What is behavioral assessment? Behavioral assessment is the evaluation of human behavior using tools like interviews and observation. Through this practice, scientists can tell how people behave in certain environments. At present, behavioral assessment is popular in the corporate industry. In particular, a good percentage of human resource managers use behavioral assessment tools to predict employee performance.

More often than not, hiring managers use behavioral assessment to determine an individual’s skills, capabilities, values, ethics, and knowledge. This way, they’ll be able to gauge whether these competencies align with their company’s values. Below are some of the pros of behavioral assessments in the workplace.

Pros

The first advantage of using behavioral assessments is that they help you predict the organization’s future performance. When you use behavioral assessments on employees, you will be able to determine their contribution to the organization. In turn, you will be in a better position to make an accurate forecast of the organization’s sales, profits, and revenues.

The majority of behavioral assessment tests have high face validity. Both the candidates and recruiters agree that the assessment is appropriate for measuring individual competencies. Additionally, behavioral assessments provide the hiring manager with relevant information about the candidate.

Behavioral assessments are not biased. These tests are less likely to qualify a candidate based on ethnicity, gender, and sex. Instead, these tests only provide the candidate’s personal information relevant to the job application.

Another benefit of behavioral assessments is that they are customizable. You can easily customize them to match the job description and your company values. Consequently, they help you find the best candidate for the job.

The candidate also benefits from partaking in behavioral assessments since they learn more about the organization through this process. Moreover, they will gain insight into the role they are applying for. Ultimately, behavioral assessments are a mild form of orientation to the organization on the candidate’s side.

Since behavioral assessments help candidates understand their role better, the organization is less likely to have a high turnover rate in the long run.

Cons

Although behavioral assessments offer a wide range of benefits, they also pose several

disadvantages. Some of these cons include:

Generally, behavioral assessments consume more time since they incorporate an in-depth approach. Coming up with the best behavioral assessments requires you to conduct thorough research and analysis. So, it might take a while before coming up with a reliable behavioral assessment. Luckily, you can always use online tools to conduct behavioral assessments. Online tools are relatively easier compared to offline tools.

The major disadvantage of behavioral assessments is that they are costly. You need a huge sum of money to come up with quality behavioral assessment tests. Nevertheless, this should not be a problem since they will help you improve the overall productivity of your organization.

What is the difference between behavioral assessment and personality/cognitive tests?

Generally, behavioral assessments help you find out how individuals behave when exposed to certain situations. On the other hand, personality and cognitive tests show an individual’s thoughts on certain matters. Therefore, they may not be as accurate in determining a person’s competencies.

Examples of behavioral assessment tools

Below, we discuss some of the most common behavioral assessment tools

One of the most common tools recruiters use is the situational judgment test. This test is uniquely designed to identify the best answer in a group setting. Hiring managers place individuals in a group setting. Then, they are given a topic of discussion or a question to answer. From there, recruiters determine the most active member of the group who gave the best responses.

The other behavioral assessment tool is caselets. When recruiters use this tool, they give the candidates a set of information, mostly in paragraphs. The candidate is then expected to organize this information into tables, charts, or answer questions regarding the information piece.

Hiring managers also use case studies to evaluate problems and recommend actions. This helps the hiring manager identify the intellectual capacity of the candidate and what they bring to the table. At times, managers use role-plays instead of case studies during face-to-face interviews. For example, role plays are popular in interviewing candidates for customer service jobs.

Ultimately

This article makes it clear to see how behavioral assessment is essential in determining an individual’s competencies. Even so, coming up with behavioral assessment tests is not a walk in the park. So, it would be best to look for a professional. We, at Klein Consultants, have experienced experts who come up with the best behavioral assessments that aid in the hiring process. Subsequently, we enable you to hire the best candidates who deliver nothing but the best. Therefore, with Klein Consultants, rest assured of increased company sales, revenues, and profits.