Inform Talent Selection Using Optimized Assessments
Hire with confidence through intentional, evidence-based assessment design.
High-quality, validated assessments require upfront investment and ongoing resources, clashing with expectations of TA teams to deliver high value with constrained budgets and capacity. Additionally, organizations lack the expertise to develop robust, validated, and effective assessments that align with roles in scope, leading to poor solutions that do not fit their needs. As well, as more organizations introduce AI within assessments, many are doing so without a strategy or guardrails, creating exposure to regulatory, bias, and compliance risks.
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Speak With An Analyst.
- Get on-demand project support
- Get advice, coaching, and insight at key project milestones
- Go through a Guided Implementation to help you get through your project
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Every hiring decision is an investment in the organization’s future, but the path to making the right choice is rarely straightforward. When assessments are thoughtfully aligned and intentionally designed, they dig deeper than credentials to truly understand candidates’ skills, fit, and potential.
Impact and Result
Optimized assessments help to select talent who are more likely to succeed in the role, providing cost savings from selection efficiency and lower attrition. Furthermore, candidates both internal and external to the organization benefit from a more positive experience through thoughtful design of the hiring process, in turn building greater talent pools and a stronger organizational brand.
About McLean & Company
McLean & Company is an HR research and advisory firm providing practical solutions to human resources challenges via executable research, tools, diagnostics, and advisory services that have a clear and measurable impact on your business.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your HR problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst
Get the help you need in this 5-phase advisory process. You'll receive 11 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
Guided Implementation 1: Determine the scope of optimization
- Call 1: Identify the driving factors for assessment optimization, including collecting data to support the rationale.
- Call 2: Determine the project scope, select a pilot group, and set objectives for the organization to enable process optimization.
Guided Implementation 2: Prepare for assessment optimization
- Call 1: Discuss the current talent acquisition process to identify high-level pain points.
- Call 2: Take an inventory of current assessments to evaluate their effectiveness and determine the actions needed to optimize assessments.
Guided Implementation 3: Select assessment methods
- Call 1: Conduct a job analysis to identify critical KSAs and use these insights to determine the selection criteria for assessments.
- Call 2: Select talent assessment methods.
Guided Implementation 4: Finalize assessment decisions
- Call 1: Identify existing resource availability and constraints to determine whether to design assessments in-house or with an external vendor.
- Call 2: Set criteria weighting for the optimized assessment process.
Guided Implementation 5: Administer and evaluate assessments
- Call 1: Set process metrics for assessments and create a change management and communication plan.
- Call 2: Train users to support assessment launch with the pilot group.
- Call 3: Assign accountabilities for the ongoing administration and maintenance of the optimized assessment process.
Contributors
- Tom Oliver, Senior Director, Assessment and Succession, North America, LHH
- Tracy Macfie, Director, Operations & Research Talent Acquisition, Info-Tech Research Group
- Nicolas Roulin, Professor of Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Saint Mary’s University
- Josh Bourdage, Professor of Industrial-Organizational Psychology, University of Calgary
- Sonya Beach, Head of Talent Solutions, System-3
- Dan van der Werf, Founder, Perennial Talent
- Deb Powell, Professor of Industrial-Organizational Psychology, University of Guelph
- Aysha Sidiq, Organizational Development and Learning Professional
- 3 anonymous contributors
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