Transform your hiring process with competency assessments

HUntil not too long ago, the selection processes were basically focused on evaluating the candidates' CVs and personally interviewing those who managed to pass the first screening. However, to date this process has proven to be insufficient. The evaluation of competencies is on the rise to improve these processes.

If we hire based on the information that the candidate himself has given us in his CV and in the personal interview, we are letting only be guided by data that we do not know if they are true.

Let's say, for example, that the candidate tells us that he is a person who works well in a team. A priori we will believe him. But it may happen that when he joins the squad we realize that he is rather individualistic and does not perform well within a group.

To avoid this type of situation, many companies have already switched to the skills assessment. It does not replace the selection in the classic style, but rather complements it and makes it more effective when searching for the ideal candidate.

What is competency assessment?

It is an advanced process that aims to find the ideal candidate to fill a key position in the company. Understanding that the right person to assume a role in the organization is one who has specific professional skills that are complemented by certain personal skills and characteristics.

What is done in these cases is relegate the experience to the background, because what matters is knowing the candidate more in depth. Find out how it really is, how it has faced work challenges in the past, and how it could evolve in the future.

We will not be able to obtain this type of information easily from a resume or through a personal interview. So it is necessary to have specialized tests.

Benefits of applying the competency assessment

Prioritize soft skills over hard ones

As we have pointed out before, in a competency-based selection process, the candidate's experience does not have as much prominence. In other words, we are not so interested in their hard skills or hard skills. Because what really matters are your personal skills, since they are the soft skills the ones that are going to really influence the way you work.

Job skills can always be developed within the company through training. But we need new hires to have a number of soft skills like ability to manage work time, initiative, honesty or independence. It is true that these skills can also be developed, but it is more expensive and complex for the company to invest in the development of soft skills than in hard skills. Hence, organizations prefer that new additions to the workforce already have, at least, a base of professionally useful soft skills.

It allows selecting personnel more related to the company as a benefit of the evaluation of competences

Corporate culture and values influence the way of working in each business. If an employee does not identify with the values of the place where he works, he will never feel completely comfortable in it. Although his professional profile is perfect for the position, it is normal that neither he nor the company are satisfied, and this ends up generating an increase in absenteeism and turnover.

On the contrary, if the selected worker identifies with the values and culture that your company defends, your adaptation will be much faster and easier. This will increase your motivation and productive capacity.

To know if a person fits well or not in the cultural profile of the company, it is necessary to know some aspects of it that are not easy to identify in a personal interview. Fortunately, these factors can be located with the help of objective type evaluations.

Leads to better results

Competence-based evaluation allows obtaining a large amount of data and information about candidates, making the comparison between two profiles is much easier to perform.

In addition, when the recruiter focuses on objective data, he is leaving cognitive biases behind and avoiding their influence on his decision.

In short, a much more objective selection process is achieved, with better results, and fairer for all candidates.

Speed up the hiring process as an advantage of the competency assessment

It might seem that including more tests within a selection process is going to help lengthen it. But just the opposite happens.

The tests are done quickly and even together, and the information is extracted from them quickly. AYes, in a short time sufficient data is available to begin to assess the true talent of the candidates. In the end, what is achieved is that the selection process is more agile.

Types of competency assessment

Although these tests can be carried out to cover any type of position in the company, it is usual to resort to them only when it comes to strategic positions, generally managers and technical staff.

Job Knowledge Tests

They evaluate the subject's ability to carry out tasks typical of the position to be filled. This way we can know if the candidate really knows how to do what he has outlined in his resume.

The drawback is that these exams measure the actual knowledge of the candidate. But do not allow to know more about their ability to continue acquiring skills in the future.

integrity tests

Before the 1980s, some US companies put job candidates through lie detector tests. Over time, more efficient and less harmful tests for the privacy of the person emerged, such as integrity tests.

They are responsible for measuring ethical issues, evaluating certain personality traits to determine whether or not we are in the presence of a person of integrity.

Its drawback is that candidates can reach easily identify what response the other party expects, so they can lie if they want.

Aptitude and work tests

They are an evolution of the work knowledge tests, because with them we want to know the real ability of the person to do a certain task. But they also let us know How will she react to pressure situations?

For example, with one of these tests we can measure the coding ability of an applicant for a programming position. But in the middle of the test an incident can be caused that "forces" you to demonstrate other skills such as your ability to manage time, or your level of self-control in times of crisis.

Cognitive ability tests

These exams assess the skills that are involved in thinking: perception, mathematical ability, problem-solving ability, memory, reasoning, verbal ability, etc.

They are the most important when we want to measure the employee skills. This is because they are going to allow us to know their current capabilities and also those that could develop in the future.

The usual thing is to adjust the exam based on the skills that you want to measure. This is because not all positions are interested in the same ones.

On the other hand, tests of cognitive ability no longer consist of long and tedious tests. Today they are much shorter and more enjoyable tests, because with a few exercises it is more than enough to better understand the candidate's abilities.

Another of its strong points is that in them it is difficult to falsify the results. This is because we are not telling the candidate what exactly we want to measure, so they will respond freely and show their personality and abilities as they are.

What are the best tests to do a competency assessment?

No test is absolutely accurate. We can find candidates capable of showing in the evaluation a personality or skills that they really do not have. However, this risk is reduced if combine the testsIt's this guy. But this cannot mean lengthening the selection process, since it could lead us to lose candidates.

Candidates are reluctant to take assessment tests if they are too long and/or hard, or if the process is taking too long. Therefore, the best in these cases is make simple tests that can be done more or less quickly. And, in addition, that they are carried out in a maximum of 3 to 5 days from the personal interview. 

In fact, a good design of evaluation tests can contribute to improve the candidate experience. This is because he You will see how little by little the selection process progresses and you will be informed of when it will more or less end.

The competency assessment allows companies to streamline the hiring process while improving its effectiveness. This is because it almost completely eliminates the recruiter's subjective judgment, focusing solely on objective factors. By designing the evaluation process well, vacant positions can be filled sooner and with employees who truly fit both the position itself and the company.

With software like Hirint you can easily and quickly evaluate the skills of your candidates and find out how they fit with the vacancy. Learn more about us, book a meeting here.