So Who Have We Really Been Hiring

Measurement as the “scientific” basis of the hiring process is generally unquestioned.The assumption is that the tools in use have been validated and are generally accepted in practice as being statistically sound. As a consequence, most of the ongoing efforts of recruiters have been focused on figuring out how the assessments are helping delivery of all these strategies such as “recruiting the best,” “building world-class talent,” “driving diversity through creative recruiting strategies,” “finding more innovative ways to hire the best,” and “building pipelines for leadership talent.”

Similarly, there’s debate about the transactional aspects of assessments — should we administer them with paper or online, for example. In other words, the use of assessments has become a given. In many ways, the perception of the recruiting community is that it has moved along to bigger and better things, as though the assessment part of the process has been neatly packaged and dealt with by virtue of its historical contribution.

The question, however, remains: Are the assessments we’re using in fact providing the solid foundation we assume they are?