Many successful businesses have found a way to differentiate themselves by making a unique and emotional connection between their goods and services and the specific expectations of their customers. It’s not a stretch to say that the stronger positive emotional connection an organization can create with its customers, the more likely customers are to spend their hard-earned money with them.
To make this connection, companies need passionate employees to provide great service, dedicated managers to run the business, and inspired executives to set the vision, strategy and goals. Moreover, companies need talent at all levels in the organization who have been carefully and precisely selected based on their fit with the roles and culture to best deliver the brand promise. To ensure a custom fit, organizations should consider a strategy that includes a customized talent assessment as a component in a custom selection system.
Where are you now?
A good first step in considering a customized approach to talent selection is to evaluate and understand the level of customization in your current selection systems. This is important because there may have been previous customization work on which your organization can capitalize for future customization. Talent selection consulting firms and specialists have differing methodologies, so how much your customization can be utilized will vary. However, if you approach them knowing the level of customization in your current selection systems, your organization will be in a better position. To best accomplish this, you should consult with the firm or specialist that designed your selection systems. To evaluate the system on your own, a few questions are offered below:
- Are the initial steps in our selection process (i.e., application process) tailored to communicate our employment brand? Do we provide clear expectations about our role/company to the candidate?
- Do the assessment selection reports reflect my organization’s branding/logo? Are the assessment content, reporting, and scoring logic designed specifically for roles/job families in my organization?
- Are the interview questions and rating/scoring system unique for my roles? Do the interviews assess candidate fit in my specific culture/organization?
- Do I have a technical manual that supports the customization process and results following The Uniform Guidelines For Employment Selection Procedures (1979, Department of Labor)?
- Do I have quantifiable evidence, results or a statement of the return on investment showing that the system is meeting our custom needs?
Levels of Customization
Talent assessment customization can be best defined by level and by methodology. Below are outlined many of the common levels of customization for talent assessment tools and how methodology plays a role.
Low Customization. This approach involves branding an “off-the-shelf” assessment for a particular role or job family based on a brief job review and incorporating in company-specific language for the candidate and hiring manager experience. This might be as simple as incorporating your company logo into an assessment report or may be more extensive such as editing interview questions or the language used in the hiring manager report to better reflect your company and culture. This approach is typically lower-cost and quicker to implement.
Medium Customization. A medium-level customization effort often involves Success Profiling or Competency Modeling. At this level, a more extensive job study is conducted to identify the model of successful performance, which is then communicated in the talent assessment as a Success Profile or Competency Model. Assessment content and the resulting candidate evaluation report are aligned to evaluate the candidate’s potential for these desired job competencies. This approach works well in management and professional positions for selection as well as development purposes.
High Customization. A highly customized talent assessment involves large sample sizes and rigorous statistical analyses, such as when conducting a criterion validation study. A comprehensive job analysis is conducted to identify critical behaviors and characteristics and then statistical validation occurs. As a result, highly customized talent assessments would be designed to include, for example, role or job-family specific assessment items, weighting, scoring, and reporting. While time-consuming and expensive, the pay-off in using this approach to select talent can be considerable in terms of retention, productivity and impact.
Bottom Line
Ultimately, organizations are making decisions regarding talent selection customization by evaluating the time, effort and costs that go into development, implementation, training and support balanced with the return on investment and benefits. Conducting a cost/benefit analysis will help your organization decide on the best route for customization. Consider your starting point, talent strategy and talent goals to ensure that this very important decision is right for your organization.
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As an HR-XML Certified provider, our software systems conform to the standards of the HR-XML consortium for exchange of HR-related data. This allows our assessment systems to integrate seamlessly with other conforming HR software, such as HRIS, applicant tracking systems (ATS), and Recruitment Process Outsourcers (RPO).
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