Brainbench opens door to accessible ìWhole Personî hiring assessments online

Brainbench has announced the rollout of its TotalMatch system of assessment tools. Continuing Brainbenchís tradition of innovation, the new products are designed to predict employee success more accurately by measuring the specific mix of personality, skills, abilities and past employment behavior for over 150 jobs.

The companyís emphasis on measuring the ìwhole personî reflects a strong demand among organizations for more sophisticated screening tools readily available for positions beyond the scope of senior executives. ìHiring managers know that just measuring technical knowledge isnít enough,î says Mike Russiello, President and CEO of Brainbench. ìUntil recently, the more complex assessments typically used for management and executives were not available or affordable for a wider variety of positions. But technology is changing that. Weíve been able to embed the science of industrial/organizational psychology into comprehensive test batteries that can be taken online.î

Striking a Balance
Today, hiring organizations under-use the power of automated screening systems to deal with the flood of applicants created by job boards and other technologies. The answer, according to Brainbench, is to create balanced, highly job-focused tests. ìNo one kind of test will give you the information you need,î explains Dr. Wendell Williams, founder and Managing Director of ScientificSelection.com, a consultancy that works with Brainbench. ìTotalMatch was developed to measure different aspects of an individual ñ knowledge, skills, abilities, motivation ñ and combine the results in a very job-specific way. Balancing several types of assessment gives you a more complete picture, and creates a tool that can predict on-the-job performance accurately.

While assessment packages tailored for a particular job have been available for some time, they have traditionally been customized, expensive, and therefore limited to higher-level jobs. ìTotalMatch delivers assessments for a broad range of jobs, including many of todayís high-value, often high-turnover jobs like Call Center and Customer Service representatives, using a validation process that ensures high quality,î says Russiello. ìWeíre the only test provider to be ISO9001:2000 certified. And we do them off-the-shelf, very cost-effectively.î

Measuring a Full Spectrum of Success Factors
The TotalMatch assessment tools draw from Brainbenchís comprehensive library of more than 600 tests, combined with the highest standards in job analysis and custom assessment design following Department of Laborís O*NET guidelines. For each of more than 150 jobs ñ from school bus driver to network technician or market research analyst ñ Brainbench has created and validated a highly job-specific, off-the-shelf TotalMatch test. Each test measures factors such as employment history, technical knowledge, occupational skills, personality traits relating to job fit and attitude towards work, multitasking skills, problem-solving, and more, depending on the requirements of the specific job.

This comprehensive measurement is just what many organizations have been looking for. Karen Edwards, Business Manager of Pegasus Technologies in Tennessee, had an HR background and knew both the benefits and pitfalls of using a testing program. ìThe whole employee testing area is fraught with landmines. We would not feel comfortable with testing if a service such as this wasnít available. Being a small company, itís very important to make correct hiring decisions,î Ms. Edwards emphasized. ìIn our hiring process, we wanted to test applicants both on their general abilities and for job fit/personality factors. Our line of work (RF/Electronics engineering) includes many different fields and subfields, so a personís direct experience might not match up to what weíre looking for. However, in many cases, a very bright person can pick up the specialized details rapidly, and might be a better candidate than someone who had actually been doing the same work before. TotalMatch is aimed at specific job fields that weíre hiring in, which makes both the specific areas tested and the results more directly on target.î

The tests are built for maximum ease-of use, both for job applicants and potential employers. All testing and reporting is conducted securely online. ìMaking the process easy gives more accurate results,î says Russiello. ìWe donít think that figuring out how to take a test, or how to administer one, should be a skills test in itself.î The tests are also designed to ease the hiring process of the employers. Rather than assigning numerical scores, the resulting reports rank applicants on a red-yellow-green scale and recommend tailored interview questions for the hiring managers.

According to Russiello, ìWeíve identified a major shift in the industry, from measuring job skills and knowledge in a few areas, to predicting job success in a more complex way. Because weíve always focused on predicting on-the-job success, we feel weíre ahead of the game, and TotalMatch keeps us at the forefront. In a sense measuring the whole person is just giving hiring managers what theyíve asked for. But in a very real way, I think their demand is finally catching up to what weíve always believed.î