From understanding the culture, to hiring, career selection, development and pathing, leadership succession planning and teambuilding, assessment can assist individuals and organizations with the performance process by identifying strengths, weaknesses, motivation, work and task preferences, interests, and decision-making and communication styles.

Uses for Assessment

Selection – Is turnover and lack of productivity killing your bottom line? Hire the right person for the job the first time, and improve your retention rates and productivity. The cost of turnover is 1- 1.5 times someone’s annual salary even at low or mid-level positions, and in higher positions, it is generally 2-3 times someone’s annual salary. These costs can be averted by an effective hiring system that includes assessment.

Personal Mastery – Wanting to identify strengths and weaknesses clearly and build a plan for supporting the strengths and offsetting the weaknesses? Assessment is the foundation of any good development plan.

Career Development/Pathing – Making decisions about what career to pursue, or in the midst of a career transition? Wondering where you will thrive best in the organization? Assessment can help you understand yourself better so that you are more able to direct your strengths in the direction that will fully exploit them so your career is more challenging and fulfilling.

Succession Planning – What is the depth of your bench? Is your organization ready for the retirement of its leadership? Be prepared for the transition at all levels of your organization with an effective succession plan. Identify managers with leadership potential through assessment and develop them into leaders.

Team Building – Wanting to optimize your team’s efforts? Assessing the members of your team and debriefing them as a group can identify the dynamics of the team and provide common language to addressing issues on the team and enable them to communicate more effectively and work together more productively.

Job Structuring and Research Tool – Are you clear about the traits, qualities and competencies that predict success in a job? Assessment can help clarify what constitutes success in a position and can provide valuable research for the organization. Benchmarking is the cornerstone of predicting success in a position and it begins with a good assessment of the position.

Cultural Assessment – The culture of an organization is simply stated as “the way we do things around here.” It is a pattern of shared basic assumptions that drive behavior in the organization. Organizations have personalities, just like people do. The culture is a shared personality in the organization. It’s valuable to assess and understand the culture of an organization so the leaders can decide how to move the organization forward towards the objectives and goals.

Types of Assessment

Individual Self-Report – provide your own input and receive feedback

360 degree – get feedback from multiple raters in order to see all sides of the story

Organization – Look at the organization as a whole on many dimensions to help determine and support the strategic objectives of the organization.