Assessment specialist Talent Q has launched a portfolio of ‘intelligent’ and ‘face valid’ online assessments – including a competency-based screening questionnaire and a series of adaptive ability tests – to help organisations recruit frontline customer service, sales and support staff.
The competency-based screening questionnaire, called Aspects Styles, takes on average eight minutes to complete and provides an ‘overall suitability score’ for each candidate. It can be customised to include the most relevant competencies for each role.
Three new adaptive ability tests, called Aspects Ability, are available which measure verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning and clerical checking skills (the ability to compare information accurately and quickly). All three tests adapt to provide a tailored testing experience for each candidate. The average completion time is 6-10 minutes, which is almost a third of the time of traditional tests.
“Online assessments can help you to more consistently and more efficiently identify high quality candidates, who closely match the requirements of the role,” said Alan Bourne, Director of Products & Innovation at Talent Q. “However, candidates will make their own judgements about the appearance, credibility and relevance of any psychometric tests they undertake. This is known as ‘face validity’. Our Aspects portfolio has been designed specifically to have high face validity, which means they are more likely to be accepted by candidates in today’s work environment.”
To help managers conduct more effective interviews, the Aspects Styles questionnaire includes an option to generate a tailored interview guide for each candidate, based on their competency scores.
“The Aspects Styles Interview Guide offers a far more effective way of evaluating a candidate’s suitability for a role than a general, unstructured interview,” said Alan Bourne. “It enables interviewers to hone in on any areas of concern and collect evidence to support their selection decisions.”
The three Aspects Ability adaptive tests are underpinned by a large bank of questions of varying levels of difficulty.
“The questions presented in the ability tests vary depending on the candidate’s performance during the test,” said Alan Bourne. “Each time a candidate gets a question right they move on to a more difficult question. If they get a question wrong, or fail to answer, they’re moved to an easier question. This means that the test can be completed in less time because the questions are always pitched appropriately. The candidate’s final score is determined by the level of the questions they answered.”
The new Aspects assessments are applicable across a wide range of industries and sectors. They can be incorporated into an existing applicant tracking system, to create a seamless process for candidates, and they can be customised to reflect a client’s branding and terminology.
Recruitment teams can download a range of assessment reports, including individual assessment scores, overall percentile scores and competency scores. They also have the option to provide each candidate with a free feedback report that will help them understand the results of their individual assessments.
“One of the great challenges of volume recruitment is to find the right people whilst also providing each applicant with a high level of candidate care,” said Alan Bourne. “These new tests have been designed to help you get that balance right. They can not only help you to make better quality, quicker and more consistent hiring decisions, they also provide a positive experience for each candidate that fits with your employer brand.”
