Spotting Top Campus Talent through Behavioural Assessment

Campuses have always been one of the most sought after recruitment destinations for finding employable talent. Various assessments are used to zero in on suitable talent on campuses. Multiple internships and entry-level positions get filled and these also function as a talent storehouse for organizations’ future hiring needs. 

Summative assessments, which include typically  written exams, technical rounds and  face-to-face interview processes to measure  talent metrics, have been around for a long time now. The standard recruitment toolkit now includes behavioural assessments and these have honed the recruitment process to find the most appropriate hires done.

The test of behaviour and personality has been a part of recruitment processes of Defense, Bureaucracy and Intelligence for decades now. Nudge theory/Nudges, a concept in behavioural economics, is used for desirable outcomes in decision-making processes. The behavioural insights are applied routinely in the government, corporate, health care and business sectors. Now these are a part of standard recruitment processes across sectors. 

Behavioural Assessment

Behavioural assessments, the most used tool in clinical assessments, are applied in recruitment to evaluate the core competencies of the candidates and assess their fit to the core values of an organization. These assessments are used by employers as a part of their screening process to predict the behavior of prospective candidates and standardize their hiring process. These tests are reliable and thus validate the hiring process.

These assessments facilitate the examination of generic personality traits such as  customer service orientation, willingness to learn and leadership capabilities of individuals. Candidates who do well on these tests  easily align with the values and needs of the work environment while becoming enablers for emotional awareness and well-being among their peers. 

When behaviour feeds the talent and how!

There is a paradigm shift in the variables that decide employment today. The right attitude, emotional maturity and a proven ability for teamwork  amplify candidates’ chances of selection.  The assessment tools are quite like an algorithm. They are designed to gauge whether the natural inclination of a candidate meets the aspirations of the recruiters. 

The behavioural assessment tools are a type of psychological tool that are used to observe, explain, predict, or at times even correct behavior of test-takers. They employ psychometric tests where questions are open-ended, have no right or wrong answers, and are not leading in any way. Candidates are naturally led to respond with what they feel is right, making it a dependable process and identifying their likely behaviour and attitude even before they are recruited. 

Online behavioural tools include:

• Situational judgment tests which introduce a series of real-life scenarios relating to the job and organization in question. The test-taker must decide the most effective course of action for a given situation.
• Caselets which include the case description and are quick tools to test a  candidate’s business knowledge, aptitude and reasoning abilities. These are used to assess behavioral competencies in individual contributors, first-time managers and even mid-level managers.
• A case study simulator which uses experiential simulation to test candidates’ ability  to identify issues, brainstorm and suggest appropriate action steps to resolve them. 

There are several compelling reasons why employers should consider behavioural assessment in campus hiring. Behavioural assessments:

• Help predict a candidate’s performance for a particular role. 
• Ensure objectivity and fairness as the same tests are given to all the candidates. 
• Impart the organization’s values to potential employees and increase the probability of finding candidates who reflect the brand image .
• Give candidates a fair idea of  what the role entails. 
• Are free of bias as the results are based on data. 
• Are a good return on investment as they offer accuracy in hiring, ensuring that the organization need not spend on re-hiring.  the organization need not spend on hiring candidates for the same role again. 
• Make decision-making a quick and simple process. A behavioral assessment is ideal for this because the behaviour of two candidates is not  the same despite similar skill-sets. 

According to SHRM, a survey conducted found that of 237 companies of all sizes (about half of which are in the U.S) approximately 52 percent used skill and knowledge assessments in hiring, and 38 percent used predictive behavioral assessments.

The farsightedness of behavioural tools and talents

Behavioural components have a major role to play in recruitment. Technological advancements, globalization and the increased use of virtual spaces has driven behavioural assessment. The pandemic has accelerated the pace of incorporation of the behavioural component into virtual assessments.  The information age, coupled with AI integration, will only rationalize these tools in the virtual realm of recruitment and hiring.

Behavioural assessment tools will positively impact the volumes of hiring without any  compromise on the quality. What is more promising is that it extrapolates within the organization to augment skills, training and increase productivity. The virtual space is an infinite  dimension and behavioural assessment opportunities are abundant in the domain of recruitment and hiring.