It was the simplest of times, but it was also the dullest of times. Buyers were rightly bored and uninspired. Their marketing, sales, finance and IT counterparts were benefitting from a myriad of innovative new tech whilst they still had a Psychologist rocking up to their office with a suite of norm groups, numerical reasoning tests and promises of a fun new training course with zany ice breakers.
Enter gamification, VR, automation, immersion, machine learning and all things fourth industrial revolution. Finally, buying an assessment tool was an engaging and interesting experience. At long last, HRDs could go back to their CEOs and show them something genuinely fresh which promised an incredible candidate experience. All this new HR Tech comes with promises of epic candidate engagement, fantastic diversity and the use of Artificial Intelligence to revolutionise your process.
And it’s true. I’ve worked in volume selection as a psychometrician for over 15 years, advising a range of FTSE 100 companies and Governments. And I’m perfectly happy to throw my hat into ring and tell you these tools can deliver all this.
And there is a but. Don’t get distracted by the shiny tools alone. HR Tech is a tool not a solution. It’s not going to solve all your problems. The market typically underestimates the effort involved to implement assessment solutions and the bumps in the road you can, and will hit. A great tool alone is not enough. You need a trusted partner who can smooth the way. A partner who understands the complexities of your global market place and exactly how to personalise your assessment solution to account for this. They don’t need to have spent 15 years in psychology school. But they do need to be able to support you every step of the way, from sales, through to pilot, roll-out, stakeholder engagement, fine tuning, validation and be willing to get in a room with you and help you achieve stakeholders buy-in right across your business. The right partner will understand that a Solution needs to fit and be configured to all areas of your business, not just be a great piece of new kit. When a Tool or series of Tools are personalised across your business and rolled out with expert support, that’s when you have a great Assessment Solution.