Executive Assessment

Why You Might Need Our Executive Assessment Process

A senior executive position has become available within your organization, and you are considering hiring from the outside or promoting someone from within. You have several candidates with the right credentials, but you want to be sure you make the best possible selection.

Or possibly, you have already narrowed down your choice, but you would like to have reassurance before hiring.

The Farr Associates Executive Assessment Process can help you make the best selection for your organization.

What You Stand to Gain
Hiring or promoting senior level executives is an important process for your organization. In the case of hiring, considerable money may be expended in recruitment, selection, and relocation. In the case of promotion or reassignment, considerable amounts of energy may be exhausted to ensure the proper placement of personnel.

The Executive Assessment Process will provide a comprehensive and objective view, of a candidate's potential, to succeed in a senior level position. You will receive a written, detailed report, to include the following information:

• Overall Positives: An overview of strengths of the candidate, that will support him/her in effective leadership for the position being considered.
• Critical Thinking Characteristics: A review of some of the strengths and weaknesses the candidate will bring to the problem-solving aspect of his/her job.
• Emotional Make-Up: A look at the stress level that is impacting the candidate, and its possible effect on his/her leadership.
• Social Characteristics: How the candidate will come across to people in the workplace.
• Insight and Understanding: How much understanding the candidate has of his/her personality characteristics, and the impact they may have on his/her leadership.
• Work Habits: Some of the habits the candidate will bring to the job, that will both support and detract from his/her leadership.
• What Kind of Boss: The candidate's preferred style of being directed by his/her superior.
• What Your Company Needs To Know: Some things that your company can do in order to ensure that the candidate addresses important weaknesses and to ensure his/her success.

Overall, the Executive Assessment Process will leave you and your organization with a better understanding of the candidate's potential in a senior executive level position. Farr Associates wants your organization to make the best decision possible, in order for you to succeed.

Overview of the Process
The focus in this assessment is in finding out what the personality factors are for the candidates and discussing those factors, in relation to leadership. The Farr Executive Assessment Process affords an in-depth look and important insights into a candidate, over and above the necessary information that might be gathered in a "skills assessment" interview.

This assessment process requires one day of time for the candidate and involves:

• An in-depth interview of the candidate, that focuses on personality traits, and leadership strengths and weaknesses.
• The administration of various assessment instruments, that provide insight into personality, as it applies to leadership.

This assessment process is meant to augment, not replace, the candidate interview process that your organization uses now. What it can add is a different sort of assessment than that which companies traditionally focus on. The assessment instruments vary, some requiring both special training and advanced degrees, for administration and interpretation. The categories of assessment may include:

• Traditional paper and pencil surveys of personality traits -- These provide valuable information about how the candidate views him/herself and how he/she wants others to see him/her.
• Assessment instruments administered to the candidate in person -- These provide information on the level of general intellectual ability and problem solving. They require the candidate "do his/her best."
• Assessment instruments that are ambiguous in nature- No answer selection is provided and the candidate does not have an understanding of the type of information he/she is providing. Therefore, he/she has limited ability to control the assessment.

This process will help you and your organization benefit from hiring or promoting the best possible candidate for the senior executive level position, within your organization.

In Addition
If the candidate is hired or promoted into the position being considered, a feedback and coaching process can be added. This allows the candidate to receive all of the feedback from the assessment process and provides coaching to address some of the potential challenges he/she may face in the job.

Having an ineffective executive in a position, or one that simply does not "fit," can be costly.  Having to dismiss them because the choice to hire was the wrong one, can also be costly.

On the other hand, finding the right candidate, that

not only fits the position and matches your organization's culture, but also fits with the people they will be working with, can significantly improve your bottom-line.

Farr can help you make the right choice that "fits" with all of your organization's needs.