Using Behavioral Profiling to Make Better Hiring Decisions

This is a guest post from our Marketplace Partner Talview.

There are so many misconceptions in the HR & Talent Acquisition vertical surrounding the use of behavioral assessments.

Behavioral assessments add immense value to the merits of the candidate: with a behavioral report in place, the employer or project lead can build a team the way they want. They help the employers find the candidate’s interests, temperament, and latent skills which help them build a team of like-minded people.

The impact of hiring the wrong candidate can have disproportionate effects on businesses. Personality and workplace behavior assessments can provide insights and help make better hires.

Here are three common misconceptions about behavioral assessments that every employer or recruiter should know:

They’re Misunderstood:

• Myth: Behavioral Assessments don’t need to be a separate test. They could make the candidate self-conscious and write in answers that they think the recruiter wants to hear, as opposed to being honest.
• Fact: Most behavior assessments have answer options that are worded to sound neutral. Most assessments also have scales built-in to track /measure fake answers. Moreover, how are any of the following questions related to the work environment? (Do you consider yourself to be shy? Do you like parties? Do you like to talk to strangers?) The new age of assessments measure workplace behaviors and most often have questions that can be easily related to the workplace.

They’re Mistaken For Something Else:

• Myth: Behavioral Assessments are mistaken for intelligence, aptitude, and sometimes considered to replace Emotional Intelligence tests.
• Fact: They shouldn’t be used interchangeably because the results of these various tests are vastly different.

They’re Misinterpreted:

• Myth: Behavior assessments are often interpreted as a pass/fail test, but they can’t show that a candidate got 47 out of a 50 and hence is not competent for the role.
• Fact: There are no right or wrong answers in a behavior assessment as the different answer options are mapped to different behavior traits. Some of the behavior assessments provide a percentile score for the traits assessed.

That being said, behavioral assessments return better results in a natural setting. When the candidate answers questions that they would answer in an interview it would be ideal to assess behavior traits through the response pattern, body language, tone etc.

These assessments should be used ALONG with other technical or skill-based assessments and should not be used as an exclusive tool to hire a candidate. What’s the point if the candidate matches your team’s culture, but has absolutely no skills relevant to the job?

Remember: behavioral assessment scoring doesn’t need a skilled psychologist to interpret. There are multiple assessment providers out there who provide comprehensive, easy to understand visual reports to help recruiters or hiring managers make a well-informed hiring decision. Moreover, these tests can be used as an indicator of how well the candidate would gel with the existing team or organization’s culture and beliefs.