As tax season approaches, you may be looking for ways to grow your practice in the coming year. Your team will play a big role in your success. You may need to hire new people or optimize your existing team to reach your goals.
Assessments can help you build a successful team and culture, allowing your practice to grow and thrive. Some assessments are free, while others cost a few hundred dollars. In either case, they are an investment in your team and your future success.
So, how can you leverage assessments to build the culture and team you want?
5 Types of Assessments and How They Can Help You Build Successful Teams
Assessments can be used during the hiring process to help you find the ideal candidate for the job, but they can also be used to optimize your team or pinpoint areas where additional training may be necessary.
1. Job Knowledge
A job knowledge assessment can give you more insight into the person’s role-specific knowledge and skills. It can be a good indicator of job performance and help you determine whether the person will need additional training or education.
● For your existing team, this assessment can help you determine whether a person is truly qualified for their role or if additional training may be needed. Advancements or innovations may leave some team members behind. Outdated practices and knowledge can hinder productivity and competitiveness, but continued education may help bring these members up to speed.
● When hiring, this assessment can help weed out unqualified candidates.
2. Skills
A skills assessment will give you a better look at the person’s skills to determine whether they’re a good fit for the role. The strength of their skills is another indicator of job performance, but it can also help you evaluate the person’s problem-solving skills or ability to overcome challenges.
● For your existing team, a skills assessment can help ensure that each member is competent for the job at hand. It can also tell you which specific skills may be lacking or insufficient, allowing you to provide more targeted and effective training.
● This assessment can help you choose candidates with the most desirable skills for the role when hiring.
3. Cognitive
Hard skills are important, but they’re just one piece of the puzzle when building your culture and team. Two people may have the same exact skill sets, but they may differ in their:
● Problem-solving abilities
● Critical thinking skills
● Attention to detail
Each of these skills will affect their performance and productivity. A deeper understanding of your team’s cognitive abilities can help you find roles, tasks, and projects that match their capabilities and provide greater fulfillment.
● For your existing team, a cognitive assessment can help you determine whether a team member would be a good fit for a leadership role or if they would excel in supportive roles. It can also help you better pair team members with projects and tasks.
● When hiring, this assessment can help you find candidates that fill gaps in your team. For example, you may have a lot of problem solvers on your team, but you may be lacking people who pay attention to detail. A cognitive assessment can help you build a well-rounded team.
4. Personality
Personality assessments help you better understand the traits, motivations, and working styles of your team members or job candidates. They can help you understand how your current team and candidates may fit into your culture.
● For your existing team, a personality assessment can help your figure out what makes a person tick. What’s their motivation? How can you make this team member feel happier and more fulfilled at work? Which team members will work well together?
● When hiring, this assessment can help you find candidates that fit in well with the company culture you’re trying to build.
5. Emotional Intelligence
An emotional intelligence assessment gives you a better understanding of how a person manages their emotions and perceives the emotions of others. A person’s ability to read the room can help diffuse or prevent conflict, provide motivation when needed and improve teamwork.
● For your existing team, an emotional intelligence assessment can help you find mediators and leaders within your team. It can also help you gauge whether certain team members will struggle to maintain good working relationships with colleagues.
● When hiring, this assessment can help you find candidates that will complement other team members’ personalities and work well with others.
Assessments can be beneficial for optimizing your team and hiring the right candidates. They can help you maximize your talent by placing the right people in the right roles. After all, when you understand your team – their motivations, skills, and instincts – you can keep them happy and fulfilled in the workplace. But they can also ensure that you hire the right people for the right roles.
4 Tips to Help You Hire the Right People
Assessments can strengthen your existing team and help you build the culture you want. But they can also be used to hire the right people.
Of course, to hire the best people, you’ll need to go beyond assessments. Here are some tips:
- Know what’s needed to fill the role and create a detailed job description. You know your ideal candidate. Flesh it out into a job description that will attract the right people.
- Establish a pre-hiring assessment and use this information to build communication and cooperation.
- Consider working with your coach or another professional to develop or improve your hiring process.
- Hire slowly and take into account where you want your business to be in the future when making hiring decisions.
Building a successful team and culture takes time and commitment. The first step is to establish or improve your hiring process. Once you know what you’re looking for, you can leverage assessments to help you find people that match your criteria.
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Joseph Graziano, CFP® is the Vice President and Wealth Management Partner at FFP Wealth Management. Through FFP management, Joe and his team help manage over 2.4 billion in assets. FFP Wealth Management has served the unique needs of the accounting community for over 28 years and was formed out of a dire need for accountants and financial planners to join forces in providing premium services to their clients. If you have questions about expanding your accounting firm’s services, you
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