Finding Mr. Right – Assessments Matter…

Confused by the title? This isn’t a post with a matrimonial perspective, though the play of words was intentional. Finding the right person for the right job is a task that’s becoming more and more complicated and difficult to achieve. Ask any recruiter how satisfied they were with their last successful placement, and chances are you’ll find that there was a compromise made. Now, we get that an ideal candidate may not exist; adjustments and compromises need to be made both, by the organization and the candidate.

But, the point of discussion is do today’s detailed assessments actually help organizations judge someone’s candidature? Are they a fair evaluation of whether a candidate is a good fit for a said role?

Let’s take Rajesh’s example. An engineering graduate with a penchant for coding, Rajesh was the go-to guy for all his colleagues at college. Whenever there was a linked list that frustrated someone, a program that led to an infinite loop, or a compiling operation that popped up a zillion errors, Rajesh would come to everyone’s rescue. A couple of years into his career, Rajesh was looking for a job change. Everywhere he went, software development companies had the same format for recruitment – pass an aptitude test, clear a couple of technical interviews and then appear for a personal interview. While he was great at coding, Rajesh found it difficult to crack the aptitude tests at some place, while on some other occasions he was flummoxed by the questions posed to him. Some of these questions or so called aptitude tests had nothing to do with the job requirements, but were a mandatory clearance step to proceed to further stages of the selection process. The entire experience left Rajesh frustrated, until he went to an interview at a startup. A simple interview and a short coding test later, Rajesh was hired in record time and today is happy at his job.

What was the difference between the two approaches? One displayed a rigid, rudimentary technique of candidate evaluation and looked at every candidate from the same set of screening goggles. The other at the startup company judged the candidate solely on the basis of his skills and his suitability for the job. Shouldn’t it always be the latter way?

Granted, 100% compatibility between skills and job requirements might never happen. But, a 60% job fit might be good enough too, if the candidate has the right attitude, is a good cultural fit, and is looking to take up job responsibilities with enthusiasm. This is where candidate selection assessments become critical, and the same lens cannot be used to evaluate every candidate. Carefully curated, custom-designed assessments tailored to job requirements and candidate profiles are the need of the hour.

This is exactly what SkillMirror specializes in. Assisting organizations of every scale in identifying and onboarding the right candidate for the right job, SkillMirror has helped many a candidate find jobs they are satisfied with. With a high success rate resulting from careful study and extensive research in the field of manpower solutions, SkillMirror uses tailored assessments to ensure that you do not miss out on picking out the Mr. Right (or Ms. Right!) for your job requirements.

For more information on how you can benefit from our services, log on to skillmirror.com today.