Making online assessment work better

Online assessment goes way beyond a simple multiple choice framework.  Technology now allows for online discussion forums and open-ended quizzing.  Issues of security and access have been dealt with and online assessment delivers real savings to employers.

You could really call it a revolution.  Online assessment has changed forever the face of recruitment, and to a certain extent, training.

In the case of training, online assessment makes it easy for a trainer to diversify tasks and keep content interesting.  The efficiencies offered ease the workload of the trainer as well as provide timely and informative feedback to the trainee.

Universities, other training institutions and workplaces now rely on the flexibility that online assessment offers.

The natural progression with the technology was to recruitment.  Online assessment tools are highly sophisticated and give employers and recruiters enormous ease when comparing and assessing candidates.

Online assessment is extremely cost effective.  It is fast and can be utilised wherever a candidate might be.

But how can we make online assessment work better?  Being fast, cheap and easy does not guarantee meaningful results.  How can we make online assessment add value to our other assessment tools?

Ideally, we should tailor our assessment to identify the key skills and aptitude profile an employer is seeking.  There is no point identifying managerial candidates when we need a call centre agent with outstanding sales skills.

We should also be exploring the cognitive ability of candidates and their personal preferences and values.  We want to know what motivates them.  What their capacity is to learn new skills and how quickly they can grasp concepts.

By understanding these factors, we get an indication as to the long term prospects of developing and retaining people.

Then we need to include assessment of general workstyle determinants.  What is the candidate’s communication style like?  Where does he or she rank on emotional intelligence?

This detailed approach helps us ensure we get the right fit.  As every HR manager can attest, the skill set is one thing, but the right fit is critical.

Online assessment also gives us an opportunity to investigate other personality characteristics.  It might be important for us to know if candidates are risk takers, or alternatively if they are so deeply conservative that decision making will be difficult.  Do candidates respond with aggressive characteristics?

With the right degree of probing, we can also gauge through online assessment the potential trustworthiness of individuals.  Pretty cool from the comfort of a keyboard!

Online assessment helps business to select, develop and retain talented employees.  It should not only be viewed as a recruitment tool.  Specially designed online assessment is being used in large organisations to better identify middle management talent.

Online assessment is a valuable technological development that saves time and money.  It screens out unsuitable candidates.  It tells us more about those we might like to meet.  And it frees up management time that could otherwise be wasted in interviews.

Online assessment is impartial, consistent and highly informative.  With the help of a skilled practitioner, online assessment can work even better for your organisation and deliver substantial savings in recruitment.