Beyond Hiring: How Assessments Drive Better Recruiting, Stronger Teams, and More Effective Leaders – Part 2

Last month, I shared several insights about the value of assessments and how they can be used in recruiting, team building, and leadership development. This month, I wanted to be more specific about the available tools and share some of my recommendations.

I broadly group assessments into three categories: personality, skills, and cognitive. Skills assessments can help confirm knowledge and mastery of specific tasks, such as Excel or bookkeeping. Cognitive assessments measure reasoning ability, while personality assessments are generally grounded in the well-researched “Five Factor” model: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

Most assessments draw, at least in part, on longstanding research showing that certain underlying traits and tendencies are relatively stable over time. So, which assessments are worth considering? That depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

Recruiting assessments

Assessments can be particularly useful when hiring for key roles. They can provide another perspective on a candidate’s strengths, tendencies, and potential fit, and the results can also be useful for onboarding and initial coaching. Here are some of the tools I’ve encountered and would consider:

Hogan – Often viewed as the gold standard for recruiting and leadership development, Hogan looks at when people are likely to perform at their best and when they may be more likely to derail. It does require a highly trained and certified consultant, but it can be a worthwhile investment for a key role or for team and leadership development. Lauren Hornberger with Talent Bloom HR Consulting specializes in Hogan and can provide individual assessments at a reasonable rate.

Caliper/Talogy – This is one of my favorites for key roles. A client introduced me to it, and I like that it can be matched to different types of positions, such as sales or CEO roles, and includes a cognitive component. At $200 to $300 per test, the pricing is reasonable, although the assessment takes about an hour. For that reason, I would reserve it for finalists.

PXT – One of my colleagues uses this for key roles. It measures thinking styles, behavioral traits, and interests, and assesses fit across different types of jobs. Pricing is typically based on an enterprise plan, although consultants such as Kestly Development can provide job-specific options.

AcuMax Index – I learned more about this assessment after discovering that one of my clients is deeply committed to it. It builds on the Big Five personality research but translates those traits into workplace applications. Its four “drives” look at autonomy and dominance, communication, work pace and urgency, and certainty and risk-taking. I had a great conversation with Chris McCollum of AcuMax Index about the different applications, including how the tool can be used with leadership teams. Annual pricing generally ranges from $3,000 to $5,000, depending on the number of employees.

Predictive Index – This is one of the most popular assessments and takes only a few minutes to complete. I took it myself recently and found the results fairly general. I think it works best when an organization has a strong history of hiring for a particular role and understands which personality traits correlate with performance or retention. Enterprise-level pricing requires a significant annual commitment, but it could improve efficiency for organizations conducting a high volume of similar hiring.

Culture Index – I spoke with Sumeet Chahal of Culture Index, who is a strong advocate for putting the right people in the right seats. I like the philosophy that employees aren’t necessarily difficult; they’re just different. The assessment takes about 10 minutes, and organizations seem to really like the software and analytics. Sumeet also works with leadership teams on team building and leadership development. Pricing is enterprise-based.

TestGorilla – I explored this for a client and was impressed. It offers hundreds of skills-based tests, including accounting and Excel, and has a tech-savvy platform with built-in anti-cheating measures. Annual pricing starts around $3,000.

Criteria Corp – This is a popular mid-market option with pricing starting around $1,200 per year. It covers cognitive and personality assessments and seems like a good option for smaller organizations looking to add a trusted assessment to their talent toolkit.

SalesIndex – Daryn Lawson of Marketing Sales Network recommended this one to me. I’ve found over the years that getting the fit right with salespeople can be one of the most challenging parts of recruiting. Given the business impact of a sales role, anything that can help improve that decision is worth considering.

Of course, an assessment should be one piece of the hiring decision—not the decision itself. The value comes from combining the results with interviews, experience, references, and your understanding of the role.

Teambuilding assessments

Assessments aren’t just useful when you’re hiring. I personally love assessments that create self-awareness and give teams a common language for talking about behaviors and work styles. After studying a wide range of work styles and leadership assessments, I’ve noticed some common differences that tend to show up again and again. And when you find yourself having a hard time working with someone, it may simply be because you are on opposite ends of one of these spectrums:

• Task vs. People: Some people are focused on getting things done, meeting deadlines, and staying on schedule. Others naturally put relationships and people first.
• Innovation vs. Structure: Some people are constantly asking, “What if?” Others want clear rules, processes, and structure. This can be especially noticeable in startups, where people accustomed to highly structured organizations may struggle with ambiguity.
• Planner vs. “In the moment”: Some people naturally plan and organize their time, while others are at their best when they can react and perform in the moment.
• Rule followers vs. Challengers: Some people are more inclined to follow guidelines, while others naturally ask, “Why?” This can show up as differences in compliance and conscientiousness.
• Conflict styles: Do you tend to avoid, compromise, collaborate, fight, or accommodate?
• Communication styles: Are you assertive, passive-aggressive, vague, or direct?

None of these approaches is inherently right or wrong. The important thing is understanding that people are different. Giving a team language to name those differences can make it much easier to have productive conversations rather than letting differences turn into frustration.

Several tools can help:

16Personalities – A free platform based on the Myers-Briggs model that looks at four dimensions: extroversion vs. introversion, sensing vs. intuition, thinking vs. feeling, and judging vs. perceiving.

DiSC – Probably the most popular option out there. At around $40 per person, it is relatively inexpensive and easy to understand. Its four dimensions—Dominance, Influence, Steady, and Conscientious—provide a simple way for teams to understand different communication styles.

Enneagram – This test identifies nine personality profiles based on underlying motivations, which are often unconscious. Each type has both strengths and challenges, and pricing is reasonable at around $10 to $20 per person.

Four Tendencies – I recently read Gretchen Rubin’s book on this model and found it interesting. It looks at how people respond to inner and outer expectations. It’s a simple model that can provide useful insights, particularly for groups interested in self-awareness and team building.

Belbin – This assessment focuses on team contribution roles and work preferences. The cost appears to be around $100 per person.

StrengthsFinder – This is another accessible option, with a book and assessment costing around $40. It identifies 34 different strengths. We used it when I was on the leadership team of a mid-sized organization, and it gave us a great common language for understanding ourselves and each other.

Developing better leaders

Ultimately, many of these assessments come back to the same thing: self-awareness and understanding others. Good leaders need to understand their own personalities, priorities, triggers, and motivations. They also need to recognize that the people they lead may approach work, communication, and relationships very differently.

That understanding can help people build stronger relationships, lead more effectively, and influence others—all essential leadership skills.

Most of the assessments mentioned above can be useful for leadership development, helping individuals understand their strengths and potential derailers. That insight can then support career planning and succession planning, creating opportunities that are a win-win for both the individual and the organization.

Final thoughts

Phew! I know that was a lot of assessments.

My biggest takeaway is that there isn’t one “right” assessment. The best tool depends on what you are trying to understand and how you plan to use the results. Used thoughtfully, assessments can help you make better hiring decisions, build stronger teams, and develop more self-aware leaders. More importantly, they can give people a common language for understanding themselves and the people they work with every day.

I’d love to hear from you, too. Have you used any of these assessments? Are there others you would add to the list? Please share your experiences with me at Amy.Cell@yeoandyeo.com.