A company’s success depends largely on the competence and commitment of its employees. However, qualified personnel selection and development is challenging. Basis of a systematic personnel development process is the personnel diagnostics. It serves as a tool to identify the potential of its employees and determine individual developmental needs.
Goals and Tasks of Personnel Diagnostics
Personnel diagnostics provides critical impulses to increase the success of organizations. Firstly, it helps to minimize the risk of ill placed personnel. Here, it performs a central role in the recruitment process. Secondly, personnel diagnostics plays a role in identifying high potentials and ensuring the professional success of individual staff members. Differentiated competence analysis ensure that a fit between person and function is guaranteed and that individual skills are developed and modified in accordance to job requirements.
Diagnostic Methods in HR Development
There is a wide range of different diagnostic instruments and procedures, by which the suitability within an internal selection process can be found, individual SWOT profiles can be created, and qualification requirements can be analysed. Typical processes are, for example, simulation -based methods, biography – oriented methods, intelligence and personality tests, as well as interviews.
The Assessment Center (AC) is one of the most popular and most commonly used methods, although its predictive capability has continually decreased in recent years. This is mainly because redundant and standardized exercises are used. The AC is a multiple diagnostic method that combines various partial procedures. For potential diagnosis within organizations, the promotable potential AC and the HR development AC are used.
Diagnostic methods absolutely must meet certain quality criteria. Particular attention should be paid to the qualification of the persons involved. Assessor training, applying the principle of multiple-assessor verification as well as the rotation of the assessors are therefore essential components. Finally, utilized instruments should be able to precisely measure the criteria.
To increase the informative value of the assessment center for an organization it is essential to firstly develop an organization and function specific competence profile and to apply it in the competence assessment. Secondly, the methods and exercises used in the AC must be aligned to the everyday work life of the participant with practical relevance.
Individual assessments / human audit methods have become particularly popular in recent years because they allow a greater individualization and e.g. allow cross-cultural aspects to be considered.
Trends and Challenges
Globalization and the associated increase in collaboration in international teams and projects, alongside the high volatility in the markets also require appropriate adjustments on a diagnostic level. „Working across borders ” is no longer the exception but the rule and requires the promotion of multinational diagnostics.
Individual values diagnostics also continues to gain in importance.
At the same time, virtualization is progressing and calls for appropriate adaptation in the personnel diagnostics space.
In recent years, a strong increase of online testing method could be observed. The online utilization of IQ tests, knowledge tests, personality tests or case studies enables the measurement of processing and response times, adaptation of tasks of previous test performance, as well as an interactive design. So-called self-assessments guide participants through the work environment on a virtual plane. Online method thus not only examine knowledge, but inform people. Therewith, self-selection can be leveraged.
Some skills (e.g. knowledge) may be transferred more efficiently and more cost-effectively through virtual channels than through in-class lectures. In other cases, personal contact is essential for an accurate diagnosis and cannot be replaced by e.g. videoconferences or calls.
Personnel Diagnostics at TCJG
TCJG utilizes personal diagnostic instruments in the development and promotion of people. Therefore, often use „Management Audits” not only for pure location determination but also as a means to derive development plans.
We also offer individual concepts and solutions for junior development programs. To identify talents and their potential we run programs such as the „Talent Development Workshop“ (support assessment for junior staff, as individual or group process). This gives us a good foundation to accompany these people on their way to leadership positions.
A special TCJG offer in personnel diagnostics is that of individual values analysis. This instrument is especially valuable for organizations concerned with brand engagement and cultural change.
Submitted by our blogger Kristina Ressler