Assessments are being used in a variety of ways by coaches, career professionals, employment executives, in the health and fitness industries, and even to test employees’ knowledge about the jobs they are doing. Jobs like customer service, software knowledge, hardware knowledge, management style, and what type of career a person would be most suited for can be tested and analyzed by giving a simple assessment.
Assessments are used to determine the category or type of career, coach, fitness coach, relationship preference – if you have a service to sell, assessments can be used to engage your website visitors who will want to know more about what you have to offer. Having your website visitors “test themselves” without obligation is a terrific way to gain your respect and keep them coming back. Assessments are great tools for the initial opening conversation. If there is a form to fill out, use assessments and save yourself time and money.
1. Employers - create a personality assessment. Pre-hire personality screen assessments specially built for your company are most important when you are making a hiring decision. Make them fast, easy, and fun. Assessments are an easy tool to suggest that people with certain personalities are best suited to certain careers. See if your potential new hire will fit in your company culture.
2. Real Estate Agents - create an assessment to determine the type of residence that is best for the visitor to your web site. Assessments can be used to determine the price range a potential buyer can afford.
3. Customer Service – create an assessment to analyze how an employee is representing your company when he/she answers the phone for you.
4. Software Tech – create an assessment to determine the depth and type of software a potential employee will best fit into the company. Help employees demonstrate any new abilities by letting them take assessments several times a year.
5. Hardware Tech – make sure your employees and potential employees can address the problems that will be presented to them by your customers – re-assess their abilities a couple times a year. Assessments are appropriate when the knowledge, skill, or ability they measure can clearly be shown to be job-related and is not easily trainable once the person is on the job.
6. Coach Training – help your coach trainees determine their niche or coaching type they are best suited for or the type of clients they should pursue. Using the knowledge gained through assessments, the coach can encourage and support the development of the trainee and enable the trainee to connect more powerfully with others.
7. Coaches – use online assessments for your in-take forms – have your new client fill in the “discovery” form online. The use of assessments will make your clients and prospects think much deeper than before. Used appropriately, the right assessment is a key part of the coaching conversation. Many forms and types of assessments have been used for many years, in consulting and psychotherapy as well as coaching.
8. Employment Agencies and Temporary Agencies – give your clients assessments to determine the best job they are suited for and the depth to which they know the subject. Assessments are a great time to make initial contact with the career center online and encourage your visitor to come to you for help in finding a job. Having the results of the assessment in hand, a career professional can more intelligently discuss what the client’s needs are and how the career center can assist with meeting those needs.
9. Fitness Centers – Create assessments for new clients to determine the individual’s preferred styles of exercise, his/her motivation and communication preferences, and their fitness goals. A coach/manager account can be established for the trainer to manage and have access to the client assessments.
10. Athletic Teams – Properly designed assessments can determine a team member’s strength, as well as problem areas or emotional barriers that could prevent a player from achieving peak performance. Assessments can help determine the level of stress a player may be experiencing.
11. Clubs – Assessments can be used to determine at what level a person should be put into to properly balance competition, personalities and performance. Tennis Clubs, golfing clubs, even pool tournaments.
12. Business – Create assessments to help people determine the best business they may be suited for, i.e. a franchise, home based, day care. Results can then be linked to additional assessments to determine the type of daycare, for instance, the type of franchise is best suited for a particular person.
13. Relationships – determine where your web site visitors are in their relationships, what issues they are facing, what their goals are for better relationships.
14. Families and Parenting – assessments are a great self-study to help a person learn where they may need help in their parenting or family relationships – why they are experiencing unhappy situations and then offer materials for improving the problems.
15. Employees 3-Way Assessments – 1. Self assessments for each employee, 2. Manager’s productive assessment and finally the HR assessment – combine them for the final annual review.
Assessments are useful to figure out where a person is in his/her current situation to determine how to move forward. Assessments are unique in that they adapt to each person’s ability, accurately measuring what a person knows and needs to learn. In addition, good records can measure growth and progress over time.
Assessments are easy to administer and convenient to use using online tools. They are a diagnostic exercise, carried out by you, as the professional, to consider the current situation of your client, customer, employee or student. Although assessments can be any length necessary, a good rule of thumb is to keep it short enough to keep the participant’s attention and interest. Remember to always add your visitors name and email address to your “prospects” database when they take an assessment.
If you are currently having people fill in forms, you can easily transform those forms to online to complete assessments, have them automatically scored and analyzed, and you receive the results via email, print them out for your file, and view the results online. There are online tools available for creating assessment easily and quickly. I use Assessment Generator at www.assessmentgenerator2.com
Kathy Sparks has taken her Virtual Assistant practice to a higher level and now has a successful Online Business Management practice after being certified with AssistU. She has partnered with clients nationally and internationally in a multitude of professions, author of "The Virtual Assistant Guide," "Passive Income for VAs," and co-author of "How to Find and Hire a Virtual Assistant." Looking to improve your online presence? visit www.yourvirtualresource.com