When looking to hire new staff, assessment days are extremely useful in really getting to know candidates. Many employees have been in the situation where they have hired someone that has not met their expectations. This ends up wasting valuable resources performance-managing staff members or can even result in having to repeat the hiring process all over again to find a replacement. We have found that assessment days are more useful than just interviewing a candidate. This is because a candidate who wants to work at your firm can effectively put on a mask at interview to try and persuade you that he deserves and are worthy of a place on your team. But a candidate with the best skills and experience for the job should get the position, not the one who is best at interviewing for the job.
Behind the mask
The worst case scenario of a poor hiring is that you can often end up with the most desperate to impress candidate, rather than the elite performer they are pretending to be. At an assessment day, it is harder to keep that mask on and the cracks become more visible as you put the candidate through their paces. The candidate’s suitability for the position become clearer, as their weaknesses, as well as strengths, will be revealed. An assessment day can also be useful to differentiate between candidate who seem very similar in terms of quality on paper.
Preparation
So, how can you ensure your assessment day is effective? One way is to plant a trusted ‘company man’ as a friendly stooge candidate with a list of questions relating to attitudes and core beliefs. Requiring candidates to sometimes work in groups can give your stooge opportunity to assess your candidate.
The crucial aim is to get your candidate to let their guard down, which will involve not only assessing them in situations where they expect to be assessed but also in moments where they are not expecting it. Lunch and coffee breaks, for example, are moments where the candidate may do this, revealing themselves more than they would do during a formal interview.
All a bit much? Not when your company man reports back that day’s top scoring candidate believes that assessments and role playing are a total waste of time and he is only after the job until he finds something better…
So, what should you consider when planning your assessment day? Here are a few top tips…
- Ensure the candidate knows what to expect
You do not want your candidate to over prepare to the point they give such a stunning performance they will not be able to replicate on the job. However, at the same time, you do not want to shock them or leave them unprepared for the tasks at hand. Let them know what to expect.
- Assess everything
Your friendly stooge will be trying to find out information on the attitudes and core beliefs of prospective candidates. The opportunity should not be missed to assess the candidate in a group environment and when they believe they are not being assessed. Often, candidates’ interactions with others can give an indication of how they will work with people in your team.
- Choose the right stooge
It is important that your stooge is a quality person that can identify whether the candidate meets the bill but, at the same time, make sure they are not someone so senior that a candidate who has done their research knows who they are! A stooge is only effective when they are not known to be a stooge.
- Make sure tasks are relevant and tailored
This seems obvious but establishing the key competencies that are necessary to fulfil the role is important when creating the tasks for the assessment day. This means that you must be prepared to tweak the tasks if necessary even for different candidates for the same role, as each candidate will have their own strengths and weaknesses that can be tested.
- Set role plays
Even if the position is not client-facing, make sure you use role plays as part of the assessment day. This is because role plays offer the opportunity for you to evaluate the candidate’s interpersonal skills, which are necessary in any job that requires them to work in a team. If it is a client-facing role that is applied for, then client role plays give you the opportunity to assess the candidate’s skills that will be used in the job.
Information source: http://www.professionaladviser.com/professional-adviser/feature/2374857/behind-the-mask-why-assessment-days-should-form-part-of-your-recruitment-process/page/2