Collaborative Leadership: The Missing Link to Effective Talent Assessment
Amid 2022’s converted economic landscape, talent assessment has emerged as a hot topic in the HR
industry. Increasingly so, as it has been recognised as a critical component for attracting and identifying high performers, and assessing a company’s overall talent pool, performance and success. As traditional methods transcend, leaders have been gauging new techniques for the past couple of years but are yet to come up with the right one. It’s time to revisit the roots and involve senior-level expertise in the process to serve the modern workforce.
Effective talent assessment starts (and ends) with leadership. Leadership assists in all areas of talent assessment, from setting up the process to continual monitoring and execution of best practices. Because of the many challenges and costs associated with talent assessment, effective leadership is paramount for successful implementation. Top leaders must ensure that the correct talent assessment is in place and use this to make the best business decisions.
1. Comprehensive company vocabulary
Would you be willing to join a company whose value and purpose are not well-defined in today’s era? One of the most critical aspects of effective talent assessment is aligning with a company’s vocabulary and culture. The company’s tone of voice and its vocabulary of official communications are a part of what defines its unique identity. This makes them powerful tools for attracting and communicating with employees and clients alike. Senior leaders’ experiences can be combined with brainstorming on language and culture that reflect the organisation’s mission, values, and goals.
These sessions enable the inclusion of all perspectives and provide clarity and a clear understanding of the organisational culture. A survey can be conducted post this session among employees to gauge the effectiveness and relevance of the provided list and add their inputs to get a better understanding.
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2. Interviewing top-level management
To combat the quest of finding the best talent in 2022 requires a different approach that involves a fusion of expertise and revised strategies. Having regular sit-downs and interviewing senior executives who have experienced hiring and developing leaders is a great way to get started on your talent assessment journey. Leaders may play the role reversal here by interviewing the interviewer to bring out the competencies and traits required by the top talents.
These insights from the senior-level experts help in setting the thrust areas for talent assessment and tweaking the process accordingly to identify the required factors, skills, and key performance areas for the modern workforce. Commonly discussed competencies and traits can then be aligned with the assessment tool. Once it’s done, the final step is selecting the right tool or combination of tools to measure these traits accurately — so don’t rush this step!
3. Validate and add new assessment tools:
Tapping the right talent requires combining multiple assessment tools that can holistically capture the traits of an individual. The modern approach requires tests that range from technical knowledge, cognitive ability, problem-solving, and psychometric tests to structured interviews, work samples, and simulations. A standardising assessment tool can be developed with the help of senior executives, who can review the interview questions and other assessment resources. These insights help fine-tune the eligibility criteria with precise characteristics to objectively identify the right fit.
If your company is already using another talent assessment tool (e.g., personality assessments or behavioural interviews), it may be easier to integrate new tools into existing processes than start from scratch, especially if there is significant overlap in terms of content covered by both old and new assessments.
4. Involve domain experts in the process:
An effective talent assessment process requires the involvement of senior leaders who have extensive experience and expertise. It is important to involve them in a broad range of areas from recruitment, selection, development and leadership. The years of experience that senior executives entitle enable them to describe the candidate’s strengths and needs. The details they observe offer greater insights about the candidate with respect to the requirements of the position.
Senior leaders have a keen eye for personally seeking out talent, both internally and externally, which increases the success rate of identifying talent needed to fill the position with the necessary skills. Their active participation in talent assessment has an added advantage over others, as they also act as great talent agents. They have the ability to see talent before others see it, unlock human potential, and find not just the right fit for each role, but also the best role for each employee, which is crucial to running a top-notch team.
It can be an extremely exhausting process to find the best talent that fits and blends perfectly in your organisation, while still adjusting to emerging changes. Today, the traditional methods may seem irrelevant but the experience the senior executives carry weighs heavy. There is an urgency for leaders to combat the talent gap not only to sustain but also to thrive in the years to come, starting now. Try combining and involving their expertise to build and revise the best talent assessment tools! These four steps will help HR leaders build a foundation of shared expectations around talent initiatives.
Assessment Centres are among the most objective and accurate methods of identifying managerial and leadership competence. Want to get more details about how your organisation can benefit by using it effectively?
