The effectiveness of any organisation, no matter how big or small is dependent on the quality of the workforce. In business everything is about return on investment. However when it comes to assessing candidates for a position, people tend to forget about return on investment.
A lot of people will tell you that they are not prepared to spend money on an all-inclusive Assessment, meaning a combination of personality, ability and work specific competencies or skills tests. They will rather look at the candidate’s CV and do an interview, sometimes a very short interview, or they will tell you that the person has got a degree or diploma so they can do the work. A qualification however gives you the necessary theoretical background, but doesn’t guarantee success in the work. A qualification doesn’t mean that you have the personality needed to do certain work nor does it mean that you automatically have the ability.
Have you ever experienced that in many organisations if a person is really good in their work they automatically are promoted to a supervisory or even managerial position? Many times this person cannot cope with the new work – they experience difficulties dealing with the administrative duties and cannot manage the interpersonal relations. They are an expert in their work but not necessarily a good Manager. Sometimes after a long and difficult “battle” they start to find their feet, but in many cases they cannot cope, get constant negative performance appraisals and sometimes even resign after a time.
Look at some other examples:
- Does a driver’s license mean that you are a good driver? What is the cost of replacing a vehicle or even a truck? Always remember that you cannot replace a life!
- How much sales do you lose if you appoint the wrong Sales person?
- Would you like to fly with a Pilot that does not have the ability to deal with a crisis situation?
- A zero doesn’t make a big difference if you add it in front of numbers, but add it to the back. Can you see the value of working accurate and identifying small mistakes before thousands can become millions?
The list of examples can go on forever. It makes much better business sense to rather appoint the correct person for a specific position than to spend thousands, sometimes even millions of Rands on medical costs, legal costs, training costs and the cost of replacing personnel.
Nothing in life is perfect. The same applies to Assessment. Assessing a person doesn’t guarantee 100% success, but it gives you much more information in order to make a more informed decision.
Gerhard Schoeman - Industrial Psychologist