On a mission to stop the global talent waste
Assessio International AB
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It is one thing administering a test and collecting the data from the results but it is another using that data for strategic and operational decisions, such as finding the future leaders within the organization, identifying agile people and building effective teams. That was the reason why Assessio began to transfer their expertise into a digital platform – they wanted to make it more available.
“Our business has changed a lot since we first started,” says Director of Consultancy Emma Engebretzen. “10 or 15 years ago, the technology was more limited. So we held seminars and workshops with our clients to educate them in using our tools and how to interpret them and use the information. People still interpreted the information in their own way. So we were facing the question: How can we share our knowledge to help organisations make better, more strategic, decisions? The core of our business is the science and our consultants’ deep knowledge in this area. It is that knowledge that we have put into Ascend. Ascend is a platform filled with tools that help organisations make the right decisions. It presents the information for the user in simple ways, Ascend does all the hard work.”
The big challenge facing HR departments today is not just recruiting the best candidate for the job, but also getting the best value and performance from them. “Today, there is a massive problem of disengagement among the workforce,” states Mrs. Engebretzen. “One global study has put the level of disengagement among employees at 85%. That is a huge brake on productivity and employee well-being. One of the reasons so many people are disengaged, we believe, is that we use poor methods for matching individuals to jobs, but also matching them against the organisational culture.”
“In the Ascend platform, clients can collect, analyze and work with their data,” outlines Mrs. Engebretzen. “They can define critical behaviours for a role, and then match individuals and groups to that profile. Ascend makes it easy to identify strengths in teams, their challenges, risk behaviours and their culture and values.”
The digital platform has been designed to offer a good user experience with a time-efficient and reliable process and proven results. “It is very important to have quality in what we do, we determine people’s futures through our methods,” insists Mrs. Engebretzen. “We have been doing this for a long time. Our consultants are psychologists and experts within organisational psychology. They are also trained in this field to pass on the knowledge. Our clients see great results, such as higher engagement, higher performance, more successful recruitment and quicker HR recruitment processes.”
The Ascend platform hosts Assessio’s proven portfolio of psychological tests including key tests MAP-X and MATCH-V which focus on risk behaviours and culture, which are both big trends in today’s HR market.
“MAP-X measures extreme traits of an individual’s personality. The results make it possible to identify what risks of toxic behaviour and derailing tendencies exist,” explains Mrs. Engebretzen. “With MAP-X it is also possible to identify toxic leadership behaviours and help put a stop to them before they have a negative effect on retention. MATCH-V, on the other hand, is concerned with defining a company’s organisational culture and matching it to individuals’ values and cultural preferences. It identifies what motivates people and whether a company’s culture is meeting their needs.”
Using our tests, recruiters can match the personalities of applicants to the roles they will perform. Emma EngebretzenDirector of Consultancy
Matrigma measures general mental ability and is described as the single most powerful predictor of work performance. MiNT measures integrity and thereby the risk of counterproductive work behaviour. MAP measures work related personality traits and Service First measures service orientation to ensure superior customer service.
As part of its future growth strategy, Assessio bought the Dutch HR company, HFMTalentIndex, in 2019. Their goal is to become the largest company in Europe within talent assessment. The company also likes to practice what it preaches and uses its own tools for recruitment.
“We have been recruiting heavily in the last few years and use our own tests to screen for the best candidates,” notes Mrs. Engebretzen. “We want organisations to start trusting the data and make data-driven decisions. Study after study shows that this is the best way to identify potential. Our goal is to reach zero talent waste.”
