Pre-Hire Assessment Plan

In order for an organization to be successful they must hire and retain talented and productive employees to keep the business going strong. In order to ensure that the organization is hiring the correct employee the business must come up with an organized plan, or a pre-hiring assessment plan to properly screen all potential candidates for the job. According to an online article from A&R Associates, interviews alone cannot properly screen a potential hire, the interview is only about twenty five percent accurate in placing the proper individual (A&R Associates, 2013). If an organization was in the process of hiring for the open position of the President of a major retail store chain they would want to ensure they had a thorough pre-hire
assessment plan prior to accepting applications or conducting any interviews. Obviously this position is at the top of the chain and very important to the organization 's success. Therefore, it is very important that the company does its homework up front and increases the chances of hiring the right person the first time. The first step to ensuring the organization is ready to hire the position of President is to employ a job modeling methodology which will be utilized to identify personal competencies that are required to perform the specific job that is being hired (Fisher, 2011). Ensuring this is accomplished from the start will allow the company to run a comparison between different job candidates, which in turn will ensure the correct applicant is ultimately selected for the position. This process also helps an organization reduce unnecessary turn over. After the job description is written and approved the next step would be to research the potential candidates job history by talking to previous supervisors as well as the upper management of their previous job or jobs. This will allow the manager to assess the candidates skills based on previous job experience and may also give some information on the candidates personality and aptitude for the job. Since this job is at the top level it is important that the pre-hiring assessment also include various tests for measuring key competencies, such as: achievement tests, which will help measure how well the candidate has been trained; integrity tests, which measures the candidates attitudes towards dishonesty; and last but not least the biographical inventory, which will help the employer determine the type of person the candidate is by looking into their prior history (Fisher, 2011). Different levels of positions require different levels of screening in order to get the right candidate into the position.
For a position as high up as President it is important for the company to screen the candidate for how strategic, rule conscious, motivating, and emotionally intelligent they are by administering cognitive, personality, and ability tests (Fisher, 2011). Once the organization has developed the necessary pre-hire assessment plan it is extremely important that the staff members administering the interviews, tests, and analyzing the results are educated regarding this process and that they understand they must keep this information confidential (Fisher, 2011). The employer should also give feedback to candidates that are not hired to ensure they are aware of the reasons. This will not only minimize the potential that candidates think there is a discriminatory reason they did not get hired it will also help them in the future hiring process (Fisher, 2011). Overall it is necessary for an organization to employ a pre-hiring assessment plan to keep the playing field fair; however, it is equally important to ensure this process is assessed by employing assessment experts to ensure all is implemented fairly and that it adheres to EEOC and ADA policy (Fisher,
2011).
Works Cited
A&R Associates. (2013, 01 01). Prehire Assessment. Retrieved 03 03, 2013, from Why spend the money on a thorough assessment of a potential hire 's competencies?: http://www.ar-and-associates.com/prehire.html

Fisher, D. R. (2011, Aug 19). Employee Selection: Best practices for reducing legal risk in pre-hire assessments. Retrieved Mar 03, 2013, from WorkLab Consulting: http://podiaconsulting.com/pdfs/legal_selection_paper_f.pdf