Organizations today seek to hire high-quality talent—not just for the immediate skills and knowledge candidates bring to a position but also for the potential value they can add over time. But to make the right hiring decisions, it’s necessary to learn more about candidates than the professional image they portray in an interview.
To reduce the risk of making a poor hiring decision, many companies rely on a combination of assessments, references from previous employers, and additional interviews to develop a well-rounded view of job candidates. Specifically, background screening and behavioral assessments are two critical components of the hiring process that can provide a robust, 360-degree view of candidates not only before they’re hired but also after.
Background Screening and Behavioral Assessments—Powerful Together
Separately, background screening and behavioral assessments offer many benefits during the hiring process, but they also work well together. Background screening is nearly universal among organizations, with 94 percent performing at least one type of candidate background check, according to the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA). In addition to confirming candidate employment and education, background checks also help uncover any potentially concerning aspects of candidate criminal history.
Where background screening focuses on a candidate’s past, behavioral assessments can provide critical insights about how a candidate may behave in a future role. Unlike personality tests, which attempt to measure candidate preferences and attitudes, behavioral assessments examine how candidates approach real-world work situations, such as communicating with others and decision-making. Together with background screening, behavioral assessments help to form a complete, 360-degree view of candidates and their suitability for a given role.
Benefits of 360-Degree Candidate Screening
In traditional job interviews, candidates with strong presentation skills can often manage first impressions and tell a great story of their career, credentials, and potential for success. However, the combination of background screening and behavioral assessment allows a deeper look. Together, they seek to confirm the information provided by candidates and uncover information candidates may not reveal in an interview. This capability is highly valuable, considering that in a recent Zippia study, nearly one in three people admitted to exaggerating the details or lying on their resume.
Here are three key hiring and employee development actions you can take with the aid of background screening and behavioral assessments:
Predict on-the-job behavior.
Both background screening and behavioral assessments glean information about candidates to help determine if they would make good hires. For example, conducting employment references during the background screening process can yield information about how a candidate performed in previous roles. Then, behavioral assessments help to complete the picture through questions that gauge how candidates would apply behaviors they’ve used in the past to future work scenarios. As a result, there is greater clarity about how candidates will behave in the new position.
Obtain insights about future coaching opportunities.
A background check can deliver current information about candidate licenses, certifications, and other credentials, offering a view of their skills and capabilities. Relatedly, behavioral assessments provide insights into how candidates apply learned skills in the workplace. Assessments also identify areas where candidates may need additional coaching. For example, by asking candidates about behaviors such as how they build trust with others or how they manage their time, behavioral assessments identify which candidate skills readily align with the new position and which may need further development after hire.
Enhance workforce management and succession planning activities.
Both background screening and behavioral assessments deliver benefits after the hiring process has concluded. For example, when existing employees take behavioral assessments at any point after hire, their answers can help identify training or other development needed to help them hone specific skills. This information can support succession planning activities by revealing an employee’s readiness for a lateral or promotional move. Likewise, background screening doesn’t have to end when a candidate is hired. Services such as continuous workforce monitoring notify employers when employees incur any industry-specific employment sanctions or lose their license and ability to perform specific job duties legally.
Develop a Well-Rounded View of Job Candidates and Employees
While there is no crystal ball to single out which candidates will succeed in your organization and which are a less optimal fit, there are ways to build more certainty into hiring decisions. Background screening allows you to become more informed about candidate past behavior, while behavioral assessments can tell you how current candidate behaviors will potentially look in your organization. With the benefit of these critical tools, you can know more about the people you hire and the best ways to develop them.
