TalentScan helps organizations identify observable behaviors that are relevant to specific workforce needs. Users can confidently use our assessments to help select the skills that are essential to employee success. Given that our assessments are behaviorally based, results can change over time. This also gives organizations the opportunity to assess the current behaviors of their employees and use our assessments as a tool to assist with employee development.
Forced Choice Format
TalentScan Assessments utilize a forced choice format, where individuals must select between two equally positive statements. Our forced choice format creates a spread of scores that ensures all participants identify potential areas of strength and developmental opportunities. High scores reflect behaviors that were chosen most often, and the low scores are those that were selected less frequently. TalentScan has found that our forced choice format helps organizations better identify the behaviors that employees are most likely to exhibit on the job.
Percentile Scores
Scores on the assessments are reported as percentiles, which represent how often an individual selected a behavior compared to others that have taken the assessments. For example, a score of 80 means that the person scored higher than 79 out of 100 people on that behavior. Higher scores will result from a person picking more of the statements, while a lower score will result from a person choosing fewer of the statements. It is important to remember that people cannot pass or fail our assessment. TalentScan assessments simply provide a snapshot in time of the behaviors an employee will likely bring to their job.
How to Interpret Percentile Scores
Everyone who takes a TalentScan Assessment will have high, moderate, and low scores due to the assessment's forced-choice format.
High scores are the behaviors that land between the 71stand 99th percentile. High scores represent the behaviors a person most frequently demonstrates on the job and likely strengths that they can bring to the role. There are times when too much of a positive behavior could be detrimental (e.g., an excess focus on quality leading to perfectionism and creating delays), so probing further into scores that are exceptionally high can be useful.
Moderate scores are the behaviors that land between the 30thand 70th percentile. Moderate scores represent behaviors that the person occasionally demonstrates on the job and are typically considered positive. They can also represent moderation, or balance, between two extremes of a behavior. A moderate score in Proactive, for example, would suggest that the person sometimes finds themselves reacting to things that occur on the job while in other instances, they take initiative.
Low scores are the behaviors that land between the 1st and 29th percentile. Low scores represent behaviors that a person displays less often on the job or they may be behaviors that are less relevant to the person's role. Low scores often indicate a behavior that could be leveraged more often and may be an opportunity for development. When interpreting lower scores, it is important to keep in mind that they are a result of items being selected less often. Thus, lower scores do not necessarily reflect a lack of ability or future aptitude.
While low scores may be an indicator of a potential concern, a low score by itself does not indicate a weakness. Further probing is recommended before reaching any conclusions. When appropriate, it is recommended to reference other materials, such as a resume or notes from interviews. It can also be helpful to use follow up questions from the assessment to enhance your understanding of the candidate.
Benchmark Page
If your company elects to generate a set of benchmarks, this will be the first set of scores to appear within a TalentScan Assessment. The benchmark page will provide a summary of the scores from the behaviors that were selected as most important. At the top of the page will be an overall score that reflects how well the candidate fits with the benchmark behaviors. An overall score is calculated based on the number of benchmark behaviors hit. A “hit” occurs when a person scores within the established range for a targeted behavior. Partial points can also be earned for scoring moderate on a benchmark behavior, even if the target range is missed. A “miss” occurs when a person scores below the range that is set. When someone scores particularly low on a benchmark behavior (i.e., at the 15th percentile or lower), it will lower their score. The higher the overall score, the more closely the candidate is considered to fit the benchmark. While benchmarks can provide a great initial snapshot of an assessment, benchmarks should not be used to establish “cut scores” or as a primary method to determine a candidate’s potential for success. TalentScan recommends using benchmarks as one piece of information in the hiring process. Please note that if you do not establish a benchmark in the assessment set-up process, this page will be omitted from the report.
Behaviors and Categories
Following the benchmark page, behaviors measured by TalentScan will be presented in categories. Scores for each individual behavior within a category will be displayed in a grid that shows each behavior and its corresponding percentile score. Scores that fall within the high and moderate ranges are generally considered strengths, while scores that fall within the low range may be considered an opportunity for development or a behavior that is not used often in the person’s current role. Below each grid of scores is an interpretation of results that will provide a more detailed explanation about the implications of each behavior based on its percentile score. Different interpretive statements appear depending on whether the candidate’s score is high, moderate, or low.
Follow Up Questions
TalentScan uses missed benchmark behaviors and other low scores from the assessment to generate follow up questions. This provides organizations with an additional resource they can use during the interview process to gain insight into a candidate’s potential weaknesses. As it relates to development, participants can use follow up questions to further think about ways they can demonstrate the behavior more frequently on the job.
Developmental Suggestions
TalentScan provides candidates with customized developmental suggestions based on the candidates lower scores. These are determined in a similar manner as the follow up questions, by using the missed benchmarks and lower scores from the assessment. Developmental suggestions can be used to create onboarding or development plans for employees.
Identifying Developmental Opportunities
While TalentScan Assessments are often used as a tool to assist organizations with the hiring process, low scores from an assessment can also be used to help identify opportunities for development. Once an organization confirms that a low score is a developmental need of the employee, the company can use the developmental suggestions in the back to coach their employee in actionable, measurable ways.
Final Thoughts
TalentScan would like to thank you for using our assessments in your organization. It is recommended that results from our assessments are not shared with candidates applying for roles. It is better to wait until candidates are hired before sharing their results with them.
It is important to keep in mind that TalentScan Assessments are meant to be used as part of a comprehensive hiring process. Our assessments are not intended to be a standalone tool to select candidates. We recommend using TalentScan Assessments in conjunction with resumes, interview notes, and other resources. Additionally, benchmarks are best used to assess the current state of candidate behaviors and should not be used on their own to select candidates for positions.
Please remember, TalentScan assessments are based on behaviors, which can change over time. Our assessments are generally valid for 6 months. We recommend individuals retake assessments, if their scores are older than this time period.
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