Bob Rosner at the Working Wounded Blog pens a post – Professional Self-Deception – that argues against using assessments for existing employees.
That caught my eye.
Surprisingly, I agree with him in one regard. Self reported assessments are marginal at best. In Bob’s words:
And that, in a nutshell, is why I think these tests are so bogus because they don’t pursue an objective view of your performance, but simply quantify our own self-deceptions.
Exactly. I read that sentence and immediately think of the Myers-Briggs assessment. We have seen coworkers completely miss on the Myers-Briggs since they think they need to be a certain style.
We only incorporate assessments that have predictive reliability along with checks and balances regarding respondent answers. One of our assessments is nonsensical – respondents cannot detect a pattern or logic to the assessment.
These topics are important when assessing either candidates or employees. I put little value in self reported assessments, but a reliable and validated assessment provides accurate, objective insight that cannot be gathered by observation alone.
Not coincidentally, our relatively new assessment graphic metaphorically displays this truth. What is below the water line cannot be easily observed. Unfortunately, the majority of common assessments focus on communication style which is the easiest to observe and the least predictive of success.