How to Design Better Talent Assessment to Promote DE&I

More organizations are recognizing the importance of the unique skills, needs and desires of individual employees. This is showing up in the design and use of talent assessments to assist with hiring candidates and monitoring the performance and capabilities of current employees. 

Designing talent assessments that recognize and celebrate individual differences is also fundamental to goals around diversity, equity, inclusion and creating of a sense of belonging (DEI&B). 

A critical way to deliver on DEI&B goals is to design assessments for pre- and post-hire talent that are integrated with a firm’s strategy in this area. This includes making accommodations for individuals that request or need adjustments to the assessments and verifying that the demographics of applicants at the pre-hire stage show enough diversity based on ethnicity, gender, age and experience.

An equitable assessment process reflects that some individuals need a level of support or adaptation that others do not. Time extensions on assessments is one such adaptation.
The number of organizations allowing time extensions has increased 22 percent since 2019, based on our research of 48 million assessments from the last four years. 

The type of tests available helps promote inclusivity too. For example, tests that can be completed on mobile devices may be easier for certain individuals that don’t have access to a personal computer.   

Participant-focused assessments should:

• Recognize individual differences and allow for adaptation depending on individual needs 
• Use the technology available to create an outstanding participant experience
• Reinforce a positive attitude towards the employer
• Lead to high satisfaction ratings from participants about the hiring process
• Be engaging and relevant 

Enhance the Participant Experience to Boost Engagement

Designing engaging assessment tests are another way to drive diversity and higher completion rates. Consider the following features when creating assessments:

• Test design: Our research shows that two types of assessments have higher participant scores: customized tests (designed for a specific job role or organization) and gamified tests. Interestingly, gamified tests have higher engagement with older participants. 
• Test time duration: The longer the assessment, the less positive the experience according to participants. This relates to the time spent per assessment rather than the number of assessments asked to complete.
• Type of assessment: Participants prefer to complete gamified and cognitive ability tests over those measuring knowledge or personality characteristics, our research shows. To secure high engagement, use a mixture of different assessment types.

Ask Participants About Their User Experience

A good talent assessment experience lets you stand out from the competition and ensures high completion rates by engaging participants. Our data shows that the number of organizations asking participants about their assessment experience has increased 11 percent in the past four years. The number of participants rating assessment practices has more than doubled in that timeframe. Another helpful data point to consider is the Participant Net Promoter Score (NPS). Ratings of Aon’s assessments provided by participants have risen from 7.6 to 8.2 on a 0-10 scale, where 10 is the most positive. 

High completion rates suggest that test takers recognize the relevance of the assessment, find it simple and are engaged with the process from start to finish. 

To learn more about how your organization can leverage assessments, please download Aon’s A Guide to Making Better People Decisions With Talent Assessment