Introduction

This article analyzes the characteristics of assessment techniques and the role of personality in their use and effect on performance.

Assessment Techniques

We’ve identified 21 techniques that are used to assess people in organizations and for a variety of applications such as recruitment, coaching, or management. Those techniques were regrouped under four categories: parallel techniques, semi-formal techniques, formal techniques, and statistics-based techniques. Although primarily differing by the nature of what they assess and the way it is assessed, the characteristics extracted were analyzed in regard to their use and effect on individual and organizational performance.

We first started with personality assessments and then analyzed other techniques similarly. All of them were overlapping and often competing, rather than complementing each other. This is the case for our private techniques out of intuition, the most often used technique, and other new statistics-based techniques.

Characteristics of Assessment Techniques

By analyzing assessment techniques and their use with the model described above, we were able to identify 29 characteristics, which applied to all of them.

First, as for any instrument, like for instance a thermometer for measuring temperature, some evident and often physical elements will be distinct upfront, from outside, before even considering using the tool. For a thermometer, it may be its color, weight, and what it looks like. For assessment techniques, we refer to those characteristics as the upfront characteristics.

Second, you consider how the measure is effectively assessed, which for the case of temperature, may be its liquid-filled glass tubes, thermistors, or more recently, its atom-based device. In our case with assessment techniques, we found 13 distinct characteristics that we’ve referred to as intrinsic qualities.

Third, the information being produced may be relevant for different applications. In the case of thermometers, those used for very low temperatures, below -150°C (-240°F), also called cryogenic temperatures, are cryometers. Those used with very high temperatures by detecting thermal radiation, called pirometers, are used by volcanologists. For assessment techniques we refere to this as extrinsic qualities.

Finally, you may consider what’s possibly done with the measure. Experiencing, practicing it, and sharing about it, a consensus emerges. Soon, some rules for using are created, a theory about the thermometer emerges, and a manual for using the tool becomes available. So it happened for thermometers during the 17th century when they were first created and, later, during the 19th century when they were standardised. For assessment techniques, we refer to those elements as their theory and manual.

Four Categories

Four categories of characteristics similarly apply to assessment techniques. They are the following:

Upfront Characteristics: Assessment techniques function differently from a user standpoint, upfront, when participants are being assessed. For instance, some techniques are easy to answer and instantaneous, while others are more complex and take time.
Intrinsic Qualities: They are the qualities of the measures being assessed. They include the nature of the concept(s), the assessment says it assesses and how the assessment works internally, eventually, for more advanced techniques, by using the statistics to refine the quality of the measures being produced.
Assessment Results: These are the rules of inference produced by using and sharing about the assessment technique, its use, added values, and benefits. All the rules developed by experiencing the technique constitute the assessment’s theory. They vary in depth and quantity between techniques. They may differ from the theory that the instrument originated from.
Theory and Manual: These are the quality of the results being produced for their various applications. The potential use of these qualities varies depending on users and the practical benefits shared among them.

The four groups and characteristics are summarized in the four tables below. The code “Code 6b” in the right column helps locate and further rate the characteristics when analyzing each of them.

Upfront Characteristics

Characteristic	Description	Code 6b
Nature of the Concepts	That's the central concept or category being measured by the assessment technique, such as "intelligence," personality," "value," or one of their sub-categories, such as "behavior value" or "moral value". This category eventually includes several dimensions, facets, or factors, with each having its own name and distinctive characteristics being measured.	T-NATR
Means	Techniques use different means for assessing and delivering results. Today, assessments often happen through computation over the Internet on a laptop or phone, or the 'old way' with paper and pencil for both taking the measures and scoring the results. There may be no physical element at all, only our brain, heart, and guts, when we conduct an assessment via conversation or analyze other results.	T-INTR
Immediacy	Techniques vary in how quickly they provide access to the assessment and how easily instructions and questions can be answered by a large audience, whether or not an assessor or agent is involved.	T-FACI
Number of items	The number of items or questions in an assessment technique can range from one to over 300. Some composite techniques, such as assessment centers—although looking like only one technique—extend their process by incorporating multiple techniques into one.	T-NAQU
Time	The assessment can be a lengthy one-hour process, as in the case of structured interviews, or when combining techniques, like in an assessment center. Or, on the contrary, it can be instantaneous or quick.	T-TMPS
Forced or Free	Participants are either forced or free to choose from the scenarios proposed to them. Scenarios are questions and propositions, nouns, adjectives, images, or any other item that participants are asked to answer. Scenarios are forced when participants must answer the questions, even if the proposed scenarios are irrelevant to their experiences. They are free in the opposite case. Both free and forced scenarios can be combined using the same technique.	T-PROJ

Intrinsic Qualities

Characteristic	Description	Code 6b
Number of Facets	Some assessment techniques measure only one concept, such as "leadership". Others measure several dimensions, facets, factors under the same or main category, up to thirty and more.	T-NMBR
Parcimony	There are as few dimensions as necessary for assessing the central concept.	T-PARC
Stability	The concepts being measured are stable over a short to long period. This is a characteristic often referred to as reliability.	T-STAB
Intensity	The concepts being measured are more or less intense. The intensity is evidenced by a more or less refined and predictive scale.	T-INTN
Orthogonality	The concepts are as distinct from each other as they can be. The term "orthogonal" comes from factor analysis.	T-ORTH
Adaptation	The assessment evidences the efforts it takes to adapt to the environment and how the participant is stimulated and engaged in it. This is a critical aspect that connects the person to the job demand.	T-ADAP
Normativity	The assessment technique allows comparisons between a participant's results and others. Comparisons require an index and a scale which can be of a different nature and applies to a group.	T-NORM
Ipsativity	The assessment technique allows comparisons between the concepts or their facets being measured, enabling the analysis of how they influence each other.	T-IPSA
Formal Statistics	Formal statistics, rather than subjective judgment, may be used to generate results and compare them to industry standards. The standards include, among others, internal validity, sensitivity, structure, reliability over time, and validity studies such as predictive and criterion validity for large-scale recruitments.	T-VALI
Work relatedness	For work-related use, the measures must relate to what can be done within it to improve individual and group performance. Similarly, measures for clinical use relate to clinical applications and improving a person's health.	T-RELA
Non-descrimination	The quality of the results must not be biased by political views, religious values, skin color, gender, sexual preferences, or cultural origin. This criterion is important in most countries where these forms of discrimination are prohibited by law.	T-FIAB
Language	The assessment technique may be available in one or several languages.	T-LANG

Assessment Results

Characteristic	Description	Code 6b
Representation Model	Assessments adopt different approaches for producing their results and modeling people's characteristics, such as with narratives, traits, types, factors, profiles, letters, numbers, other symbols or a combinations of all of them.	T-MODL
Conciseness	The assessment results are more or less concise. Narratives provided by most assessment techniques include a few or many propositions delivered orally or in a written format. The length of reports can vary from one page to twenty, fifty, or even more for lengthy reports. Other systems publish measures or graphs, which people interpret using their knowledge of the measures.	T-LISI
General Validity	The propositions generated by an assessment technique are either valid, invalid to varying degrees, or neutral. Their validity can be confirmed over time by multiple participants and observers in a variety of situations and by considering their use and benefits. Establishing the validity of a technique and its propositions is a time-consuming process that's sped up by being exposed to the technique oneself, increasing the number of trials, and becoming aware of the technique's limitations.	T-GVAL
General Utility	There is a consensus among participants and observers, including after the results have challenged their assumptions, about the results' utility for the participant and their organization.	T-GENU
Attachement	More than any other technique, eventually, because it's about people, assessment techniques stick with their users. This applies to all techniques, including parallel techniques, regardless of their technical capabilities, but rather in how they deploy in markets and who uses them.	T-ATCH

Theory & Manual

Characteristic	Description	Code 6b
A priori Theory	The assessment technique is based on a theory from the author or others that preceded the publication of the assessment. The technique may not, in fact, have a direct relation with its a priori theory.	T-MODL
Assessment's Theory	Assessment techniques carry their theory on how human beings are assessed, understood, and function. They are more or less explicit about this through the descriptions and prescriptions they provide, including the arguments and examples that accompany the concepts, propositions, graphs, or other symbols being measured.	T-ROUT
Publications	Assessments differ regarding their published documentation and theory. Some of the publications constitute the reference manual online or in print. Others are general online publications. Others, again, appear only along with the results. Publications can include more or fewer details on the statistics, recommendations, instructions, and restrictions.	T-MANU
Environment's Account	Assessment techniques may consider the participants' environment to understand their adaptation to it —and the concepts being measured — to the job, team, and company. This aspect is a major component for understanding a person's dynamic and adaptation efforts. It affects the way the measurements are taken, the questions are asked, the statistics are produced, and the results are used.	T-ENVA
Age and Context	The age of the assessment technique varies, from centuries to a few decades for some and only a few months or weeks for others. It helps to relate the understanding and use of the assessment technique to the author, context, concepts, stories, or people of that time.	T-AGES
Updates	An assessment technique may adapt and receive updates, and it may be subject to revisions. Some assessments include new items or facets over time, while others have not changed since their beginning, however old or new they may be.	T-JOUR

Notes