Online assessment and psychometrics: The next 10 years
25/01/2010
Alan Redman, Director of Criterion Partnership, features in the January 10 edition of the Recruitment Consultant Magazine, sharing his vision for the next 10 years of online assessment and psychometrics. His article reads:
Just as high-street recruitment has become over-taken by online technology, traditional paper & pencil testing is being superseded by online assessment as the dominant model. But what should recruiters expect from the technology of online assessment and psychometrics in terms of meeting the challenges and opportunities of the next few years?
Challenges
Online recruiters are currently faced with three key challenges that are the result of economic, sociological and technological factors; more candidates fighting for fewer vacancies; increased online sophistication of applicants; increased difficulties in tempting the best talent away from secure jobs. Recruiters should expect the online assessment technology they use within their recruitment processes to meet these challenges successfully.
Increased volumes
The ability to cope effectively with large volumes of applications for vacancies is a well established strength of online recruitment technology but has traditionally been an issue only for the largest recruiters who could afford large-scale technological solutions designed to deal with high volumes. One of our clients, Asda, typically receives over 10,000 applications for 50 graduate roles and the online assessment site we developed is built to sift this number with minimal recruiter intervention, reducing their cost-per-hire by 88%. But smaller recruiters facing higher volumes of applications can also benefit from adopting the same three key principles as Asda:
Move online assessment upfront – The earlier in the recruitment process that you place online assessment the greater the benefits in terms of quality of sifting decision and calibre of candidate going through to second round
Use values-based assessments – Include online psychometrics that are tailored to assess the degree-of-fit between applicants and the demands & rewards of the role, and the values & culture of the business.
Base sifting decisions on a diverse range of information – To ensure the quality and fairness of online sifting decisions you should include a range of online assessments, for example a values-based personality questionnaire and ability test, which produce a traffic-light based sifting score. Applicants with green scores can be fast-tracked to second round; red candidates can be automatically regretted; amber candidates can have their score considered alongside their CV.
Increased sophistication of online applicants
Assessment technology has traditionally played a cat-and-mouse game with candidates as we try to neutralise the efforts of candidates to manipulate the process. Online recruitment has always needed to work even harder because of the remote, high-stakes nature of the assessment. Online assessment technologies therefore need to present an effective response through deterrence, detection and validation.
Deterrence – research indicates that the most effective way to minimise candidate impression management and cheating is to deter it. Ensure your online assessment system presents multiple deterrents to candidates such as honesty contracts, randomisation and ‘bogus pipeline’ measures – steps that increase the fear of being found out.
Detection – Online psychometrics should include measures of the level of candidate manipulation through monitoring of response style, this should be reported back to the recruiter.
Validation – Online scores should be validated later in the process through assessment at second round. Verifying test scores online is prone to the same manipulation as any remote assessment, so validate scores under supervised conditions.
Tempting the best talent
Recruiters must also ensure that their online assessment system is consistent with the attraction and branding messages communicated earlier on in the process. Effective online assessment systems should offer these technologies:
Seamless and integrated candidate journey – Candidates have high expectations of the quality of web-based experiences from regular exposure to sites like Facebook, BBC and Amazon. Your online assessment site must conform to these experiences and expectations by taking candidates through journey that is fluid, robust and seamless. There should be no unnecessary clicks, frustrating log-in processes or endlessly long forms. Ideally the assessment site should be integrated with other parts of the online recruitment process.
Employer branding – the online assessment site should conform to the high standards of online graphic-design of the corporate careers portal or attraction site.
Tone of voice – candidates should be addressed using language that is clear, everyday and warm. The language should reflect the diversity of your applicants and should avoid the dry, gruelling tone set by traditional psychometrics.
The future
Right now we are seeing online assessment technologies begin to adopt Web 2.0 principles. Recruiters should now expect more than the traditional one-way, inflexible approach to assessment. Leading edge technologies offer full tailoring and customisation by all users. Modern systems should enable you to determine what the psychometrics assess to ensure a tailored, role-specific candidate experience.
