“Weed Out,” “Weed In,” and the “Double Check”

Assessment geeks like to talk about having an “assessment strategy,” a plan your company follows to make sure that every candidate gets a consistent assessment experience based on the specific needs of your company. Coming up with a strategy is always a good idea, but it can seem daunting at first.

It needn’t be.

After all, a strategy is just a high-end word for a plan, and the great thing about plans is that they’re moldable. What works today may need an update tomorrow, but having a plan certainly beats never taking that first step.

The even better news when it comes to assessments is that there are basically only 3 ways to deploy assessments in your hiring process. If you’re using SmartRecruiters (great choice!), you’ve already got all the tools you’ll need to start using ConnectCubed to make better hires, every time.

At ConnectCubed, we’ve seen companies adopt one of 3 strategies we like to call the “Weed Out,” “Weed In,” and the “Double Check.”

Weeding Out: Or How to Go from 50 candidates to 10 without missing hidden gems.

You already know that hiring based only on resumes and interviews is one of the least sound ways to pick great talent. Your next star hire might get left out, even though they are a perfect fit for the role. Assessments work best when they’re given to the most number of candidates. It may seem counterintuitive, but your ROI on assessments goes UP the more assessments you deliver.

Adopting a weeding out strategy means assessing all the qualified candidates who apply to your role. With your ConnectCubed data, you’ll be able to prioritize who to interview and other follow up with based on a clear picture of who has the personality and smarts to be an all-star in the role.

Weeding In: Or how to go from 10 candidates to a short list by picking top performers.

The second most effective assessment strategy is one that uses ConnectCubed not to knock out candidates but to qualify them. If you’ve made an initial screening decision on the candidates in your pool, you can invite your remaining candidates to take a ConnectCubed assessment to help guide your decision on whom to bring in for follow up interviews and more involved engagement with your hiring team.

The goal of weeding in is more to back up your initial selection criteria and to highlight any red flags. If your initial screen missed some area of candidate personality or aptitude that’s likely to lead to failure in the role, you’ll want to know that NOW, rather than wait for a train-wreck later on.

The Double Check: Red flag/Green flag.

Even the most skilled recruiter can be duped by a candidate putting on a show over the course of a few interviews. ConnectCubed cuts through that “best behavior” face with psychological analysis that gets to the core of the candidates work style, workplace behavior, and work quality.

Like any responsible teammate, you want to double check your work before moving to the offer phase. Before you make a final job offer, you need to make sure that this candidate is primed for success and doesn’t exhibit any counterproductive qualities.

Have you started implementing an assessment strategy? What’s worked at your company? What successes have you found since starting your assessment program? Let us know in the comments!

connectcubed Michael Tanenbaum is CEO of ConnectCubed. Using the power of big data, ConnectCubed utilizes epistemic gaming technology and psychometric testing to create next-generation pre-employment screening tests.