How To Use StrengthsFinder® For Pre-Employment Screening

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StrengthsFinder® is an online assessment that measures recurring patterns of behavior, thoughts, and feelings. Also known as CliftonStrengths®, the personality test reveals a person’s top 5 strengths – what a person is naturally good at doing.

While StrengthsFinder® hasn’t been validated as a pre-employment screening tool by any human resource associations or other organizations, many companies and organizations lean on it heavily to find and hire the best employees.

When considering whether or not to use StrengthsFinder® as a pre-employment screening tool, there are three things to consider:

What are the legal considerations for using StrengthsFinder® to pre-screen potential employees?
How can StrengthsFinder® help you determine if a potential employee could be a good fit for your team, company, or organization?
Can StrengthsFinder® tell you how a person might perform in the job?

Let’s take a look at those considerations for using StrengthsFinder® for pre-employment screening…

What Are The Legal Considerations For Using StrengthsFinder® To Pre-Screen Employees?
If you choose to use the StrengthsFinder® assessment at any stage of your hiring process, you need to make sure that you have all candidates take the StrengthsFinder® assessment at the same stage in the hiring process. For example, do you want to know the top 5 StrengthsFinder® strengths of every applicant, or do you only want to know the top strengths of candidates you interview or invite back for second interviews? To avoid any actual or perceived discrimination, if you ask any candidates about their top 5 StrengthsFinder® strengths at a specific stage in your hiring process, then you need to ask them all.

How Can StrengthsFinder® Help You Determine If A Potential Hire Could Be A Good Fit For Your Team?
To get a good idea of which candidates would be the best fit for the job and your team, ask potential employees about their top 5 strengths, and more specifically about how all of their strengths work well together. Have them tell you how their strengths could help them excel at the position you’re trying to fill.

If the people you’re interviewing become animated, energized, and lit-up, they could be your top candidates. If, on the other hand, candidates struggle to come up with answers or become frustrated with the questions, these people probably aren’t the best candidates for the job.

Can StrengthsFinder® Tell You How A Person Will Do In The Job
No personality test, including the StrengthsFinder® assessment, can definitively tell you whether a potential employee will perform well in a specific job, role, or team. However, knowing someone’s top 5 strengths can help you better understand how a person is likely to approach their work assignments. For example, if your job requires someone who’s good at analysis, comes up with great ideas, and can bring other people on board, then ideally you’d want someone with the StrengthsFinder® strengths of Analytical®, Ideation®, and Includer®. If you need someone who has strong sales skills, then preferably, you’d find a candidate with some the strengths of Activator®, Woo®, Connectedness®, Communication®, and/or Competition®.

To help you understand how to use StrengthsFinder® for pre-employment screening, we offer customizable StrengthsFinder® coaching and training for individuals, teams, and leaders. We also provide remote StrengthsFinder® trainings for managers, leaders, and human resources professionals using StrengthsFinder®.

For more information about properly using StrengthsFinder® for pre-employment screening, call Ann Strong at (720) 312-8737, or e-mail contact@strengthscoachingandtraining.com.

Ann Strong has more than 25 years training and coaching experience and 14 years experience in StrengthsFinder®. She works out of Denver, Colorado and Santa Fe, New Mexico and remotely with clients throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Check out these resources for team building with StrengthsFinder®:
Team Building For Remote Teams: How To Use StrengthsFinder®
How To Build A Team Around Strengths
What Are The Top Strengths That Make A Good Team
What To Do If Your Team Is Missing Strengths
How To Resolve Team Conflict With StrengthsFinder®
What To Do If Your Team Doesn’t Want To Take StrengthsFinder®
How To Use StrengthsFinder® To Assign Projects And Roles
How To Onboard New Team Members Using StrengthsFinder®
Why Hire A StrengthsFinder® Trainer For Team Building
StrengthsFinder®: Train The Trainer