These days there are, literally, thousands of assessment options available, and an entire industry in place to support those in hiring-mode. When employers need to confirm an applicant’s skills and abilities or develop the competencies of an existing employee, the world’s their oyster.
Whether it’s a basic skill like reading comprehension or numeracy, knowledge of HVAC or inventory management, accounts payable/receivable, or the ability to spot quality imperfections, there’s a plethora of reliable and accurate measures to choose from.
However, we all know that there’s way more to a successful hire than just finding a warm body who can count or work a computer. Employers are currently besieged by a myriad of significant challenges over which they have no control. Wadley Donovan Gutshaw Consulting’s recent survey shows that:
- Changing demographics.
- Low labor participation rates.
- Restrictive immigration policies.
- Lack of adequate soft skills.
- Historically low unemployment rate of 3.8%, the lowest since 2000.
are just five factors that are making successful recruiting a headache. In addition to the above, the following are also contributing to employers’ woes:
- An aging and experienced workforce that is retiring and not being replaced fast enough.
- A critical need for more manufacturing and construction skills training and upskilling of existing workers.
- The onset of AI, robotics and other forms of automation that are making many human jobs obsolete.
- The continuing disagreements between employers and employees regarding the amount of time that should be spent in the office each week.
Nor is any of this just ‘awfulizing’ by pundits and alarmists. The real-world numbers back them up.
Ron Starner (Executive Vice President of Conway Data Inc. and Site Selection magazine), says in his article “The 7 Biggest Workforce Challenges of 2025”
“Nationwide, blue-collar jobs aren’t being filled fast enough. The American Trucking Association estimated that the U.S. currently has a shortage of 82,000 certified truck drivers, and the problem is worsening by the day. Associated Builders & Contractors estimated the nationwide construction worker shortage at half a million in 2024; and the American Welding Society recently predicted that by the start of 2025, the country will be short by about 400,000 certified welders.”
In the same article, Robin Reimold, president and CEO for TeamCalifornia, said,
“The fast pace of changes in our economy and industry sectors have created a challenge for preparing a workforce that has the perfect blend of technical and soft skills. Companies need employees to come in with essential skills like communication, teamwork and problem-solving and to be productive from day one.
Reimold has hit the nail on the head. The World Economic Forum’s The Future of Jobs Report 2025 from January of this year confirms her assertions. Their report encompasses the perspectives of over 1,000 employers representing more than 14 million workers across 22 industry clusters and 55 economies. Here’s what their respondents identified as core skills:
There is absolutely no way on earth that any resume, interview, or skill-specific assessment will help an employer discern whether or not a candidate has any of these skills, or to what extent. Nor are they capable of identifying candidates who will be a good match for the job role, team, or corporate culture they’re being considered for.
Savvy employers who want to help ensure that they get it right the first time, identify and separate the winners from the losers, and save tens of thousands of dollars by avoiding a bad hire, will need something more than a Microsoft Word or Sales Aptitude test.
HR needs a way to verify what skills and aptitudes a candidate brings to the table – according to the employer’s specific requirements.
Adopting a multidimensional approach that identifies natural competencies allows HR to match a top performer with a job, team or culture. Using a well-designed tool that incorporates scientifically-backed data will enable you to obtain unbiased insights, that enables fast decision-making and leads employees toward new opportunities.
That’s where tools like the AtmanCo Assessment Platform come in! It’s an all-in-one platform designed to respond to your hiring, leadership, and talent development challenges. It is a comprehensive psychometric assessment that provides easy-to-interpret results you can use to boost performance and foster happiness at work and which can be leveraged throughout an employee’s work-life.
This means that you can test the applicant once and then use that same profile throughout the employee’s work life-span. Here’s just one example of how that could look.
Let’s say that Callie is a supervisor but isn’t performing as well as expected, despite her many skills. The built-in Job Fits show us that she has an overall score of 2 out of 7 competencies on the Supervisor Job Fit, while being a Very Good Fit on 1 competency, and a Good Fit on 4 others.
However, when compared to the Operational Manager Job Fit it’s clear that she’s a much better fit for that role because she has an overall score of 5, is a Very Good Fit on 7 competencies and a Good Fit on two others, out of 11 competencies in total.
But wait. There’s more!
If we compare Callie against the Strategic Manager Job Fit we now see that out of 9 competencies she’s a Very Good Fit for 8 of them, a Good Fit for one of them, and note that there are no Be Vigilant warning scores when matched against this profile.
AtmanCo is uniquely positioned to enable employers to zero in on people’s natural tendencies (soft skills) and match them precisely with organizational needs, identify where training gaps exist, and with the AtmanCo Platform you can do that too!
As Albert Einstein said, “Finding the solution is easy, it’s identifying the problem that’s difficult.” Atman’s Competency Development module enables you to identify where the problems are and then provides a customized development plan for managers that delivers targeted training and coaching.
In this example we can see that this person’s Delegation abilities are low,
but the platform can show you that there are a few sub-competencies that support delegation, like structured guidance, organization and monitoring, and confidence to assert oneself. Structured guidance is a natural competency for this person, and their organization and monitoring competencies are developed, but not fully, and self-assertion is not a strength at all.
Opening up the behaviours that relate to assertion will reveal how this leader can improve their competencies.
The outcome is a personalized employee report with an action plan.
The AtmanCo platform is a unique and highly effective way to map applicant competencies, skills, ‘fit’ and developmental needs to your organization’s requirements.
It’s important to point out that there’s still a place for the use of other stand-alone assessments, however. Note that if one found that communication was an area for development via the Atman Platform there’s no reason why an additional tool such as the Communication Effectiveness Profile or Communication Skills Assessment couldn’t or shouldn’t be used to help that individual identify their development needs and foster improvement. The same could be said for an individual who’s struggling with leadership competencies, teamwork or time management skills. There are lots of highly complimentary tools available to plug in for things like that as well.
Employers who don’t take advantage of tools like Atman and other assessments increase their risk of making hiring mistakes, on-boarding people who will make life difficult, reduce productivity and effectiveness, and/or result in having to re-hire for the role. The latter, by the way costs on average, about $15,000 per bad hire.
If you’re in hiring mode or need to determine who’s ready for promotion or who needs to be shifted to another role where they’re happier, more effective, and less likely to quit without notice, then tools like the Atman (and others) are a highly reliable and efficient way to resolve many of the problems that HR is facing in today’s difficult and competitive recruiting environment.
Because, as always, There’s A Test For That!
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David Towler is President of Creative Organizational Design, a firm offering nearly 50 years of expertise specializing in employee assessments and has over 5000 different tests available. Creative Organizational Design has assessments designed to help employers screen out other people’s rejects, assess skills, aptitudes, attitudes, and ‘fit’ within an organization. For more information about the many options available and to obtain expert help in selecting the best tools for your needs please contact us because no matter what personnel challenges you’re facing – there’s a test for that! Please send comments about this article to dtowler@creativeorgdesign.com.