Published by Vaishnavi Desai on 5 February 2024
Content Strategist | Editorial Team Member
Vaishnavi Desai has extensive experience writing content across a variety of domains for over three years. Leveraging her background in Psychology, she's committed to empowering individuals in their career journeys at SetMyCareer through insightful storytelling.
Who are you really? In this article, we explore what behavioral assessments are, their importance for working professionals like you, and how you can make the most of them to achieve your career goals.
“Me? Managing a team? A big no.”
“Am I capable of taking big risks in this firm?”
“I don’t think I am ready for the leadership position.”
“I’m not sure if I can make major career decisions without fear.”
Ever found yourself pondering these questions while slowly sipping on your cup of coffee on a lazy Monday afternoon at the office? You may need to take a closer look at yourself!
But, how? Enter: behavioral assessments.
Behavioral assessments are standardized methods of evaluating an individual's behavioral tendencies, personal characteristics, aptitudes, and skills.
In the professional context, behavioral assessments provide employers with an in-depth understanding of their employees' natural strengths, weaknesses, working and leadership styles, decision-making abilities, and potential areas for development — among other valuable components.
With the future of work evolving rapidly, behavioral assessments enable organizations to optimize team composition, succession planning, and leadership pipelines based on objective insights into their talent. For working professionals, behavioral assessments unlock self-awareness for accelerated Career Growth and alignment with personal values.
Behavioral assessments originated from psychometric assessments developed by psychologists to measure different aspects of human behavior and personality.
The first personality test was created in 1921 by American psychologist Robert S. Woodworth to screen army recruits during the first World War. Since then, behavioral assessments have evolved to evaluate vocational interests, cognitive abilities, integrity, leadership potential, and a wide range of job-related competencies.
Today, over 2,500 behavioral assessment tools exist, applied across the employee lifecycle — from pre-hiring screening and candidate evaluation to leadership development, succession planning, and career optimization.
Additionally, these behavioral assessments enable organizations to build well-rounded teams with complementary strengths by matching people to roles that align with their natural talents. For employees, behavioral insights guide professional goal-setting, skill development, and career choices that resonate with their interests and personalities for achieving all their Career Goals.
Optimized hiring and talent acquisition: Identify best-fit candidates who align with company values and required competencies.
Enhanced job satisfaction and engagement: Match employees to roles that leverage their natural strengths and interests.
Data-driven leadership and succession planning: Use objective metrics to develop and promote future-ready leaders.
Personalized training and development: Target employee development opportunities to address assessment-identified competency gaps.
Improved self-awareness for career growth: Empower employees with insights to guide aligned Career Transition.
Well-rounded team composition: Strategically assemble complementary team members by assessment profile.
Reduced employee turnover rates: Higher Job Satisfaction and engagement lead to better talent retention.
| Personality Tests |
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| Cognitive Ability Tests |
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| Simulation-based Assessments |
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With advances in psychometrics and AI, behavioral assessments today provide multidimensional insights while machine learning continuously enhances analytical accuracy. Organizations often use a combination of assessment types for comprehensive evaluation.
Behavioral assessments Working Professionals to make career shifts and transitions that align with their natural talents, interests and strengths. The self-awareness from these assessments prevents stagnation from the wrong role by providing clarity on optimal Career Path.
The personalized development feedback from behavioral assessments allows professionals to objectively identify competency gaps and hidden skill potentials. By leveraging assessment-based coaching, professionals can create focused IDCPs (Individual Development Career Plans) to future-proof their careers.
For aspiring leaders eyeing management roles, behavioral assessments evaluate their leadership aptitudes to determine readiness. Professionals can use this data to track leadership pipeline progress and develop executive presence before transitioning into leadership.
Understanding team members' behavioral styles and communication tendencies allows professionals to tailor their interactions for greater alignment. For instance, an extrovert can adapt their communication to improve collaboration with an introverted technician based on assessment insights.
Professionals looking to switch careers can leverage behavioral assessments to find alignments with alternate career paths suited to their natural abilities, motives and workstyles. The career guidance from these assessments enables confident and aligned transitions into new industries or roles.
Leverage your strengths, don't fix weaknesses. Behavioral assessments pinpoint natural strengths — play to them rather than exhaust yourself trying to overcome weaknesses. Align values with career moves. Before every career shift, check that your core values align with the new role by retaking behavioral assessments. This ensures moves resonate with your personality rather than solely chasing compensation gains. You don't want to end up overworked and unhappy.
As the Future of Work continues to rapidly evolve, behavioral assessments provide the foundation for organizations and talent to thrive amidst constant change. For working professionals, behavioral insights unlock self-awareness to guide Career Journey aligned to their authentic selves proactively.
While limitations exist, behavioral assessments remain invaluable tools for organizations to optimize people's decisions and for employees to take charge of their own professional growth. Ultimately, the workplace of tomorrow will leverage behavioral data to empower both businesses and careers mutually.
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