Talent Management - November 2008 - (Page 22)

recruitment & retention assessment & evaluation compensation & beneﬁts performance management learning & development succession planning Senior management also should match the candidates’ leadership capabilities with the future needs of the organization. For instance: • Will the company be in a very competitive market, in which case the leader must be astute about ﬁnancial issues? • Will market competition be so challenging it requires the organization to innovate? strategy and innovation at Previsor, a pre-employment assessment and employee selection solutions provider. The medical ﬁeld has an interesting example: a simulation used as a diagnostic training tool. The softwarebased test involves an artiﬁcial patient whose condition and status changes over time depending on what the test-taker does. Candidates are required to order various tests, hand out prescriptions and offer treatments. More sophisticated performance-based simulations can last a few hours or a few days. Lengthier assessments are common for executive recruitment and development, and leaders are asked to do role-play activities, participate in group discussions and study business cases. Though both types of assessments can predict on-the-job performance, Lahti said it’s more advantageous to use high-ﬁdelity, realistic simulations, as they more closely reﬂect aspects of the job the candidate will be required to undertake. Further, he said candidates often respond more favorably to simulations because they’re more interactive and engaging, and look and feel more like the job. An emerging trend in talent management is forwardlooking assessments that try to objectively assess and predict how someone would perform a job or how good the ﬁt would be for an individual in the future. • Will there be start-ups — new products, concepts or new teams — that will require leaders to maintain long hours and maneuver the company through uncertain conditions?“ The candidates will] have different styles and answering this question — coming back to [the] point of “ready for what?” — makes a big difference,” Moses said. “[It’s important to] really understand the business conditions and what leadership skills you’re looking for in individuals, rather than just saying this person’s ready now.” An Assortment of Assessments There are two basic types of readiness assessments available in the marketplace: job-knowledge tests and performance-based assessments. Job-knowledge tests typically consist of multiplechoice questions and, as the name suggests, assess the knowledge or skill set of a candidate. Performancebased assessments are generally a real-world or Webbased simulation or a work sample. “The simple version of [this] would be a typing test, where [the candidate] actually has to type something and the software tracks errors and speed and [everything is] recorded,” said Ken Lahti, director of product There also are advantages to the job-knowledge tests. They’re easier to create and quicker to get out the door than technology-rich simulations, and they prove valuable in areas such as IT programming, where job knowledge changes rapidly. One disadvantage is the high degree of potential variability in quality. “You can build a job-knowledge test poorly and have it not actually reﬂect the full range of job knowledge required for [the] full set of topics and subtopics within that particular skill set — so there’s ways to do it wrong,” Lahti said. Riverside County in California typically uses readiness assessments to screen candidates for entry-level positions such as clerical and secretarial roles. Jasmin Lui Ping Loi, the county’s human resources services manager, said all candidates are tested before they interview with the organization. Both types of tests can provide certain beneﬁts, but job-knowledge tests are more prevalent because simulations aren’t as readily available unless the county custom builds them. One type of simulation simulates a dispatcher’s environment and tests candidates’ multitasking abilities by requiring them to simultaneously answer emergency calls, read materials and e-mail information. 22 November 2008 talent management magazine www.talentmgt.com http://www.talentmgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Talent Management - November 2008

Talent Management - November 2008 Editor’s Letter Contents Human Performance Leading Edge Learning Connections Recruitment & Retention Assessment & Evaluation Compensation & Benefits Performance Management Learning & Development Succession Planning Insight Dashboard Application Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources Full Potential

Talent Management - November 2008

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