When Lesa and I first started Bradshaw LeRoux back in 1998, our strategy was to educate our clients on the benefits of competency based assessment tools for making informed and holistic recruitment or development decisions. Whilst I would like to believe it was our enthusiasm and obvious passion to go the extra mile for our clients that led us to quickly becoming known as the “go to” assessment service provider in KZN, looking back, I think it was a lot more than that. It was the fact that our assessments were seen to be fair, valid and reliable tools which provided specific input into the candidate’s actual “on the job” skills and competence.
Over the years there has become a greater demand to include more Psychometric Assessments within our assessment centres due to the fact that we are constantly trying to ensure that our clients are armed with holistic information about a candidate’s motivation, competence and general abilities. It goes without saying that the more holistic the assessment, the greater the validity of one’s findings. However, the escalating costs of psychometrics are a genuine concern for our clients, particularly as some of these assessment tools are directly influenced by the exchange rate. Moreover, the more tools that are used in an assessment battery, the more time it takes to integrate the results and report on candidates, which ultimately results in a higher fee and longer turnaround time.
We have heard you, which is why we have recently decided to go back to basics. We need to ensure that our clients are able to expose applicants to fair, valid and reliable assessment strategies as part of the recruitment process in order to make holistic selection decisions without breaking the bank. What our clients are now finding is that they are able to assess more of their applicants (thereby reducing suspicion of subjective shortlisting from internal applicants and ensuring that they do not have to eliminate potentially “good” candidates due to budgetary constraints) and that they have the benefits of a faster turnaround time to set up final interviews. Moreover, they do not have to sift through lengthy reports and have the option of only receiving detailed, integrated reports for those candidates that meet the requirements of the role following the assessment.
What has stayed the same:
- Our service standards and quality of reports.
- The process – candidates are still exposed to fair, valid and reliable tools with a strong focus on competency based assessment.
- Candidates are exposed to professional assessors and feel comfortable during the assessment process due to the high face validity of our tools.
- Clients receive valuable feedback on the degree to which a candidate meets the required levels of proficiency for a specific role or level of work which will assist them in making holistic selection decisions.
- We still provide the full repertoire of assessment strategies to assist our clients in acquiring the right talent for their organisations, including: Competency Based Exercises, Personality Assessment tools, Cognitive Functioning tools, Learning Development and Trainability tools and our unique Online Strategic E-Tray assessment.
What has changed:
- We have reduced the number of psychometric assessments used in the assessment centre thereby reducing costs, administration time and turnaround time for writing reports.
- We have come up with flexible packages whereby we put together assessment strategies that are directly aligned with the client’s budget.
- We are keeping it short and simple. Summary reports will be provided for all candidates at a considerably reduced cost due to the reduction in time it takes to put these reports together.
- Clients will be given the option of paying for more detailed, integrated reports for those candidates that have been found to meet the level of proficiency required for the role based on their assessment results.
- Clients can receive summary reports within 2 working days as opposed to 3 and would thus be able to proceed with second interviews fairly quickly. Depending on the assessment, this turnaround time could be quicker.
We, as a small business, understand the need to be flexible towards our client’s budget without compromising the quality of our assessment services. We also understand that not everyone has the time or inclination to read through lengthy reports unless the candidate is clearly going to be a contender for the role.
We are able to provide significantly reduced pricing for summary reports and clients can opt to only pay for more Detailed Integrated Reports for those “recommended” candidates that meet the standard required. This way, you can afford to assess more candidates – thereby increasing your pool of potentially successful candidates.
Furthermore, you are able to show good faith in your internal applicants by allowing them to attend assessments and experiencing the objective recruitment process that is being followed.
Click here to contact us today and book your seat at our Back to Basics Assessment Strategy Discussion.