Talent assessment tools: Making HR the front-runner of transformation
The role of HR in organisations has changed significantly. HR personnel are now the drivers of change, be it through technology or perceptions. The pandemic triggered rapid changes in working models and they touched almost every organisation globally. It pushed HR departments to understand, adapt and implement changes efficiently and quickly.
Talent acquisition, a primary role of HR personnel, is no longer about screening, interviewing and hiring skilled candidates. It is much more than that. HR must fulfil candidate needs and ensure the recruitment experience is good, work-life balance needs are met and candidate values and organisational culture are aligned. Since work-from-anywhere-anytime is an accepted work model now, many candidates list it as one of the primary requirements before considering an opportunity.
Talent assessment tools
Technology offers the best and most viable solutions to most challenges today. The right technological solutions enable organisations to thrive and make sound strategic decisions. Talent assessment tools are the answer to HR’s challenges too. These tools aim to help HR personnel find, hire and retain the right candidates, manage the new kinds of challenges in the business landscape, appreciate and handle new approaches to solutions and come up with out-of-the-box solutions.
The more effective tools use machine learning (ML) and big data analytics to analyse data and generate insightful reports about candidates during the recruitment process and beyond.
Uses and advantages of talent assessment tools:
1. Testing and screening solutions: Talent assessment tools have built-in facilities to work on simulations and work samples, conduct personality and cognitive ability tests, carry out structured and unstructured interview models and many other effective techniques to assess and screen candidates during the recruitment process.
2. Tracking candidates:These tools track applicants throughout the recruitment process and enable HR to build customised experiences for every candidate, depending on their performance in each challenge. The tools track candidates from the time of application to the onboarding exercise and through their association with the organisation. Social media analytics is a useful way to understand candidate behaviour on social media.
Employee capabilities and progress can be regularly checked through these tools too. There are a large variety of tests and models to carry out this process.
3. Making decisions: Talent assessment tools are empowered with prescriptive and predictive tools to help HR make the best decisions while selecting candidates. Candidates who were rejected during the recruitment process must now be given reasons about why they were not selected and they must be satisfied with the reasons given. Along with helping HR make decisions, the tools also facilitate drawing insightful conclusions about every candidate. Candidates who receive a fair analysis are likely to review the organisation positively on social media platforms and boost its brand as an employer.
4. Lowers cost and time; boosts quality of hire: The use of such tools generates instant reports about candidates and that expedites the selection process. The ability to carry out tests online removes the need for pen and paper as well as travel, thereby saving costs and time. Further, the tests are comprehensive enough to gauge the abilities of the candidates quite accurately and that ensures the quality of the candidates selected.
5. Scale up easily: These tools help HR manage large volumes of applicants with ease. ML algorithms pick the best candidate profiles that fit the parameters set out by HR for a particular role. The tools are unbiased and will only pick the best fit from a global database or from however large the talent pool is.
6. Screening by gamification: Organisations can use gamification to attract potential employees and to test and screen candidates during recruitment. Many organisations are already using gamification as a fun and interesting technique to screen candidates. A candidate’s domain abilities, temperament, reaction under pressure and various other skills and behavioural aspects can be gauged this way.
7. Obtain real-time feedback: Talent assessment tools provide real-time feedback about candidates and employees, which enables organisations to get a quick recap of an employee’s progress. Employees can be informed about their progress with constructive insights.
At the end of the day, for HR to be the front-runner of transformation in organisations, HR personnel must be ready to introspect, analyse and adapt the latest technological tools to successfully step up to the new demands of talent acquisition and other business challenges.
HirePro’s bundle of assessments to test candidates on behavioural competencies, aptitude, technical and domain skills can be customised to suit any organisation’s unique needs.
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