For companies it is fundamental that they recognize management
potential and commit promising junior staff. Read how the four
application fields of personnel assessment can help you.
1.
Selecting applicants The trend
goes from Employer Assessment Centers (AC) to Applicant Assessment Centers
(AC). Nowadays applicants often look into companies rather than the other way
around. Companies should therefore make sure that applicants receive enough
information from them and are able to gather impressions. They should also keep
in mind that applicants are potential customers.
On the other hand, companies
should know exactly what their requirements are so that the assessment doesn't
involve just anything. The decision of what should be assessed is made solely
by the company and not by the external consultant. In case of a job
replacement, the future supervisor should be integrated, as long as it's
possible and in order to gain acceptance. The best AC results are no help at
all if the supervisor has butterflies in his stomach. Honest and fair feedback
is still a helpful appreciation.
To finish off, another tip for companies: The
more levels there are in the company's hierarchy, the less a selection process
will gain in acceptance. These are often reduced to interviews or presentations
and references.
2.
Developing employees Contrary to
the selection process of applicants, fairness isn't as important here. In fact,
the requirements have to be aligned to each employee during their development.
For targeted training, the focus is on strengths and learning areas. Please
note: Acceptance should first be gained within the company. Especially when it
comes to assigning external diagnosticians, managers may sometimes ask why they
need an external assessor. They know best who their employees are and what they
need!
Another problem is that although assessment tests are often used in
companies, personnel development is not set up systematically. In order to
avoid frustration amongst employees, companies must really pay attention to the
implementation.
3. Next
career move/promotion – yes or no? Managers
often think they already know who the right candidate is. But this isn't always
obvious from the organization's perspective. This is also an acceptance issue.
For employees to accept the results (especially negative ones), the methods not
only have to be reliable based on prognoses (= whoever achieves positive
results in the process has better chances of getting good results on the job),
but also validated (= the process measures noticeably, i.e. to all appearances,
what it purports to measure). No all methods meet this requirement.
4.
Career orientation It is often
not clear for an employee or his supervisors in which way he can and should
evolve. Contrary to the USA, Europe still looks at personality tests with a
critical eye. In spite of the statements "they cannot be trusted" or
"the results can be faked", the challenge is to convince candidates
that a career orientation - should it be successful – always has something to
do with affinities and personality. Unlike a personnel selection process,
personality tests are highly recommended for a review and, if necessary,
coaching.
For
companies, it is becoming more and more important to recognize (management)
potential and commit good (junior) staff. This is made possible mostly with
help from various personnel assessment tools and the offer of individual
measures. If a job-specific requirement profile is mapped out at this point and
top-quality processes combined efficiently, it paves the way for successful
personnel selection and development within the company.
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