When it comes to hiring the right person, companies need to gather as much information as possible. While hard skills like math and technology tend to dominate recruiter thinking, soft skills can determine whether a new hire will be successful.
According to a LinkedIn report, 92% of HR professionals responded that soft skills are at least as important as a candidate’s technical ability, if not more so.
For a business to evaluate these soft skills, including pre-employment behavioral assessments in your hiring process can be useful. These assessments allow you to better understand a candidate’s personality, behaviors and interests, including how they think, communicate, and behave in a workplace environment.
The results of these tests can help you determine which candidates would be the best fit in your workplace—in other words, which candidate has the best Job Fit.
But what exactly is a behavioral assessment? Let’s look at some of the different types of behavioral assessments companies use in the hiring process and how you can incorporate these tools into your organization.
Types of Behavioral Assessment Tests
There are a few different approaches for behavioral assessment, and hiring teams need to decide which method is best for them. Here are some of the most common types of behavioral assessments you are likely to come across.
Personality tests: Personality tests are intended to gauge a person’s core beliefs and values. While they can indicate how a candidate is likely to behave in certain situations, they should not be used as the only measurement criteria.
A candidate’s behavior is an expression of their personality, and in a work setting, validated behavioral assessments focus on how that expression relates to the job they are being asked to perform.
Validated behavioral assessments: For many years, tests like the Myers-Briggs test were the gold standard of behavioral assessment. Based on personal self-reflection, these tests claimed to pinpoint a person’s psychological profile, highlighting areas more likely to be of interest to the test taker. While these standardized tests can be useful tools, they are not validated in the work environment.
For pre-employment purposes, behavioral assessments should be validated and reliable. The scores should be compared to a job analysis for each position, allowing them to assess the behaviors most likely to be of use in the role.
Behavioral assessments include measures of things like stability, grit, openness and integrity, which have been shown to predict success in many roles.
How Pre-Employment Behavioral Assessment Tests Can Help Your Hiring
Adding behavioral assessments to your hiring process is quick and easy, thanks to eSkill’s Talent Assessment PlatformTM.
You can automate the process to send assessment links to all applicants, or you can manually send links to those candidates you believe might be a good fit for the position.
By administering pre-employment behavioral assessments, you can improve your chances of making the right hire, which can go a long way toward enhancing your company’s performance.
According to the Society of Human Resources Management, leaders who have the soft skills measured by behavioral assessments can increase team performance by nearly 30%.
Behavioral assessments can help you predict employee performance by matching a candidate’s skills with those identified by a job analysis. That way, you can make sure that you are matching the right person with the right job.
You can also ensure that you are finding someone likely to mesh with your existing company culture—and that can go a long way toward raising your overall employee retention rates.
Interested in Learning More About the Different Types of Behavioral Assessments?
Find out how eSkill makes adding pre-employment behavioral assessments to your hiring process easier than ever. Request a demo today.