Assess for Success: Hiring and Developing Your People
By Anita Gray & Steve Gravenkemper
Performance Management
Universal Advisor , 2004 Issue No. 2


Filling a vacancy in an organization can be complicated. It’s more than finding a candidate with the right skill set. Skills, abilities, and experience are important, but they only comprise one part of the equation. Cultural “fit” is equally important, as a candidate who may appear to complement workplace culture may fail to assimilate and be ejected as a poor fit.

Once successful candidates are in place, the challenge becomes retaining those valuable staff members. One way to do this is developing staff members to become leaders within an organization.

How can organizations assure that candidates will complement company culture? And, once an appropriate selection is made, how can they know that these staff members have what it takes to become leaders within the organization? Three words answer both questions — through personnel assessment.

Personnel Selection

Personnel assessment can assist organizations with staffing in the following ways:

• Selecting employees who are the best “fit”: People bring more than their skills and abilities to work. They also bring their personality. Assessment provides the opportunity to measure skills, interests, personality, and work styles to assure a good fit with the job opening as well as the organization.
• Avoiding bad hires: One of the greatest benefits of assessment is preventing organizations from making a hiring mistake. Costs of employee turnover range from 30 percent of the annual salary for administrative staff to 150 percent for senior executives. Assessment can identify warning areas to guard against these mistakes.
• Accelerating the successful entry of new hires: Half of the successful personnel selection equation is hiring the “right” person. The second half of the equation is helping the right person become successful. Assessments can offer specific suggestions to:

a) The hiring organization regarding how best to manage the newly hired employee, manager, or executive.

b) The successful candidate so that they benefit from the assessment information in getting off to a quick and successful beginning.

Leadership Development

Personnel assessment can assist organizations with developing leaders in the following ways:

• “Growing your own” leaders: An increasing number of organizations are learning that in their desire to move from “good to great,” identifying and developing leaders is a key ingredient of success. Assessment for promotion can provide objective, third-party information that can be easily incorporated into the leadership development plan of newly promoted managers or executives.
• Building high performing teams: Many organizations understand that their success depends on effective and productive teamwork. Whether in the boardroom or on the shop floor, productive teams lead to high performance. Assessment can be instrumental in increasing understanding among leadership and communication style differences, offering suggestions to improve team effectiveness and providing ground rules for productive information exchange and decision making.
• Succession planning: There are select positions at the top of organizations, as well as important “linchpin” positions deeper within organizations, that are too important to leave to chance. Assessments can serve as the foundation for internal dialogue related to readiness for promotion or succession and additional training or development that might be important.
• Leadership or talent audits during times of transition: There are certain times of transition where organization wide assessments of leadership talent can be helpful in launching an organization successfully into the next phase of the business life cycle. These events include rapid growth in the business, shifts in strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and leadership changes at the top. Assessing organizational leaders can ensure that their skills align with the leadership style required by an organization to move forward and suggest training areas for future leadership development.

Your Staff Is Your Future

Personnel assessment is becoming increasingly popular with organizations of all sizes, from small family businesses to large, Fortune 500 companies. Among their many differences, these organizations have one commonality: Their success is directly proportionate to the quality of their staff. Making personnel assessment a component of recruiting and staff development will ensure your organization