If you haven’t considered making workplace-based assessments part of your talent management strategy, you could be paying a steep price. Statistics show that in the first 18 months of taking a leadership position, 30 to 70 percent of leaders fail.
Part of this may be due to the way we too often identify leadership potential in our employees: based primarily on performance. This method overlooks candidates that may be well-suited to management roles, but haven’t had the chance to prove it on the job. Another factor that enters into the selection process is unconscious bias. Leaders tend to look for individuals that fit a certain mold.
An effective leadership assessment program replaces assumptions with scientifically validated data to better identify management potential in anyone.
In a workplace context, an assessment refers to measuring knowledge, skills, abilities or other characteristics (KSAOs) or competencies required for successful job performance. Workplace-based assessments must adhere to Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures issued by the federal government and professional guidelines issued by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Principles for the Validation and Use of Personnel Selection Procedures | Fifth Edition (Division 14 of the American Psychological Association).
Here’s how workplace-based assessments fit into your overall management plan.
Leadership assessments are most impactful when grounded in scientific assessments. This indicates they are fair, reliable and valid. Their predictive capabilities are among their greatest strengths, empowering organizations to make informed decisions about future leadership potential.
Collaborating with best-in-class test publishers such as Hogan and Pearson ensures evaluations are both reliable and accurate. These research-supported assessments offer valuable insights into future leadership success, helping reduce the risk of costly hiring mistakes and their long-term consequences. Predictive assessments also play a vital role in succession planning and talent development, enabling organizations to invest strategically in high-potential individuals. This targeted approach strengthens the leadership pipeline and equips future leaders to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving business landscape.
Reliability and validity are the two must-haves in an effective assessment program. One without the other is destined to fail. Here’s an example I often use: Imagine you’ve set up your DVR to record your favorite show at 8 p.m. Tuesday for three weeks in a row. However, when you settle in to watch it, you find that it has recorded the wrong show each time. So, the machine did reliably record the program that aired at 8 p.m., but you had inadvertently given it the wrong information, resulting in results that were not valid.
In other words, results should be consistent to be reliable, and accurate to be valid. That’s predictive power at work, and it’s why our consultants employ the most trusted scientifically proven assessments in the industry.
When it comes to evaluating leadership potential, few tools are as trusted or scientifically grounded as the Hogan Leadership Assessment. Developed in the mid-1960s by Drs. Robert and Joyce Hogan, this suite of assessments was the first to demonstrate that personality can reliably predict job performance. Today, Hogan remains the gold standard in personality assessment, backed by over 100 validation studies annually.
Hogan’s assessments are built on decades of psychological research and predictive modeling. They help organizations understand not just who a person is, but how they’re likely to behave at work — especially under pressure.
Hogan personality tests use data-driven psychological assessments to predict workplace performance by evaluating traits that influence how people behave on the job. Here's how they work:
Hogan offers three primary tools, each answering a critical question about workplace behavior:
Each test collects responses to structured questions. These responses are scored and compared against large normative databases to identify patterns and predict behavior.
With the collected data, Hogan can use validated statistical models to link personality traits to key performance indicators such as:
The Hogan Leadership assessment helps employers:
Organizations use Hogan data to make informed decisions about hiring, development, succession planning, and team building. The ultimate goal is to improve individual and organizational performance and reduce turnover.
While Hogan excels at measuring personality, other tools complement it. Using multiple methods contributes to the strongest, most predictive methodology for determining future job performance.
As a best practice, your ideal solution provider should use best-in-class assessments like the Hogan Personality suite. Just as important, however, is the expertise of the assessors who conduct and interpret the evaluations. All Right Management consultants are Hogan-certified, 95% have advanced degrees, and 75% are I-O psychologists. I-O (Industrial/organizational) psychology is the scientific study of human behavior in organizations and the workplace. We turn data into insights that power careers and help organizations thrive.