Blind Hiring: How Pre-Employment Assessments Encourage Diversity

Company culture is extremely important for the success of any business. Not only does can it increase productivity, but it also directly influences employee well-being. As such, creating the right office dynamic will reduce employee turnover.

With that in mind, it can be difficult to strike the right balance between work and play. Further, hiring the right people is equally hard.

Why Diversity is Important

Originally, companies approached the concept of culture by finding individuals that would “fit.”

Some organizers continue to approach hiring in this way; they find individuals that have a great deal in common with current employees.

While this may sound exclusionary, employers are simply trying to create a team that works well with one another. Obviously, people with similar goals, or that back a company vision, are best for the team; however, the problem arises when similarities extend beyond a shared vision.

Owing this, many companies opt for a cultural “add.” They try to hire people that can add something to their environment that is completely new. Of course, they still look for qualified individuals with similar goals. But, they also encourage additions with that have a variety of backgrounds, education, and more.

How to Hire the Right “Add”

Hiring someone with common goals, but that also has a unique perspective, can prove challenging.

With that in mind, performing pre-employment screening allows employers to understand the scope of a candidate’s potential. For one thing, a career personality assessment removes an employer’s bias, as they won’t feel influenced by a name, gender, first impression, or poorly crafted resume.

Indeed, all of these hiring metrics may influence hiring, and not always for the better. Resumes often give an incomplete, exaggerated, or false picture of a given candidate. Further, references may influence employers in both directions, and they often lack credibility. An employer may feel an individual is unreliable based on a unfair review. Conversely, they may feel someone has far greater potential than they do based on a reference.

Of course, hiring based mostly on diversity could backfire. As such, companies should remove the guesswork from their recruitment process. Performing a job fit assessment does this, and also mutually benefits both parties.

Not only will employers select the most passionate candidates, but they’ll discover exactly what they can add to the table. Some people aren’t even truly aware of their potential, and a job assessment test uncovers their workplace aptitude.