The resume is intriguing. The candidate’s experience is compelling. The interview showed their engaging communication and interpersonal skills. References backed what other parts of the leadership hiring process had shown. But – there’s still a crucial point that cannot be answered at this point:
How do you know that a candidate for a leadership role will drive and lead your company towards long-term success? Are they a good cultural fit for the organization?
At Key Search, that’s where our assessment tool comes in. It delivers additional insights that help us assess a person’s personality, skill set and behavior in the workplace to inform our detailed candidate profile. In this article, let’s look at how this benefits the leadership candidate, our client and future employer, and its significant impact on creating a smooth onboarding process.
Contents
What are the Benefits of an Assessment and How Does it Work?
As an additional tool in the leadership hiring process, assessing the personality and job fit of a candidate offers many insights that are then integrated into each candidate profile.
How Does the Assessment Tool Work?
The assessment tool we use at Key Search is specifically designed for hiring leadership roles. It is completed online, untimed, and set up to be completed in a short amount of time. Candidates answer in a free-choice, stimulus-response format in the language of their choice to ensure maximum clarity and comprehension.
For executive recruiters, the assessment is a reliable and science-based indicator of a candidate’s behavioral traits and tendencies.
Scientifically Validated Candidate Assessments
The assessment tool we use at Key Search gives our team valuable insights into the following aspects of talent assessment:
The multi-faceted hiring assessment tool used at Key Search highlights a range of data that, together with other parts of the hiring process, shows whether a candidate is the perfect fit for a role.
Unless this data is collected, making the right hiring decisions can become led by bias or gut feeling – to rule this out, the executive recruiters at Key Search all work with our continuously developed candidate assessment tool based on scientific data and psychometrics.
Source: Pawel Rogalski, Director at Key Search
Pawel Rogalski
Director at Key Search
The Benefits of an Assessment Tool
Beyond experience and skills, personality is a key factor in ensuring a candidate is a perfect fit for a company. When you hire leaders, it is essential to make sure they fit your culture and understand your goals while leading and empowering your existing team.
The behavioral assessment tool in the recruitment process offers additional psychometric data for a more comprehensive understanding of a candidate and how they fit into the company culture. The tool gives a bigger picture on the preferences in decision making – it answers the question “what would a candidate do?” in certain situations. It helps understand the logic behind the decision making and each candidate’s natural preferences. What’s more, it sheds light on the actual skills and preferences of the individual versus the skills required and preferred for the specific role.
Assessment in Leadership Recruitment
Behavioral and job assessment tests are relevant during the hiring process for both recruiters and our clients, because they add important information to a candidate profile.
The assessment tool supports the hiring process for leadership roles.
I can then expand on its results in the behavioral interview questions and it helps me prepare for potential gaps. Because we use one of the most established tools available today, we can rely on its solid psychology fundamentals.
Source: Pawel Rogalski, Director at Key Search
With many different tools on the market, it is important to understand its benefits and limitations and ensure you select a psychometric, data-driven tool so its results are reliable and founded on research.
A tool is only meant to support the hiring process for leadership roles and is not a replacement for other parts of the hiring process. Find and focus on the area that is most important, which can differ based on your role in the recruitment process, job level, industry or the area you would like to focus on.
Types of Assessments and Tests
- Predictive Index Test
- Personality Test
- Cognitive Assessment
- Behavioral Assessment
- Emotional Intelligence Testing
- Personality and Career Test
- Job Skill Assessment
- Job Fit Assessment
In addition to giving unbiased, valuable insight into whether a candidate is the perfect fit for a role, an assessment is also highly valuable to our clients after hiring the perfect candidate to ensure a smooth onboarding.
Personality and Behavioral Candidate Assessment at Key Search
The personality and behavioral assessment we conduct at Key Search informs our executive search process. Data-driven and unbiased, it helps us find the perfect candidate for a role. Additionally, it informs us and every Key Search client we work with on how to best support the candidate’s individual onboarding process.
Psychology is the area of my personal interest and I always wanted to understand people’s motivation, logic behind their behavior, and how it evolves over time. My goal is to connect psychology education and business to help organizations match the best people with the most interesting projects.
This accuracy and project approach significantly improves business success, limiting the risk of a mismatch. If you would like to discuss how I can help your organization hire the right leaders, let’s talk.