These Two Assessments Can Help You Get a Deeper Knowledge of a Candidate

Did you know that 85% of employers have caught candidates lying on their resumes, according to a recent survey? Unfortunately, you can’t always get the full picture of a job candidate from a resume and cover letter. Even after an interview, you may still not be getting the full story.

To get a deeper picture of candidates and make more informed hiring decisions, an increasing number of companies are incorporating psychological assessments into the screening process.

Many people may think of personality tests when they think of job-related assessments. However, there are also several other types of psychological assessments that can be used in hiring. Two examples are values assessments and biodata assessments.

Values Assessments

Values assessments are designed to help you understand candidates’ values and career goals, match candidates to your culture, and improve your onboarding process. They’re often used as part of a broader values-based recruitment strategy. Values-based recruitment (VBR) focuses on identifying a candidate’s core values and beliefs to ensure culture fit.

Some examples of work-related values include honesty, accountability, personal development, social interaction, autonomy, security, or authority.

Rather than trying to understand values in a subjective job interview, it’s better to assess them through a data-driven testing process. Candidates may aspire to certain values, but that doesn’t mean they necessary live them out through their actions.

Once you’ve defined your organization’s core values, make sure these values are being clearly communicated through your job ads. Then, during the hiring process, you can apply a values assessment, which will complement your interview data and help you make better hiring decisions.

Hiring people who fit your organization’s needs and values is better for both the candidate and the organization—especially when hiring for leadership positions. Data-driven values alignment will lead to better business results, and will also reduce the risk of candidate turnover due to value mismatch.

Biodata Assessments

“Biodata” is short for biographical data. Biodata assessments offer information about candidates’ life experiences and past behaviors. Past behavior is likely to predict future behavior, so knowing what a candidate has done before can give you an idea of their future job performance.

Biodata assessments typically ask targeted questions about behavior in specific situations. You can use the pattern of assessment responses to understand how likely a candidate is to behave a certain way.

As an example, a multiple-choice question on a biodata assessment might ask how quickly the candidate typically adapts to new situations on a scale of 1-5.

What’s nice about biodata is that with just a few multiple-choice responses that only take a few minutes to fill out, you can predict candidate performance and loyalty in a significantly more accurate way. When used as part of a comprehensive assessment process, biodata is a key way to differentiate between candidates and identify the best person for the position.

How Hutrics is Different

At Hutrics, we offer proprietary values assessments and biodata assessments. All of our assessments have been validated by data—they’ve been shown to be predictive of leadership performance and business outcomes, based on our research with real organizations. They also won’t introduce bias, or cause an “adverse impact” as defined by EEOC guidelines.

While assessments are a crucial tool during the hiring process, a single assessment won’t give you all the information you need to make a hiring decision. That’s why we offer a fully integrated approach, including multiple assessments, as well as analytics and onboarding coaching. Since predicting job performance and loyalty is complex, we assess multiple facets like values, personalities, competencies, cognitive ability, and previous experience. This helps us make sure the successful candidate is completely aligned with your role and organization.

Our assessments provide valuable insights both to you and to candidates, regardless of whether or not a candidate is hired. That’s why we’re the only hiring platform that provides a Developmental Report. You can share this report with candidates once the hiring process is finished, so they can use the feedback to grow and better understand their needs and goals. This adds a personal touch to the candidate experience. You can also keep this data on file, so you can stay in contact with strong candidates for your future hiring needs.

To learn more about values assessments, biodata assessments, and Hutrics’ 360° hiring and onboarding program, contact us today.