Watch the following videos on Assessment Preparation. Below them are transcriptions for easy reference. Post any questions or comments below.
AN INTRODUCTION TO KSACs
BUILDING THE ASSESSMENT
TRANSCRIPTION 1
If you determine that hiring is the correct solution, then the place to start is with an analysis of the position to come up with a description of the desired state – in hiring, we call this a job profile which is based on a job analysis. In some organizations, HR will have already done a job analysis for you. Often, however, the analysis may be too general to be useful and you may need to supplement it. The extent to which you have a clear picture of the type of person you want will largely determine how close you get to actually hiring that person.
We have given you examples of good Job Profiles in the previous section of this module. You can use them as templates for developing your own. While the Job Profile contains a ton of useful information, there is one section that will help you the most as you prepare for the interview—the section is what we call the KSACs. If you are an expert at the job for which you are hiring, you may be able to list the Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Personal Characteristics (KSACs) from your own experience. If you are not, however, you may need to enlist experts. Also note that the Job Profile ideally will list all the KSACs. But, as you consider the role more thoroughly, you will probably find you need to add to the list. As others review the Profile, they also may have suggested additions. All this is good.
KSACs are defined as:
- Knowledge – facts, concepts, principles, applications, objectives
- Skills - being able to execute a set of behaviors effectively
- Abilities – physical, emotional, and intellectual capacities
- Personal Characteristics – attitudes, beliefs, habits, motives
(INSERT VIDEO DEMO OF KSACS)
Knowledge
Knowledge is the “know-how” that exists within the performer. It includes facts, concepts, principles, applications, and objectives. As a manager, for example, I need to have knowledge of HR policies and procedures.
Skills
Skills are the ability to perform a set of behaviors with some degree of competency. One can get better at skills through practice and feedback. There are three types of skills:
- Physical Skills – e.g., juggling, typing, driving a stick-shift
- Emotional Skills - e.g., mirroring another during a conversation, expressing empathy, persuading
- Intellectual Skills – e.g., programming, project planning, writing
Abilities
Similar to skills, abilities are the capacity to perform sets of behaviors, but where skills are largely learned, abilities are tied more to inborn traits. Some abilities may be augmented, but it usually requires a long, sustained effort to do so.
- Physical Abilities – e.g., strength, endurance, hearing.
- Emotional Abilities – e.g., stress tolerance, love, managing anger, deferring gratification
- Intellectual Abilities – e.g., abstract reasoning, intuition, memory
Personal Characteristics
The dimension of personal characteristics is a catch-all for attitudes, beliefs, habitual behaviors, etc. Key to understanding personal characteristics is that they are not usually complex behaviors but choices and values and motivation. We include the Imerys Leadership Behaviors in this category. Examples include, integrity, punctuality, attention to detail, loyalty, and more.
TRANSCRIPTION 2
Each job, and sometimes each candidate have unique qualities and unique perspectives that can influence your decision to hire. Following are five assessment strategies for developing questions or approaches to go deeper. There is no need to dig down on every one of your questions, but to strategically prepare two or three areas that you do want to customize. Use these strategies to break down the competency into more specific components so that you can really determine if a candidate can perform the job at hand.
However, there is a first step...
Refer to your Job Profile and go to the KSAC section. Create a spreadsheet, or simply a list of all the Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Personal Characteristics. Rate each one an “A,” “B,” or “C.” “A’s” are essential and you should always include them in your assessment during the interview. “B’s” are important, but not necessarily vital to have as soon as the person starts. “C’s” are nice to have, but if time is tight, you can skip them. Be sure to create assessments, questions, and statements for all As and then for Bs and Cs as time allows.
Use the following format to create your own assessment.
Knowledge Assessment
Knowledge assessment gets at whether the candidate understands the concepts, the procedures, and the content of the job position. These approaches should be direct and give the candidate the opportunity to provide you with evidence that he really knows his stuff. Knowledge questions tend to start with who, what, when, where, how, and why. And you may also direct the candidate to describe, explain, demonstrate, or review a subject.
Examples
“What technologies are critical to our success?”
“Tell me the five steps in critical thinking based on the model referenced on your resume.”
“Describe the steps in creating a Microsoft Word table.”
Skill Assessment
Skill assessment gets evidence that a candidate can do and practice what she says she can do. This approach is designed to either have the candidate physically demonstrate the skill, or to have her walk you through the process of how to do a particular task. Again, if the skill is a physical activity, such as catching a football, a demonstration is in order. If the skill is designing or preparing a complex chemical reaction, then a process discussion is probably enough. The reason a discussion is enough in these cases is that the candidate will not be able to intellectually walk through at a detailed level the steps of a critical thought process without being able to do them. In a nutshell, the difference is whether the skill is cognitive, emotional, or physical. We can’t say it enough, though. Whatever you do, get evidence for what you seek. Skill assessment tends to start with an imperative. It is about action!
Examples
“Deliver a 10-minute training workshop on Listening Skills.”
“Draw for me and walk me through this specific chemical proof.”
“Here. Use my computer and create a table for the data on these pages I am handing you.”
“(Listening skills can be evaluated throughout the interview.)”
Ability Assessment
The good news… Test these the same way you assess skills. The bad news… these are trickier and beware that while skills can be developed fairly quickly, abilities can be changed, but only within a clear set of parameters.
EXAMPLES
“Lift this box.”
“I am going to give you a list of items, please remember them and recite them back to me in the correct order.”
During a ten-minute presentation by the candidate, evaluate charisma.
Personal Characteristic Assessment
These are the tricky ones, too. They are also the subjective ones and the ones where instinct plays such a large role. The personal characteristic assessment is made up of scenarios and role-plays. The interviewer sets up a role-play scenario that captures the candidate’s “real” feelings about a subject. The way to do this is to use a scenario where there is no right or wrong answer to the problem. These are the Socratic dialogues. The goal here is to have an in depth discussion after the role-play debriefing what went on. It’s the debrief that’s important. The candidate’s responses are not important as much as the thought process for his response. One scenario may cover several attitudes and beliefs. The interviewer should only do one or two off these. However, since most organizations have multiple interviewers working serially, each interviewer can engage in one or two of these dialogues. These scenarios always begin with, “I’d like to do a role-play with you. Is that okay? Here’s the situation…”
Examples:
Scenario One
Specific attitudes and beliefs in the following scenario are: loyalty, trust, commitment, friendship, business ethics, and many more. We have taken and adapted this scenario from Defining Moments: When Managers Must Choose Between Right and Right, by Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr.
“You are a senior manager for a large division in your organization. Your Vice President has informed you that lay-offs are going to occur. She gives you a list of employees from your department. You see that your best friend in the whole wide world is on that list. The VP informs you that the list is confidential and you are not to disclose it. You are also not to inform anyone that lay-offs are pending. Two days later, you run into your friend in the hall. He says that he heard through the grapevine that there will be lay-offs. It’s holiday time, and he’s wondering if he’s on the list. Should he buy presents for his children? What do you say?”
Scenario Two
Specific characteristics in the following scenario are: commitment, creative problem solving, customer satisfaction philosophies, personal needs getting met, business ethics, and many more.
“You are an integral part of a customer response team. You have been working for the past several weeks on a project that is going to be delivered to the customer tomorrow. A colleague who has been just as integral as you went on a planned vacation yesterday. He is the only one who knows the project as well as you and he is somewhere over Maui. When he was making his vacation plans months ago, you told him not to worry that you would cover anything that came up. And when this project came up, you assured him that you would be able to handle the presentation. The meeting tomorrow is vital. It is a three-million-dollar account and you could lose it if you aren’t successful. The client is already annoyed at you because there have been delays. But you are ready and believe everything will turn out well. You head off to the airport. You find out your plane to LA is delayed, when your cell phone rings. Your grandmother just fell and broke her hip. She is 90 years old and going in for emergency surgery. You’re very close to her and feel this might be it for her. You want to be there, but the meeting… You call the client, and the leader says if you don’t show up your company will lose the account. No flexibility or understanding of your feelings. What do you do?”
In Module III we will go deep into how to evaluate and facilitate these conversations. The key right now is to think up right versus right or wrong versus wrong scenarios specific to your job profile.
Context Assessment
And these are the easy ones. They are simply questions that engage the candidate’s willingness to perform some of the job’s less desirable tasks and functions. Think of these questions as a part of the first coaching session. They set a baseline understanding of some of what is expected. They generally start with, “This job requires…”
Examples
“This job requires 50% travel; will that be a problem for you?”
“This job requires work on weekends and evenings 20% of the time, will that be a problem for you?”
Post any questions in the comments section below. Enjoy!