At a time when such a great variety of so-called “personality tests” are now offered on the HR Management market, it may be useful to recall what the purpose of personal skills assment tests actually is. Indeed, the first and foremost advantage of these tools, as opposed to a simple interview, is to assist the assessor in asking the candidate a very large number of questions – and of processing the corresponding data in an automated manner. In fact, any reasonably reliable assessment tool will ask the candidate a number of questions so large, that this would be impossible to do without a computerized tool.
Thus, a personal skills test, as reliable as it may be, should only be performed if a debriefing interview can be offered afterwards, so that the results obtained may be openly discussed with the candidate.
TYPES OF APPRAISAL INTERVIEWS
This being said, we may consider that three main types of assessment interviews are being offered on the HR market, which themselves reflect three different degrees of professionalism in the conduct of assessments:
- Feedback: A person who has been spending time answering any kind of questionnaire should be entitled to a minimum amount of feedback on the results obtained. All candidates should thus at least be handed over a graph or a synthesis of their results.
- Validation Interview: All tests have a more or less important margin of error. Moreover, the same test may present a different error margin depending on the candidate being assessed. Therefore, an interview should offer all candidates the opportunity to confront their results and even challenge them. They should also contribute to their interpretation by clarifying certain points and by illustrating their explanations with real-life examples. Therefore, the candidate becomes a true dialogue partner, which incidentally helps avoid the trap of entering a dominant/submissive relationship.
- Assessment Interview: In addition to helping evaluate the candidate’s potential, this type of interview is aimed at assessing the convergences and divergences between the candidate’s skills profile and the requirements of a job, a project, or any other current or future activity. As a result, a targeted development plan may be outlined. A new assessment interview may be scheduled in order to measure the candidate’s progress and the impact of the development actions that have been taken.
THE CONDUCT OF ASSESSMENT INTERVIEWS
Here are the main steps that can be included in an assessment interview:
- Presentation of results: The assessor briefly presents (10-15 minutes) the results obtained for the diverse assessment criteria, the definitions of which should be handed over to the candidate. It is necessary that the assessor also inform the candidate about the validity period of the results, which may never exceed 6 months to 1 year.
- Discussion of results: The assessor discusses the results with the candidate by asking open questions. The candidate then has the opportunity to say how he/she generally acts in real-life situations, clarify his/her point of view, discuss extreme situations he/she may have experienced, etc. Here, candidates may also challenge the assessor’s interpretation or the test results themselves, although they will have to explain why they deem them to be inaccurate. This approach will allow assessors both to validate and nuance the results, so as to enrich – or correct – their initial interpretation. It will also allow candidates to gain a deeper self-knowledge, as they will be able to link the assessment’s results to their actual professional experience.
Thus, it is obvious that even though they may (and indeed ought to) provide information that will be critical for the conduct of the assessment interview, skill-assessment tests can in no way replace the human relationship between the candidate and the assessor.
ASSESSMENT ETHICS
For this relationship to allow for the establishment of a climate of mutual trust and lead to a genuine partnership with the candidate, it may prove useful to observe the following points:
- Do not ask personal questions;
- Do not force your points upon the candidate when there are divergences of opinion and that he/she does not show receptiveness to your analysis. These areas of disagreement, however, ought to be clearly identified. They may subsequently be further investigated through other means (such as discussions with the candidate’s personal references, assessment exercises, periodical appraisals, etc.);
- It does happen that people start engaging and opening up by revealing some information about their private life. Listen to what they have to say about their health or emotions, but do not communicate the information to anyone else. Do not seek to investigate this data;
- Design the potentially resulting development plan in partnership with the candidate.
PRACTICAL ASSESSMENT TOOLS
We invite you to read the article “How to Conduct an Assessment Interview – Sample Performance Appraisal” which provides practical tools for the assessment of personal (i.e. ‘behavioral’) skills in a professional context.
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