Behavioral tests evaluate behavioral competencies, which comprise an individual’s knowledge, skills, and personality traits. Such competencies are critical elements across job roles. Each behavioral competency can be gauged through a unique combination of questions, and the outcome optimizes workforce planning. Behavioral assessments offer a structured analysis of a person’s behavior using various methods like interviews, direct supervision, and self-observation. It involves observing, explaining, and predicting human behavior with the help of new-age digital tools. They are employed during the recruitment and employee development cycle to assess core competencies needed for the organization’s job.
Behavioral assessments in the workplace use new-age tools to measure behavioral competencies in a simulated work environment. These assessments offer candidates a series of realistic work-related scenarios, and they have to select either the most suitable option or rank the possible actions based on effectiveness. These assessments require candidates to exhibit behavioral competencies in one or more tasks related to their work responsibility and mimic an actual workplace situation.
Behavioral tests measure behavioral competencies that combine an individual’s skills, knowledge, and traits. Behavioral competencies are a job’s components that reflect in the employee’s behavior and are observable in the workplace.
Behavioral competencies are differently defined for every job level and role. Therefore, a comprehensive list of behavioral competencies essential to the organization’s culture helps combine the most appropriate behavioral assessment tests for better workforce planning.
While behavior is observable on the outside, personality is a characteristic of feeling, thinking, and behaving. Workplace behavioral assessments help hiring managers evaluate candidates’ responses and reactions in critical business situations. However, personality and cognitive tests measure the intelligence and personality of candidates. Both work differently but are complementary.
An organization’s hiring team spends a lot of time, money, and other resources selecting and onboarding a candidate for a position. An inappropriate hire can affect the company’s culture and productivity, increasing recruitment overheads. Behavioral assessment methods help recognize what is behind a person’s behavior, enabling recruiters to hire the most suited candidates, nurture employees, and make informed decisions about the organization’s future leaders. Behavioral evaluations are outcome-oriented and match an individual’s behavioral tendencies with job demands, leading to extended associations and contented employees. Understanding employees’ behavior from the onset safeguards the organization from potential losses, simultaneously boosting the development process by identifying growth opportunities.
Employees are significant to an organization’s growth, and an unsuitable hire can create challenging circumstances, economically and culturally. Traditional recruitment practices make predicting candidates’ ability to fit into the organization’s culture and fulfil job responsibilities easier. However, behavioral evaluation is a powerful tool to match candidates to job roles. These assessments accelerate the hiring process by cutting down the time-to-hire while ensuring that decisions are data-driven. Behavioral assessments provide an in-depth understanding of the candidate’s preferences to predict if they are the appropriate fit. Since behavioral assessments closely emulate the job role and organization setting, they empower candidates to make suitable choices. The success of any organization largely depends on its people. If one puts the most suitable talents in the most appropriate jobs, they are more likely to perform well and propel the organization towards success.
While domain skills are essential during recruitment, behavioral tests are extensively applied in L&D initiatives. Behavioral assessments provide an in-depth understanding of the employee’s strengths and areas of improvement. It enables organizations and employees to collectively identify a roadmap for growth that caters to organizational needs and employees’ career plans. Behavioral assessments also play an essential role in leadership development and succession planning. They allow organizations to reiterate their vision and values and identify employees who share them. Depending on the types of behavioral assessments one employs, one can measure an organization’s core competencies, identify skill gaps, and create a training plan, contributing to the goal of workforce optimization for future success. Behavioral evaluation helps identify high-potential employees who can be groomed to assume critical roles and create a pipeline of future leaders. An organization’s keen interest in employee development reduces turnover and improves efficiency because of objective alignment.
One of the prominent types of behavioral assessments is interviews. Recruiters ask questions to evaluate how the candidates have handled situations in the past. The interviewer tries to draw parallels between their behavior and the job the candidate is applying for. Some examples of behavior assessments in interviews include asking questions such as, ‘Can you share an experience handling a difficult client? How did you deal with that situation?’, ‘Did you ever have to make decisions under pressure?’, etc.
Behavioral tests comprise numerous evaluation methods that serve different purposes in the hiring process. Understanding the various types of behavioral assessments is critical for selecting the most appropriate tools for a particular organization’s needs. Some of the types of behavioral assessments are:
Behavioral evaluation systematically determines a candidate’s behavior using various methods like interviews, psychometric testing, direct supervision, and self-assessment. Behavioral evaluation aims to observe, explain, and determine human behavior with advanced assessment tools.
Online behavioral evaluation tools
Offline behavioral tools
Different types of behavioral assessments represent different frameworks to assess key behavioral competencies. These competencies can help employers determine the behavioral strengths, skills, knowledge, abilities, values, and ethics that align with the company culture. Behavioral tests can measure many behavioral tendencies, including result orientation, teamwork, conflict management, establishing trust, work delegation, etc. A behavioral test probes specific behavioral dispositions with an understanding that behaviors can change quickly. Behavior is adaptable and can be observed, meaning it responds and changes according to an external environment. Here’s how organizations can use behavioral tests in their hiring and L&D processes:
Competency-tool mapping involves creating an organization-specific competency framework or using an available framework to identify relevant indicators of behaviors and map them on available tools. Two or more tools are typically combined for a reliable and holistic overview of the test-taker. Competency-tool mapping considers job compatibility with the workplace behaviors required to succeed on the job and in the organization. For instance, caselets can assess business acumen and prompt decision-making, while a case study simulator may better evaluate an analytical and innovative mindset.
Tools and questions are created based on specific job functions. They emulate the job’s realities, posing questions that reflect workplace situations.
Content validation is vital to obtain optimal results. Multiple iterations of the content in consultation with subject matter experts is the best practice to reflect the real essence of the organizational environment.
Organizations can opt for virtual assessment centres for online behavioral tests. They are easy to roll out, time and cost-effective, easily scalable, and generate instant reports. Conversely, offline tools often involve one or more assessors observing candidates at a physical assessment centre. The reports typically take longer because the assessors must cull the results together.
The reports should provide a detailed behavioral profile of the test-taker, including actionable insights and plans for recruiters and learning and development(L&D) experts. Data analysis can help organizations understand the critical skill gaps and training needs at a group level. Individual development plans can be customized for each test-taker to help them understand and work on their development areas.
Behavioral tests offer numerous advantages and are highly effective in predicting job performance and providing practical insights into applicants’ fitment. Organizations can customize these assessments to meet their specific requirements. It helps set realistic expectations and potentially reduces turnover in the long term. While behavioral assessments may require more time and incur higher expenses, online tools can mitigate these challenges and provide a higher return on investment by reducing the resources needed by hiring and talent teams. Overall, the advantages of behavioral tests, including their predictive power and practicality, outweigh the drawbacks. Some of the advantages and disadvantages can be found below:
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Behavioral tests are strong predictors of job performance. | Given their context-specific nature and in-depth analysis, they are more time-consuming than generic assessments. Developing bespoke behavioral assessments requires job analysis, identifying critical incidents, developing the test content, establishing content validity, etc. However, online behavioral assessments are comparatively quicker than offline tools as the latter requires multiple stakeholders, while the former can be easily conducted virtually. |
| Behavioral tests have high face validity because test content is based on a real job environment, providing practical insights into the applicants’ fitment. | Due to the same reason, behavioral assessments may incur a greater expense, although they are often associated with higher ROIs. Using online tools can reduce expenses and resources spent by hiring and talent teams. |
| Using realistic content in behavioral tests evokes a favorable reaction from the test-takers. | |
| The potential for adverse impact in terms of gender, age and ethnicity is lowest in behavioral assessments because of the use of job-relevant content. | |
| Behavioral evaluation tools are based on real-life scenarios relating to the job and organization. Therefore, they are customizable as per requirement. | |
| These assessments offer candidates rich insights into the organization and the role for which they are applying. | |
| It could also reduce turnover in the long run, as the candidates are likely to have more precise and realistic expectations about their roles. |
Subjectivity and bias: Behavioral assessments rely on subjective judgments and interpretations of behaviors and competencies. It can introduce bias into the assessment process, as different assessors may have varying interpretations and evaluations of the same behaviors. This subjectivity can undermine the objectivity of the assessment results.
Time and resource-intensive: Behavioral assessments can be time-consuming and resource-intensive to develop and administer. Conducting a job analysis, identifying critical incidents, and creating customized test content requires significant effort and expertise. Additionally, coordinating multiple stakeholders for offline assessments can add time and resource requirements. It is challenging for organizations with limited time and resources, especially when assessing many candidates.
Mercer | Mettl has a vast repository of behavioral tests and tools that can be used across an employee’s lifecycle, from selection, promotion, upskilling, progression and continual development. These behavioral tests can be combined with a rich library of tests – personality, aptitude, and domain – for powerful insights into recruitment and development. One can administer any combination of these tests, based on specific requirements, through Mercer | Mettl’s virtual assessments and development centre to ensure continuity in the talent management processes.
Mercer | Mettl’s behavioral assessments are recognized for their:
The behavior assessment guide is crucial for optimizing talent acquisition and management processes, enabling recruiters to make more informed and objective decisions. It helps identify individuals who possess the required skills and align with the organizational culture and values. Furthermore, by utilizing behavior assessments, recruiters can better anticipate potential challenges and fit, enhancing employee retention and overall team performance. The behavior assessment guide helps build a more effective, cohesive, and productive workforce.
Originally published December 4 2019, Updated October 4 2024
Behavioral assessments are extensively used in education and workplace settings to observe, identify, and explain behavior. In the corporate context, behavioral assessments require individuals to demonstrate behavioral competencies through multiple activities relevant to the job role and resemble an actual organizational situation.
Behavioral Competencies
Cognitive Competencies
Coding Competencies
Domain Competencies
