What is Personnel Assessment?

Personnel Assessment is a systematic approach to gathering information about employees, needed for employment or career-related decisions about applicants or employees.

Personnel Assessment becomes necessary when a company wants to address certain staffing needs:

• Identifying long-term and effective succession reserves of the company
• Selection and hiring of new employees for key positions
• Transfers and promotions within the organization
• Assessing employees’ potential
• Optimizing the number of employees, etc.

Why to conduct Personnel Assessment?

Organizations use Personnel Assessment to help them perform different HR functions:

• Selection.
  Organizations want to be able to identify and hire the best people for the job. A properly developed assessment tool may provide a way to select successful candidates in various occupations.
  
• Placement.
  Organizations also want to be able to assign people to the appropriate job level. Personnel Assessment may provide information that helps to achieve the best fit between employees and jobs.
  
• Training and development.
  Information gained from Personnel Assessment can be used to design or modify training programs. Test results also help individuals identify areas in which self-development activities would be useful.
  
• Promotion.
  Personnel Assessment might help to identify employees who possess managerial potential or higher level capabilities, so that these employees can be promoted to assume greater duties and responsibilities.
  
• Career exploration and guidance.
  Tests are sometimes used to help people make educational and vocational choices. Tests may provide information that helps individuals choose occupations in which they are likely to be successful and satisfied.
  
• Program evaluation.
  Tests may provide information that the organization can use to determine whether employees are benefiting from training and development programs.

Some situations in which an organization may benefit from testing:

• Current selection or placement procedures result in poor hiring decisions.
• Employee productivity is low.
• Employee errors have serious consequences.
• There is high employee turnover or absenteeism.
• Present assessment procedures do not meet current legal and professional standards.