Behavioral Assessment: Why is there a Need for it?

Dr. Purushothaman
October 7, 2013

While hunting for a perfect candidate for a job, behavioral assessments can play a major role in identifying the right one from among the thousands of applicants. This assessment involves assessing the four dimensions of human behavior, namely the response to problems, challenges, work pace, rules and procedures, and the influence on others.

Traditional pre-hire assessments Vs behavioral assessment
According to Career Center of the University of Notre Dame, behavioral assessment can accurately forecast a candidate's on-the-job behavior by 55%, while traditional interviewing is only 10% predictive. A typical hiring process involves the use of elementary or standardized questions. The final selection of a candidate then depends on the interviewer's first impression, personal opinion and the information gleaned through the questions that were developed for everyone. This might lead to the hiring of misfit employees, who might later struggle to fit into the assigned roles and achieve pre-set goals even after six months.

The hiring mistakes are not surprising as they happen due to the use of pre-developed questions. Most of the questions are common for all applicants who, in turn, are prepared to handle these questions with the best possible answers. There is limited chance of a hiring manager gauging out the accurateness of the responses, especially when an applicant is confident in his speech and his resume reflects his skill level.

The hiring mistakes can prove to be quite a costly affair, considering that the costs of hiring, training and retaining employees for top positions are skyrocketing. The answer to such a problem is the inclusion of behavioral interview during the pre-hire assessments.

Behavioral assessment is based on a fact that none of the people are alike in their attitudes and behavior in similar circumstances. This fact has been backed by an American psychologist, inventor and the creator of the comic character Wonder Woman, WM Marston, who said "All people exhibit all four behavioral factors in varying degrees of intensity."

Behavioral assessment is a pretty recent procedure that has been implemented successfully by several companies to identify and select best performers for top jobs. This assessment procedure requires candidates to respond to each question with specific examples from his past work experiences, rather than generalized or hypothetical responses.

Resource Box: YUS is the market leader in implementing behavioral assessments. You can trust YUS in carrying out behavioral assessments interviews successfully and helping you find best suitable employees. Your Ultimate Success (YUS) is one of the most reliable sources for the best and most versatile corporate coaching services.

Read Related Recent Articles