The information here will give you an overview of the most common methods used to compare candidates.
Interest Inventories
Interest Inventories assess your personal preference or liking for specific types of job related activities in a wide range of occupations, for example, if you like working with sick people, or if you’re interested in working outdoors. Inventories have been designed to cover a whole range of age, experience and occupations.
Personality Questionnaires
Personality Questionnaires look at behavioural style, how individuals like to work. They are not concerned with your abilities, but how you see yourself in terms of your personality, for example; the way you relate to others, and your feelings and emotions.
There are no rights and wrongs in style, although some styles may be more or less appropriate to certain situations.
It is becoming more common for employers to look at style in the recruitment process. It can help plan development programs and to place people within groups.
Motivation Questionnaires
Motivation Questionnaires look at the factors that drive you to perform well at work. Areas which may be considered include; the energy with which you approach tasks, how long and under what circumstances effort will be maintained, and those situations which increase and decrease motivation.
Motivation is a dimension of a person-job fit which is most often used in development situations once you are in a job, but it may also be used (although less commonly) in recruitment.
Ability Tests
Look at the extent to which you are able to carry out various aspects of a job. Ability Tests look at a variety of skills with varying levels of difficulty.
Often employers are interested in your potential to do a task. In this case, they may not use assessment methods that aim to simulate aspects of that task. Alternatively, they may choose to assess more generic skills, like interpersonal communication or making decisions on the basis of written information, which will predict how well you may do the task.
Apart from Ability Tests, there are lots of ways in which employers might try to assess ability in selection procedures:
Employers may be looking for particular abilities or skills which they expect you to have already. These might be quite specific, such as using a particular programming language, or knowing when to use different types of equation. These kinds of skills are likely to have been gained during your education or work experience, and so employers may consider them by using:
Simulation Exercises
Simulation exercises are designed to imitate a particular task or skill needed for the target job.
It is clear what kinds of skills are being assessed.
Although they may be taxing, simulation exercises are often enjoyable to do. The tasks and skills that may be assessed using simulation exercises are varied, so there is considerable variation in the kinds of materials, scenarios and other people involved from exercise to exercise. Different types of simulation exercise include:
- in-trays
- tests of productive thinking
- group exercises
- presentations
- fact-finding exercises
- role plays
In-trays
In-trays or in-baskets involve working from the contents of a manager’s in-tray, which typically consists of letters, memos and background information. You may be asked to deal with paperwork and make decisions, balancing the volume of work against a tight schedule.
For example: You are asked to take over the role of Public Relations Manager of a company who is organising a stand at an exhibition. Your tasks are based around organising the stand, touching on issues such as personnel, finance and marketing.
Tests of Productive Thinking
These tests look at the volume, diversity and originality of your ideas. You are presented with open-ended questions relating to various problems and situations, and are asked to generate responses within a time limit.
For example: You are given a scenario in which shop floor workers in a factory have expressed low job satisfaction, and staff turnover is high. You are asked to generate as many ideas as you can of ways to increase staff morale within a limited budget.
Group Exercises
Group exercises are timed discussions, where a group of participants work together to tackle a work-related problem. Sometimes you are given a particular role within a team, for example the sales manager or personnel manager. Other times there will be no roles allocated. You are observed by assessors, who are not looking for right or wrong answers, but for how you interact with your colleagues in the team.
For example: You role-play a member of the marketing team for a pharmaceutical company. The team is required to discuss the launch of a new consumer product, covering issues such as advertising, ethical concerns, packaging and pricing.
Presentations
You may be required to make a formal presentation to a number of assessors. In some cases this will mean preparing a presentation in advance on a given topic. In other cases, you may be asked to interpret and analyse given information, and present a case to support a decision.
For example: You are asked to make a decision about the proposed relocation of the head office of an electronics equipment manufacturer. You present your recommendations, fully explaining the reasoning, and are then questioned by the assessor about your decision.
Fact-finding Exercises
In a fact-finding exercise, you may be asked to reach a decision starting from only partial knowledge. Your task is to decide what additional information you need to make the decision, and sometimes also to question the assessor to obtain this information.
For example: You take on the role of a Regional Manager in a holiday company, dealing with a customer complaint. You are asked to decide what further information you need in order to reach a decision, and have a time limit in which you can question the assessor to obtain this information, before presenting your fully reasoned argument.
Role Plays
In a role play, you are given a particular role to assume for a certain task. The task will involve dealing with a role player in a certain way, and there will be an assessor watching the role play.
For example: You take on the role of a new manager in a brewery, and as part of your induction program, you are required to have a meeting/phone call with a client whose account is going to be your special responsibility to manage. You need to introduce yourself and find out if the client has any issues which need sorting out. If there are, you need to explain to the client what you are going to do about them.
Assessment Centres
These are not a place, but a process often known as a multi-method approach where;
- Several candidates will be present (typically 6-12).
- You are assessed against a number of job dimensions, competencies.
- By several assessors.
- Using multiple methods of assessment, including
- ability tests
- personality and motivation questionnaires
- simulation exercises
- interviews
Some exercises will involve other candidates, and there may be some you do on your own.
You should be told in advance what kind of exercises you will be doing and if you need to prepare anything beforehand. There are many advantages associated with the use of Assessment Centres.
They provide a more comprehensive overview of your strengths and limitations than any single method.
They are standardised, so every candidate has the same opportunities to demonstrate their skills.
They are more objective than interviews alone which may be biased by the interviewers’ interpretations.
They allow you to show a range of abilities in a variety of different situations; your performance on all the different exercises is taken into account.
Select a link below to view more details:
Understanding the assessment process
What employers are looking for
How the assessment process works
Hints and tips to help you
Practice tests