A few years ago, assessments was a jargon which was known to the HR community and a few experts in the field. Today, assessments is something even the school kids understand ! Students today takeup various assessments during the course of their graduation and more importantly during their campus selection programmes. Students are required to attempt various tests / assessments like English, Aptitude, Technical test and also Psychometric assessments in some cases. A candidate goes to the next round of interview only if he or she clears the set of assessments mentioned. More and more companies are making such assessments mandatory as they have started to realize the benefits of assessments in the hiring process. It has been proven that the post-training and on-the-job rejection rates have drastically reduced compared to when candidates were hired without assessments.

Once into the company, as employees they need to participate in various training programmes. Here too they are required to takeup various assessments that may include Aptitude, Communication, Technical and Behavioral tests. Aptitude tests are intended to test the cognitive abilities such as Problem Solving, Numerical Reasoning, Spatial reasoning and Attention to Detail. Communication Assessments include tests such as Written English, Listening Comprehension and Group Discussions.Technical Assessments may include Progamming Languages (such as C, C++, Java), Databases (Oracle, MS-SQL etc.). Behavioral tests include instruments such as 16PF, FIROB, MBTI etc.

The assessment outcomes give crucial information to the HR heads, Project heads and also the Training heads. HR heads would be able to ascertain as whether their hiring decisions were right while the Project heads can bucket the employees into the various projects based on their employees' strengths. The Training heads can do the Training Needs Analysis based on the assessments outcome.

To summarize, we see that assessment is an integral entity in the life of an employee and employer. While the employee can know his or her strengths and improvement areas, the employer can hire the right talent. But the most important thing that must be kept in mind is - Are we using the right kind of assessment tools for talent hiring and management? If the assessments are not scientific, it would be as disastrous as self medication ! Thus employers need to do a thorough research and due diligence before use.

Ravi Kumar

http://in.linkedin.com/in/rk1672