How to use pre-employment tests with senior level hires

How to use pre-employment tests with senior level hires

Pre-employment tests, although often reserved for more junior employees, have considerable applicability to senior-level hiring. With junior hires, half of the benefit of pre-employment testing is their ability to shortlist, saving HR staff considerable time, effort, and expense. However, few organizations are lucky enough to be inundated with resumes from senior hires, and instead, have to work with far smaller applicant pools. Nevertheless, the quality of hire benefits of pre-employment tests more than justify their use in senior-level hiring, especially considering the potential risk of mishire at senior levels.

In this article, I will outline best practices for using pre-employment tests for senior-level hiring, along with the relative advantages and disadvantages of this approach.

Cognitive ability tests and senior hires

Cognitive assessments are particularly effective when hiring senior employees, despite the fact they are rarely used at this level. Mostly, this stems from wanting to avoid offending a senior-level candidate, and thus risking them deselecting themselves from the process. Indeed, simply finding applicants for senior positions is challenging enough, and so it's completely understandable that organizations would be judicious with their applicants. Additionally, many organizations also erroneously believe that senior-level hires must, by definition, be smart, making it redundant to utilize cognitive assessments in recruitment.

The research in occupational and organizational psychology, however, suggests that cognitive ability tests are, in fact, most effective at this level when predicting future performance, more so than at any other. This is because senior-level roles are cognitively complex, involve significant autonomy, and require difficult decision-making, all of which hinge on cognitive ability. As employees climb the corporate ladder, the cognitive load increases linearly, or perhaps even exponentially, making cognitive ability an increasingly important predictor of future success. Moreover, this association between cognitive ability and performance is effectively linear, and so even if all senior hires were “smart,” the very smartest will significantly outperform more mediocre candidates.

Nevertheless, organizations must use these assessments tactically, lest they cause offense. My recommendation is to use cognitive assessments concurrently with an interview, giving candidates no way to escape. Once they have finished their interview, you arrange for them to complete some cognitive assessments, and potentially behavioral assessments in addition. Not only will this reduce the likelihood of attrition, but it also gives the candidate the impression that selection decisions will be made holistically, and not purely on the basis of cognitive assessment performance alone.

Personality questionnaires and senior hires

Personality questionnaires and behavioral assessments are far more commonly used with senior hires than other types of pre-employment assessments. Likely, this is a function of the market, rather than based on the research evidence behind personality questionnaires. Behavioral assessments tend to be disproportionately expensive, and are often accompanied by expensive coaching and consultation services. This makes them prohibitively expensive for more junior recruitment, and thus organizations reserve them for senior staff. However, this trend does mean that senior hires are highly likely to actually complete a behavioral assessment, considering it a normal part of the process.

The research suggests that personality questionnaires and behavioral assessments are powerful predictors of performance in the workplace, but their utility does also vary depending on seniority. However, unlike cognitive assessments, which get more predictive of performance with seniority, behavioral assessments actually lose predictive validity as the role complexity increases. Consequently, behavioral assessments tend to be more powerful selection tools for simple, routine work than highly complex professional, technical, or managerial work.

That being said, they still add value to the recruitment process and will generate a large return on investment, even if they are less predictive, relatively speaking. For example, if using a personality questionnaire boosts performance by 50% in an entry-level position, that could result in thousands of dollars worth of additional value. However, a 10% increase in performance at the senior manager level could be felt throughout the whole organization, generating millions in additional value. As a result, I do still recommend using behavioral assessments at the senior management level, along with anything that could help improve quality of hire even slightly.

Conclusions and recommendations

Contrary to popular belief and practice, cognitive assessments are substantially more useful for senior hires, and behavioral assessments are actually less useful. That being said, given the stakes involved with senior hiring, it does make sense to include both as part of any senior-level hiring process, as even small improvements in quality of hire offer substantial ROI. However, in relative terms, selection decisions should be made primarily based on cognitive assessment scores and interview performance, with less weighting to behavioral assessments. By following this approach, you maximize the chances of hiring the best senior candidates, to the benefit of the whole organization.