Using a behavioral assessment is the secret weapon of many recruiters. Use it to find the best candidates for your available positions who are best suited to the role in question. Keep reading to find out more about behavioral assessments and the benefits they provide to hiring managers.

What Is A Behavioral Assessment?

A behavioral assessment in recruitment refers to a test given to candidates. This test gives you a way of seeing how the applicant responds to certain situations and offers a prediction of their future behavior.

This is fantastic for hiring managers and recruiters as it can help you to fill vacant positions with candidates who have the temperament and traits to excel in the role. Behavioral assessments provide you with an insight into how the candidate will fit in with your team and organizational culture as well as whether they are suited to the open position.

You may have heard of cognitive testing or personality tests used during the recruitment process. A behavioral assessment is slightly different from these because the focus is on predicting behavior rather than simply categorizing personality traits.

10 Benefits of Behavioral Assessments in Recruitment

Adding a behavioral assessment to your recruitment processes is fantastic for you as the hiring manger, the company, and the applicant. Here’s why:

Predict Performance

If you’ve ever wished that you had a crystal ball that would show you how a well a new employee will perform, this is it! The main reason that hiring managers use behavioral assessments is to predict a candidate’s performance in the role if you hire them.

When they are carried out correctly, the findings consistently show that a behavioral assessment is a great predictor of future job performance. This helps you to choose the candidate who will perform the best if offered the position.

Fairness

By giving the exact same test to those you are interviewing, you are offering a completely fair way for a candidate to stand out. The one who scores highest on the assessment is sure to become your front runner. As they were given the same test as the other candidates, this is unarguably a fair way to run your recruitment process.

Employer Branding

A behavioral assessment gives you a way to impart your brand values to potential employees. Behavior at your organization should reflect the values of your brand. When candidates undergo the assessment, they will get to show that they are the right fit for your brand image.

Job Preview for Candidates

By conducting this assessment, you’re offering candidates a realistic job preview. By testing them on the skills required for the position, they will gain an understanding of what the role entails. This provides them with the chance to see if the role would appeal to them or not. So, it’s a win-win situation – you test their skills and they can see whether they might enjoy the job.

Basis for Feedback

When you decline job candidates, giving feedback can be a challenge. Often, you just had a better feeling about another candidate. When you conduct a behavioral assessment, you have some real basis for feedback. You can let them know what they scored and where they performed well or not so well.

Many assessments will provide you with detailed feedback that you can pass on to the candidate. Candidates are far more likely to accept that the decision was fair based on this additional feedback that they otherwise wouldn’t receive.

Reduce Bias

It can be difficult to take bias out of the recruitment process, even if you’re trying to. We all know not to hire based on factors such as gender, race, and other similar aspects. However, unconscious bias is a bias we are unaware of and can still affect hiring decisions. When you hire based on the assessment results, you can be confident that you have based your decision on data and not on bias.

Confidence in Hiring

With the real, applicable data gained from a behavioral assessment, you can be confident in your hiring decision. You know that you’re making the right choice because you can accurately predict how the candidate will perform in the position. No more second-guessing or tossing up between multiple candidates!

Return On Investment

The return on investment for any assessment is calculated by how much it costs vs the benefits of doing it. If you hire the candidate who will do the best in the role, you can save yourself plenty of money in the long run. There will be no need to recruit again for that role any time soon and the person in it might make your company more money.

That’s why most hiring managers find that the ROI of behavioral assessments make them well worth doing.

Comparison

If you just can’t decide who to choose, how can you differentiate between great candidates? A behavioral assessment is an ideal solution because it offers a basis for comparison between candidates. Your final two may both have similar skills and experience and interviewed well, but surely one will score better than the other on the test. This could make your decision simple!

Relevant to the Role

It’s critical that every stage of the recruitment process is relevant to the role you are hiring for. That’s why behavioral assessments are so great – they will always be tailored to test the behavior required for the position.

It is this relevance that elicits a positive reaction from candidates towards the assessment. They will appreciate that you are looking for behaviors the position requires. This also gives them certainty that they will be successful in the role they are applying for.

As you can see, there are numerous compelling reasons to add a behavioral assessment into your recruitment process. So, what are you waiting for? Add one in now and get a fantastic return on investment and promote your employer brand. Plus, your candidates will love it because they get a realistic job preview and they will appreciate the feedback. Start making confident hiring choices by using the results of these assessments, and you will never look back.