Talent Management - December 2008 - (Page 21)

characterized by standardized administration and scoring, often automated and delivered over the Internet. Tests are useful in both pre-employment and post-hire applications. • Interviews: Science-based interviews are structured and focused on past performance behaviors. Questions typically are organized around key competencies, and all candidates are measured on the same competencies. Good interviews produce scores using a behaviorally anchored rating scale or some other method to synchronize the meaning of a particular score for each competency across interviewers and candidates. Using multiple interviewers per candidate also can improve the predictability of interview scores. • Behavior-based performance ratings: To make performance ratings as objective as possible, focus on work behaviors: “What have I seen this person do on the job?” To combat tendencies to compare employees to each other instead of to the job and other common biases, raters should be trained how to make effective behavior-based performance ratings. Performance ratings may come from a single source, the manager or from multiple sources such as selfratings, leaders, co-workers and customers. • Simulations: Also known as work samples, simulations are highly predictive of on-the-job performance. Simulations can range from short, focused experiences designed around a key competency or skill, to multiday events designed to represent the complexity of the target role. Recent innovations use computer-based simulations to measure targeted skills and performance in complex roles such as customer service or frontline manager. A foundation in science ensures talent measurement techniques gauge skills that are important for success in a particular role. That role may be someone’s current position or a future role. By conducting a careful analysis of the tasks people are expected to perform in their jobs — along with the behaviors that differentiate successful and unsuccessful performance — talent managers can determine the skills portfolio that drives success. Effectively measuring the right skills means the competency scores or ratings used in decision making actually correspond to the person’s performance in that area. The processes used to collect information about people should be consistent and unbiased. There should be evidence — often statistical — that a given tool produces data speciﬁcally related to job performance. The science part of talent measurement primarily refers to the ﬁeld of industrial-organizational psychology, the science of people at work. Scientist-practitioners in this ﬁeld apply psychometric techniques to measure human attributes important in work settings. Researchers have developed and reﬁned various taxonomies of these attributes — for example, describing the nature, number and relative importance of workrelated personality traits. Industrial-organizational psychology also has produced job-analysis methods that allow accurate and objective descriptions of role requirements. These processes help ensure data relevance and align the measurement processes and decision systems with business goals and job requirements. The science is highly developed, and it is relatively straightforward to obtain high-quality measures of job-related competencies and skills using valid tools and processes. Better Talent Management Through Talent Measurement In talent management, we are interested in getting the right people in the right roles and helping them achieve their fullest potential. But “talent,” deﬁned as a capacity for success, is not a guarantee of success — though it does help. Talent also is domain-speciﬁc. That is, one December 2008 talent management magazine www.talentmgt.com 21 http://www.talentmgt.com

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

Talent Management - December 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Human Performance Leading Edge Foundations Recruitment & Retention Assessment & Evaluation Compensation & Benefits Performance Management Learning & Development Succession Planning Insight Dashboard Application Advertiser's Index Editorial Resources Full Potential

Talent Management - December 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.