Navigating the Assessment House of Horrors: a fear-inducing candidate experience

Written by Paige Jenkins, Principle Consultant at Talogy

With Halloween just around the corner, it’s safe to say that nothing strikes more fear into the heart of candidates than assessments.

For candidates, the prospect of taking a hiring assessment can feel like walking into a haunted house of horrors; the dreaded fear of not knowing what you are going to be confronted with, no clear path, and wondering what lurks behind every door.

At Talogy, we believe creating best-in-class screening and selection solutions requires us to get under the skin of the candidate experience and dissect the psyche of volume recruitment applicants. Why? Because by failing to consider the psychology of the participant experience, Talent Management experts may be creating a series of recruitment ‘horror stories’ that perpetuate anxiety, fear, and loathing of assessment processes in the talent populations they try so hard to attract.

Walk with us as we explore a talent Assessment House of Horrors where we witness what causes frightful candidate reactions, and how through applying best practice, educating, and supporting talent, we can avoid haunting experiences and enable applicants to exorcise their fear of assessments.

Door 1 - Scary Psychometrics

Unlocking what lies behind the first door of the Assessment House of Horrors is ‘Scary Psychometrics.’ Typically used as a first stage, their aim is to measure key attributes and behaviors that align with the job role and screen out candidates who do not possess the minimum criteria needed to perform in the role.

Some Scary Psychometric situations encountered by candidates are:

• Rickety robustness
• Fearful fairness
• Spooky support
• Tarnished (or lack of) transparency
• A labyrinth test length
• Inferior improvements

Exorcising candidates’ fear of Scary Psychometrics

Best practice stipulates that in applying psychometrics, recruiters must consider the following:

• Robustness: Ensure that the assessment measures what it claims to measure and that this is face-valid to candidates so they can understand why they are being asked to complete it. Conduct thorough research to establish the validity of the assessment for the specific purpose it serves.
• Fairness: Ensure that the assessment is fair and unbiased for all individuals, regardless of their background, gender, ethnicity, or other demographic factors. Ensure that the assessment is accessible to all individuals, including those with disabilities. Make accommodations when necessary.
• Support: You should consider the provision of supportive measures for candidates such as practice assessments, coaching, and preparation sessions.
• Transparency: Provide clear and complete information about the assessment's purpose, format, and scoring, both to test-takers and administrators.
• Test Length: Consider the appropriate length of the assessment. Longer assessments may provide more detailed information, but they can also be more fatiguing.
• Continuous Improvement: Collect and analyze data on the performance of the assessment tool and make improvements based on research and feedback.

Door 2 – Insidious Interviews

After candidates have successfully tackled the Scary Psychometrics, it’s time to move on to the next door in The Assessment House of Horrors, which is often an interview. Interviews can take place through a variety of methods – over the phone, face-to-face, or video interviews. Interviews aim to provide qualitative insight into a person’s previous experience and capabilities for the role.

Some Insidious Interview issues encountered by candidates are:

• Pitiful preparation
• Wicked welcome
• Unholy unconscious bias
• Unsettling unstructured interviews

Exorcising candidates’ fear of Insidious Interviews

Best practice stipulates that when conducting an interview, recruiters must consider the following:

• Preparation: Ensure that your interviewers are prepared. They should go through best practice training around how to conduct and record interviews. They should receive the list of questions and behavioral indicators ahead of time.
• Welcome and provide clear instructions: Welcome your candidate and put them at ease at the beginning of the interview. Provide them with clear instructions around the format of the interview and how long each area should take.
• Unconscious bias training: Educating interviewers about what unconscious bias is and how it can impact hiring decisions. Explore with them the different types of bias that can occur such as confirmation bias, affinity bias, and similarity bias. Include this for video interviews as well, such as not letting a candidates’ on-camera background influence decisions.
• Structured interviews: The interviewer should ask each candidate the same set of predetermined questions, usually in the same order. The questions are carefully designed to assess specific job-related competencies, skills, and qualities required for the position. Structured interviews are intended to provide a fair and consistent evaluation of all candidates.
• Active listening: The interviewer should demonstrate active listening – paying close attention to the candidate’s responses and probing to fully understand questions.

Door 3 - Assessment Center Abyss

After conquering the intimidating interview, it’s time to cautiously approach the next door in the Assessment House of Horrors - the Assessment Center Abyss. An assessment center typically involves a series of exercises, simulations, and assessments that go beyond traditional interviews and tests to provide a more holistic view of a candidate's qualifications, skills, and suitability for the position.

Some Assessment Centre Abyss tasks that could cause candidates to be afraid are:

• Terrifying timetables
• Ghastly group exercises
• Rebellious role players

Exorcising candidates’ fear of assessment centers

To combat the Assessment Center Abyss, consider the following approaches:

• Timetables: Timetables should be able to strike a balance between giving candidates enough preparation time, not rushing from one place to another and equally not having candidates waiting around doing nothing. A successful assessment center has timetables at its core, with a well-thought-out day making the best use out of candidates’ and assessors’ time.
• Group exercise: We’ve all been there, a group exercise where no one knows what to say, or certain people are speaking too much. A well-designed group exercise should be inclusive with its content and the behavioral indicators that are used by assessors to rate candidates’ performance. For example, these should not reward confident/loud behavior. Other recommended approaches are to give every candidate in the exercise unique information that they share with the group so everyone’s voice is heard.
• Role plays: These often form part of an assessment center and it’s important for the role player to abide by rules to ensure the success of the candidate. The role player actor should not go off-script or improvise, the character played by the role player and context of the role play should reflect the type of interaction and situation the candidate could face in the role they’re applying for, and the actor should play their role consistently to ensure standardization and fairness across candidates.

Door 4 - Frightful Feedback

The final door in the Assessment House of Horrors can, for some candidates, remain under lock and key indefinitely – this is the door that holds their feedback and assessment results. There’s nothing worse for candidates than being ghosted by an organization to which they have invested time and effort into applying. Good, quality feedback is essential and is a huge part of the candidate experience.

Exorcising feedback faux pas

To fine-tune your feedback, consider the following approaches:

• Be timely: Ensure that your feedback comes at the right time so that candidates don’t have to ‘knock on your door’ relentlessly. Provide the feedback willingly and manage their expectations of what feedback they’ll receive and when.
• Be clear: By ensuring you provide simple to understand and specific information, addressing particular strengths and areas for improvement, you can give candidates something back to learn from their experience whether they’re successful or not. Use concrete examples to illustrate your points and if providing verbal feedback, encourage a two-way conversation with the candidate.

Escaping and avoiding the Assessment House of Horrors

As a recruiter, you never want your candidates to have to go through the harrowing experience of an Assessment House of Horrors. The candidate experience really is a journey into the unknown and you don’t want to turn their dream into a nightmare. It’s important to look at each stage of your assessment journey to make sure you have exorcised their fear, supported their sanity, and given them an enchanting experience they will never forget. Support your candidates to banish their ‘ghosts of assessments past’ and take action now to engage and energize your target talent for your selection process – no tricks, just treats!