conducted behavioral and values based interviews which had us get a deep look into how the candidate worked, acted, interacted and what was truly important to them in a company and in a job; this aided us in making solid long term matches. Matches that impacted the succession plan. The other cool thing we did was find out the candidates communication and work style and we coached them on how to idenitify the best job and work place fit for their communication/work style, personality and ambitions.
The reality is due to the crazy world we live in-global warming, poverty, globalization, unstable economy, terrorism candidates are becoming much more astute in their career and selection process – and really great candidates want to work for really great companies who hire like minded people.

Our candidates appreciated that we took the time to define what we needed and were not up for wasting their time. Additionally we gave them a coaching report that helped them choose their next career move wisely. They don’t want to make the wrong choice as much as we don’t want to make the wrong choice; frankly life is too short to do a job you hate and work for people who are not a match –whether that be intellectually or emotionally.

Given the war for talent and the limited pool, companies actually have to be pickier and choosier than ever, as scarcity breeds ineffectiveness. Remember what happened in the late 90s, and that backfired completely.

Consider it this way, if the candidate is not a good fit for the job and you hire them anyway, sooner than later they will be a prime target for an aggressive head hunter and they will leave your firm anyway.

In my opinion, choosing the right assessment for both the candidate and your compnay is very important, as one size does not fit all situations. I think there are a lot of hokey assessments out there. Many that are being used out of context or that were not properly selected and matched for the companys' long term needs. The ideal way to choose a behavioral interviewing, patterned interview model or an assessment is to do the research and spend the money yourself or hire a 3rd party who has done the work already to make the appropriate recommendations.

I just blogged about this http://blog.keenhire.com