Assessment: An Under-Exploited Potential!
20.11.2023
THE USE OF ASSESSMENT HAS INCREASED STRONGLY IN RECENT YEARS, PARTICULARLY SINCE THE COVID CRISIS. INDEED, THIS TOOL ALLOWS COMPANIES TO SECURE A RECRUITMENT OR AN APPOINTMENT TO A MANAGEMENT POSITION. IT IS ALSO INCREASINGLY USED IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNAL MOBILITIES, TO CONSOLIDATE CAREER PATHS IN ORDER TO FOCUS ON THE LONG TERM BY RETAINING EMPLOYEES.
Yet, assessment still suffers from a bad reputation. For a simple reason: it has often been misunderstood and therefore poorly implemented. The result? A practice perceived as humiliating and infantilizing, distorted evaluations, demotivated teams, and accelerated turnover. Quite the opposite of the intended objective!
WHAT ASSESSMENT IS… AND WHAT IT IS NOT
To avoid these pitfalls, it is first necessary to clarify what we are talking about. Assessment is the evaluation of the suitability of a given person for a specific position or a specific challenge, at a given time (T). It thus has two major interests. On the one hand, to secure the company’s decision-making in the context of recruitment, internal promotion, or mobility. On the other hand, to identify talents to select and reveal potentials to support.
However, it is not an evaluation of the person as such. The goal is in no way to issue a binary judgment, to determine if the person is competent or not, involved or not: a priori, if they have been identified to be evaluated, it is because they are. The challenge is precisely to select the right person for the right position at the right time. The approach is therefore not deterministic. The skills and strengths of the person who is not selected are not questioned. They retain their full place in the company, may occupy the targeted position later, or flourish in another position.
From these reminders, two key rules follow.
EXECUTIVE ASSESSMENT IS NOT A UNIFORM PRACTICE
Ideally, this system should be built “tailor-made,” depending on the context and the company’s needs. It can focus on professional skills or expected managerial aptitudes, i.e., know-how, but above all on interpersonal skills, leadership, and development potential. It is the personality as a whole that is evaluated: what the employee knows how to do, but also their leadership style, intrinsic drivers, fit with the company culture, perceived risks (blind spots, potential behavioral dysfunctions), and limits.
It is therefore not a simple and single interview, but a multidimensional exercise, in several stages, which may involve multiple people: a coach, a consultant specialized in assessment, and possibly a professional/sector expert. It is also necessary to mobilize the relevant tools, particularly psychometric tests that will minimize assessment biases, and which must be debriefed during a dedicated interview.
THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF TIMING
The second rule: assessment is not a one-off operation but a long-term process conducted upstream, during, and downstream. Three times during which listening and availability must be priorities.
Upstream, it is a matter of setting, with full transparency, a framework of intervention that is clear to all stakeholders: the person being evaluated, management, HR, and the consulting partner. Benchmarking, in particular, must be well defined. What are the position’s expectations? What skills are required? One must then explain the why of the process, the how, possible outcomes, what will or will not be communicated, when, and to whom. Reassurance is fundamental here, to avoid generating apprehension, worry, and stress among employees, but instead to offer the conditions for a genuine dialogue.
Downstream, individual and precise feedback to all evaluated persons is essential. Everyone must benefit from perspectives. In particular, it is necessary to explain to those not selected that the process was an opportunity to reveal their own potentials, strengths, and areas for improvement. Assessment is for them a formidable development tool: the opposite of a global questioning or a sanction! To this end, the deliverable must include some safeguards. Written in the conditional, and not as a sentence branded onto their career, it must constitute a basis for reflection to be put into perspective with other information collected about the evaluated talent.
Build a tailor-made approach. Set a clear, transparent, and well-understood framework. Take into account support over the long term. Under these conditions, assessment is a formidable performance tool, for the company as well as for each evaluated employee, who will finally perceive it as a demanding but benevolent step. It is high time to restore assessment to its rightful status, with ethics and responsibility.