An article in this month’s HR Executive journal provided some interesting insight into Assessments and how they are used in the global marketplace today. We encourage you to read the article, but also wanted to provide our take on some of the article’s information and conclusions, and how Shadowmatch fits into the author’s perspective.
Firstly, we strongly agree that Personality Assessments and Behavioral Assessments are ‘tools’ and should be used in just that way: as one tool of many to help determine the best outcome for the employer, employee and/or candidate. Beware any vendor that tries to position tools like these as ‘silver bullets’ that slice, dice and solve world hunger.
However, it does not mean that solutions should not bridge the gap between predicting future employee performance and internal development for performance. In fact, the article stresses that assessments should be more closely linked to development, and should become a more holistic analytical tool to make better internal decisions.
Shadowmatch fits nicely into this perspective; after all, it’s highly unlikely that your staff (or recruiting pipeline) is entirely made up of top performers, or conversely bottom rung individuals. In most organizations, you have a mix of people across the spectrum and the same behavioral analysis that matches an individual to a benchmark also clearly points out the potential areas of development to close the gap between current and desired behaviors: the closer the match to the benchmark, the higher the probability of successful performance. The key is to continue to measure and develop the behavioral profile vs. using it purely for a point decision.
We are amazed at the survey results that showed that only 4 out of 25 companies surveyed (that used assessment tools) said they thought there was a high correlation between the tool results and market performance (and even those companies were not using the tool extensively). What a missed opportunity! Either companies are using these tools incorrectly or the tools are inherently inaccurate. Our experience is just the opposite, which is why we are proud of being ‘different’ from the pack in what we focus on and why.
Please read the article and draw your own conclusions, but from the Shadowmatch perspective, we are sorry to see the market results, but pleased that there is so much opportunity to make a difference for organizations!
LINK: HR Executive Article – Eye on Assessments