Start to Evaluate Objectively Using Assessment

In Brief

• Assessment is a psychological tool built to evaluate the characteristics of an individual or an organization and the result can be utilized to support the development of the assesses.
• Literature review is important, but the input from Subject Matter Experts from across industries cannot be excluded in the process of building the right assessment tools.
• Assessment is needed to neutralize the subjectivity we have about other people which will lead to a fairer judgment as the decision we make will be more data-driven rather than assumptions.

‘Humans are unreliable judges of others’, general truth that most people refuse to acknowledge. The reason behind this statement is pretty simple, human is full of subjectivity, and our experience, our values, also our identities will affect us in evaluating others. But in talent management or talent selection, evaluating people is a required step to do. So how do we approach this problem if we, as humans, are not the best at judging others? The time has come to introduce you to assessment.

Assessment is a psychological tool to evaluate the characteristics of an individual or an organization. To design an assessment that can function exactly as we expect, there are a few things to prepare, namely, the factors that need to be assessed, the scope of the assessment, its method and design, and a way to interpret the assessment’s result. It is also vital to test the validity and reliability of the assessment using psychometric methods.

Aside from those mentioned above, literature review is of course something that cannot be left out in the process of building assessment. But on the other hand, being too theoretical will make it less impractical. To balance it, it is essential to widen our knowledge of the trends across industries. The input from non-psychologist experts is also important to reckon with so that the assessment will remain relevant to what happens in the field.

It might sound complicated, however, assessment is still a better choice as it is more objective than any human’s assumption can ever be. Its result is based on data so it can be utilized to make a decision that is more data-driven. In HR context, assessment results can be the foundation of designing an effective HR regulation that can ease the company from wasting sources, be it time or cost.