Karen Greenbaum is President and CEO of the global Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants (AESC).
getty
A multi-measure assessment process combines several types of assessments including interviews, reference checks, psychometric assessments and more to deliver a right-fit candidate backed by data. Although nothing is 100% effective, the multi-measure approach can help HR teams enhance judgment and decision-making throughout the executive search process. Employers can incorporate more thorough assessments with the aim to mitigate the risk of a bad hire, increase retention rates, reduce bias and provide onboarding assistance.
Mitigate The Risk Of A Bad Hire
When hiring for an executive-level role, you want to get a sense of the whole individual: What have they done? What can they do? What do they want to do?
Résumé reviews and structured interviews can showcase a candidate’s past career experiences and skills, while personality or competency assessments can help to focus more on capabilities and motivations in new environments. Incorporate multi-measure assessments into the executive search process to ensure you have a more complete picture. Ensuring your assessment process is thorough and multifaceted can help you predict an executive candidate’s performance, mitigating the risk of a bad hire and increasing the candidate’s long-term success.
This process is especially important in today’s ever-changing world, where new executive-level roles are being created to tackle new challenges. Today, there are so many new roles: chief sustainability officer, chief diversity officer, chief data scientist, chief climate risk officer, chief digital officer, chief digital transformation officer and chief experience officer, to name just a few. As such roles didn’t exist 10 to 20 years ago, it can be more challenging to assess future success based solely on past performance.
HR leaders can predict performance and better select the best candidate by employing more thorough assessments during hiring. Résumé reviews and interviews assess what an employee has done and begin to shape a view of what they can do. Psychometric assessments add more context to what candidates can do, what they want to do and how they will likely adapt to a new role.
Aim To Reduce Bias
Although some assessment firms will tell you candidates want gamification, executive candidates primarily want assessments that are fair and accurate as opposed to fun and fast. Developing a multi-measure assessment process tailored to your company can help you achieve this experience.
If your organization utilizes unstructured interviews, in which the interviewer asks each candidate different sets of questions, the search process can be plagued with potential bias. Structured interviews, in which the interviewer asks candidates the same set of questions, are typically fairer. It's important to note that implicit and unconscious biases can impact the process.
Although developing and employing multi-measure assessments will not fully eliminate bias, they can help you reduce it. Combine human interviews with data-based processes, balancing the reliance on human elements with researched and validated data and evidence.
It is important to note that the psychometric assessments used in the multi-measure process must be validated to ensure accuracy, based on science, analytics and data with a valid and transparent research-based methodology. Make sure the data has been reviewed and tested by experts to ensure the assessments meet industry standards. There are many new entrants to the assessment industry that tout artificial intelligence-driven assessments, but it's important to do your due diligence. Be careful when selecting assessment tools and conduct research to determine if they are validated.
Assist During The Onboarding Process
Not only can HR leaders incorporate multi-measure assessments to assist in the hiring process, but they can also use them to gain helpful insights for the onboarding and development processes.
The assessment process is a foundation for successful coaching to onboarding a candidate so they can hit the ground running and make a strong contribution from the start. Utilize assessments to determine areas of strength and areas for improvement to assist leadership development. This can also help your organization understand the executive candidate’s learning style and the tools they need during the onboarding process.
Today, executive search teams have an obligation to stay up to date on the latest best practices for assessing executive candidates, as well as providing candidates with assessment and interview techniques that aim to reduce unconscious bias. Executive hiring teams should develop a selection approach that utilizes various tools and methodologies, raising the bar for the executive search process and ensuring successful outcomes.
Forbes Human Resources Council is an invitation-only organization for HR executives across all industries. Do I qualify?
