Interviewer: Mahmoud Mansi
1- HR Revolution Middle East: How would you define “talent assessment” from a Cubiks perspective?
James Raley: Talent Assessment is the ability to apply accurate, robust and reliable measurement to better understand candidate job-fit or to develop talent. It is typically measured by the assessment of cognitive ability, workplace personality, behavioural competencies, values and culture fit, situational judgement, or a combination of any, or all of these.
Assessments can be delivered online, virtually or face to face through structured interviews and assessment centres. Cubiks sees talent assessment as a tool for making better talent decisions that are informed by science and driven by technology. Decisions you make throughout the entire employee lifecycle, whether that be making the best selection decisions or developing existing talent within your workforce.
2- HR Revolution Middle East: Do all organisations need to implement assessment tools either in recruitment or internal leadership development?
James Raley: Basically, yes. We’re interested in empowering people to achieve their potential. Assessment is proven to help with this, but the advantages extend much further to increased productivity, retention and engagement, as well as bringing process efficiencies and cost savings with the automated technology now available in the market – sometimes saving millions of dollars in bad hires and saving uncountable hours wasted through lengthy, unstructured, inefficient and ineffective processes.
3- HR Revolution Middle East: From a candidate mindset, what do you think are the challenges he/she would face in assessments? How can they overcome these challenges?
James Raley: Often candidates are unprepared for cognitive ability tests and struggle with the time-pressure, format or types of questions in reasoning tests. Cubiks offers a practice test site, allowing candidates to prepare themselves. This can help people to overcome their fears and be better prepared for the online environment. With personality assessments we encourage candidates to take their time and answer as honestly as possible. We also advise organisations to be transparent about the purposes of the assessment, providing candidates with a clear picture of the process and the outcomes. Candidates should also ask for feedback. Regardless of the outcome of assessments, constructive feedback provides candidates with valuable insight, improves the candidate’s self-awareness and can better prepare them for future challenges and opportunities.
4- HR Revolution Middle East: Talent assessment is stereotyped by many candidates that they believe if they score the highest in “leadership questions” for instance, their application will have a higher chance in being selected. What is your opinion about that? And how to “control” such a risk?
James Raley: Some people think that online personality assessments are subject to bias or easy to manipulate. This is not the case and there are several ways Cubiks ensures this. Our personality tools have a social desirability scale which measures whether a candidate is answering the questionnaire honestly or a manner they perceive to preferable for the employer – we call this “faking good” and take the measure into account when we make recommendations. Some of our assessments include forced-choice questions, which reduce the possibility of manipulating answers. We also recommend that personality assessments are supported by a validation interview – these interviews probe individuals’ personality preferences and ask for examples to ‘validate’ questionnaire results. Assessment Centres add an additional level where candidates are required to demonstrate how they would behave in work situations – when run properly, these are very hard to fake and the combination of these assessments typically provides a realistic picture of how the candidate will perform on the job.
It’s also important to understand that what the candidate thinks the employer is looking for is often not the reality. Ultimately, being yourself and responding honestly is your best bet. It’s as much about finding the right role for the candidate as it is finding the right candidate for the employer.
5- HR Revolution Middle East: Talent assessment is well-recognized as a robust approach to talent acquisition. However, many organisations rely on outdated tools that have no place in today’s fast-paced and tech-focused culture. Equally, other organisations choose tech over predictive validity. Why is this and what impact can it have?
James Raley: Organisations often use legacy assessment tools because senior stakeholders are comfortable with them or processes are engrained making change difficult. Many old tools are valid – meaning that they predict performance accurately. However, top talent needs to be interested and engaged or they simply won’t bother completing the assessment and drop out of the process. New technology can make the assessment process quick, informative and accessible – keeping top talent engaged and helping organisations to save money with more efficient processes and higher completion rates.
At the other end of the spectrum, some organisations are so excited by new technology that they forget the importance of accurately predicting performance. Some tools provide a brilliant candidate experience, but if the results aren’t accurate they’re a waste of time and money. You just need to ask the assessment company for proof of validity studies and, ideally, third party reviews and accreditations from independent organisations like the British Psychological Society.
6- HR Revolution Middle East: Many organisations have never used talent assessment tools. As a consultant you must have encountered situations where you presented the philosophy behind talent assessment to clients. What are the common misconceptions these organisations have about talent assessment before speaking to you?
James Raley: The most common misconception with non-users of assessments is a mistrust in their reliability and effectiveness and therefore the justifying of cost.
Science answers the first point. Cubiks has invested decades in researching the reliability and validity of our assessments around the world. The outcome of this work is clear – our assessments help organisations to make better, more objective and reliable talent decisions.
The second misconception regarding cost can be countered by defining the value returned. The cost of assessments varies based on the context and type of assessments that clients are interested in. Some assessments only cost a few dirhams and others cost thousands. Some focus on making talent processes more efficient – giving the value of huge time savings whilst others explore candidates objectively and in detail, for example selecting the best successors to the CEO – the financial risks of selecting the wrong person for these types of critical role speak for themselves, and robust assessments are a reliable solution.
7- HR Revolution Middle East: Since there are different talent assessment tools available in the market, what is your advice to organisations that are trying to make a choice to what best fits their mission?
James Raley: My advice for organisations looking to select an assessment partner would be to focus on robust and rigorous tools which have been validated and accredited by reputable third party organisations such as the BPS. It’s also advisable to check what results your assessment partner has achieved for its clients. Then take advantage of what the latest technology has to offer: cost savings, efficiencies, faster and more engaging experiences for top talent. Finally, make sure your selected assessment partner can tailor to your specific need. All organisations’ requirements are different – can your assessments be personalised with your own competencies, brand, values and language or do the off-the-shelf versions suitably fit your needs? Are the languages that you need available and have the tools been designed for western cultures, or will they be reliable and valid across cultures?
8- HR Revolution Middle East: If an organisation cannot afford outsourcing a professional assessment service, what advice do you have for them in order to implement it in house?
James Raley: We would recommend getting trained by a reputable assessment provider, such as Cubiks, and empower your people to manage the assessment processes themselves. The most popular accredited route for online assessments is the British Psychological Society (BPS) – Test User Ability and Personality Training which can be delivered with Cubiks tools. This will allow you to register as an accredited Test-User with the BPS and run the assessments without having to pay external consultants. Assessment doesn’t have to be expensive and options are available to fit most budgets.
9- HR Revolution Middle East: What are the different solutions that Cubiks offer?
James Raley: Cubiks has a strong reputation amongst the world’s preeminent employers as leaders in talent assessment and development. We embrace tech, partner with the best in breed, champion analytics and invest in innovation. Whether online or face to face, we won’t rest until you’ve got what you need to make accurate and predictive talent decisions.
We help organisations in 2 main areas of talent assessment:
Screening and Selecting Candidates
- Screen efficiently
- Attract fresh talent
- Excite potential employees
- Get the right people in the right roles
- Make sure it’s a mutual match between the organisation and candidate
- Spend your hiring time wisely
Identifying and Developing your existing talent
- Pinpoint capability and potential
- Discover future stars
- Enhance self-awareness and accelerate growth
- Transform how teams operate
- Uncover hidden trends in your workforce by harnessing analytics
Thank You
Also Watch Mahmoud Mansi’s Interview with James Raley, HRTV, The HR Observer: