Define Success

Looking to Create A Model for Organizational Success

Assess Competency Modeling or Strategic Success Modeling (SSM) is a process by which an organization can easily develop a targeted competency model for a position or group of positions, or can update an existing competency model.

Use our unique process to translate business strategy in HR practices – using a common language to define the behaviours that are necessary to successfully execute strategy.

 

 

With the Optimal Assessment Process and the Assess suite of tools, once a competency model has been created it can be loaded into the Assess on-line system. Candidates – both internal and external can log into the system and complete Assess, a business assessment instrument that measures 24 personality traits in three major categories – Thinking, Working and Relating.

The Assess system provides an objective way to measure individuals against the behaviours critical to organizational success and can be used to improve the following processes:

• Selection – Providing a clear target for hiring practices will improve the likelihood of hiring the right person for the right job
• Development – Making development actionable and understandable by providing developmental activities that are linked to skills, knowledge and characteristics that will lead to optimal performance
• Training – linking training to competencies (success), maximizing the return on investment of training dollars
• Performance Improvement – clarifying work expectations using a common language and linking competencies to goals
• Succession Planning – adding objectivity in determining readiness for a role; identifying gaps and focusing training and development to help close those gaps.

Already Have a Model?

Take our Competency Modeling Quiz to determine whether or not you can benefit by mapping your competencies to our Assess competency library or contact us.

ASSESS In-Depth Certification

We know that your schedule is hectic and your time is limited. We do our best to adapt our certification process to your needs and your schedule.

For coaches, executive search firms, and HR/OD consultants we also provide insight into how to effectively use the tools and expand your practice.

We also offer in-house certification allowing you and your team members the opportunity to tailor your learning to what is most relevant for your organization.

What makes our certification process unique is our commitment to service our clients. We provide follow-up coaching and advisory services to make sure that the tools are being used effectively and so that all of our clients achieve the best possible results.

ASSESS Workshops

During our workshops you will learn how to enhance the use of ASSESS with your clients or within your organization. We focus on the following:

• Understanding ASSESS characteristics and profile interpretation
• Learning how to use ASSESS to hire the best candidates
• Leveraging the power of ASSESS for one-on-one coaching or group workshops, including modules for
  • Career Development Workshops
  • Coaching & Leadership Development
  • Developing Teams
• All participants receive their own ASSESS development report to enhance the learning process and for personal improvement.

For more information about certification and pricing please contact us.

Team Effectiveness

Evaluate, Develop and Align Your People for Success

• How do you integrate new members into a team?
• How do you know what the chemistry will be like when new members join a team?
• Are you equipped to identify and leverage team strengths?
• How do you determine what developmental needs exist in your teams?

Personality has a much bigger impact on performance than what was previously thought. And individual personalities have a direct impact on the display of competencies and on how effectively teams perform.

Once all of the members of a team have completed the Assess Survey you will be able to:

Create Team Effectiveness Plots

• See which personality traits will have the greatest impact on success
• Facilitating integration of new and existing team members
• Create strategies to avoid conflict and enhance cooperation

See Team Effectiveness Plots (Pdf format)

Create Group Summary Report provides information such as:

• Most frequent developmental suggestions
• Overall "fit" of the group with their competency model
• Average score of the group on Assess personality dimensions

This information may be used to target training and improve team performance.

See Group Summary Report (pdf format)

To learn more about how Assess can help you understand team dynamic and identify ways to improve team performance, please contact us for more information.

Succession Planning

Evaluate Your Bench Strength Using Objective Measures

Succession Planning is the process of developing talent to meet the needs of an organization now and into the future.

In order for a Succession Planning process to be successful, leaders must think about aligning staffing and leadership needs to current and future strategic objectives.

The Essential Components of an Effective Success Planning Program

 

 

 

How Can the Assess Suite of Tools Enhance the Succession Planning Process?

With Assess you can clarify the skills, knowledge and characteristics required for current and future roles; add objectivity in determining readiness for a role and identify gaps and help to focus training and development. Organizations can measure their bench strength and hire more strategically.

Once the purpose and objectives (points 1 and 2 above) of a Succession Planning process are identified, the following can take place:

1. In Stage 1 of the OAP™, an organization will define success for now and for the future.
2. Establish a way to measure the competencies. ASSESS 360 and Focus 360 all provide ways to measure the behaviours associated with the competencies that have been defined for success, identify gaps and provide development suggestions.
3.  An objective way to measure potential and to close any existing gaps. ASSESS Development reports can enhance existing methods of measuring potential, by benchmarking candidates against current and future roles.
4. A way to Evaluate Results. Candidates can continue to be evaluated using the entire ASSESS Suite to monitor progress, enhance development and improve performance.

To learn how to add objectivity to your succession planning process, contact us.

Improve Performance

Give Your Leaders the Tools to Measure What Matters

Even when goals are clearly defined, leaders provide little feedback and coaching. They do this annually often as a result of a requirement imposed on them (annual review, bonus calculations, etc…) Many leaders are not equipped to provide effective feedback.

The Assess system helps leaders understand the connection between goals and the behaviours that are necessary to accomplish those goals.

Stage 1 of the OAP™ "Defining Success" shows how strategy and outcomes can be linked to behaviours that are necessary for success. Providing leaders and their team members with an ability to define what will be monitored and evaluated as part of the performance management process.

This common language is used as a framework for on-going coaching and performance improvement. Feedback can now be immediate, specific, non personal and it can highlight both positive and negative behaviours.

• ASSESS Development provides an in-depth evaluation of a candidate’s assets and liabilities in relation to the needed competencies for a given role. The report provides the candidate with development suggestions, books to read and courses to take in order to facilitate the coaching process and improve performance.

• The ASSESS 360° can provide additional perspective and enhance the development process. Focus 360, an abbreviated 360 module, which measures observed changes for a group of targeted behaviours selected by an employee and their leader, further enhances coaching and development.

To learn more about how to incorporate Assess into your performance improvement process please contact us.

Onboarding

Integrating Employees – Help Them Hit the Ground Running

Many organizations spend a lot of time and effort attracting talent but do very little to help new hires successfully integrate into a new operating environment. Research shows that new employees at all levels are vulnerable in the first few months in a new job because they lack the in-depth knowledge of the challenges they will face. Creating momentum in the early days of a new job will increase the probability of success.

This stage of the OAP™ provides employees with information which can make an immediate impact on performance, helping them to “hit the ground running.”

You can now generate a development report for the individual so training can begin immediately and if the individual completed the Assess survey before being hired, they do NOT have to take the survey again.

The Assess Development Report identifies the traits that are likely to help/hinder the demonstration of competencies. This portion of the report provides an in-depth analysis of the candidate’s results, by competency.

The candidate’s score is shown by a blue circle. The “blue zone” indicates desirable ranges – when the circle falls within the blue zone (Assertiveness, Self-Reliance) the trait is likely to help the candidate demonstrate the competency and when the scores fall outside the blue zone, the traits are likely to hinder the demonstration of the competency. When scores fall outside the desirable range, Developmental suggestions are provided.

These reports contain developmental resources – activities, books to read, courses to take and an action planning guide to facilitate performance improvement.

ASSESS Development Report Overview (PDF) 

Team Effectiveness

If the existing team members have also completed Assess, a Team Effectiveness Plot can be generated. These reports can help new and existing team members determine collective strengths and development areas; identify how they can function better as a team and find a creative way to prevent or reduce conflict.

Group competency reports can also be run. These contain group competency averages as well as the top 10 developmental suggestions for the team, identifying opportunities for team-based training.

To learn more about Team Effectiveness and Group Summary Reports please visit our Team Effectiveness Page.

To learn more about how to help employees "hit the ground running" or how to improve team effectiveness, contact us.

SalesMax was designed and validated to help organizations identify and develop top performers in consultative sales roles.

SalesMax Delivers Results

• Candidates with top scores on SalesMax produce at 121% of average.
•  84% of poor performers are screened out using SalesMax.

What is SalesMax?

SalesMax is a state-of-the-art, web-based system that produces comprehensive reports to assist in the selection and development of professional sales people.

The SalesMax System provides immediate testing, evaluation and reporting from an internet connection.

What does SalesMax Measure?

Personality traits and sales knowledge that contribute to effectiveness in a sales role, specifically:

• Sales Personality - All are work-related traits that have direct applicability to sales positions.
• Sales Knowledge - Evaluates the candidate's understanding of effective behaviours and strategies at key stages of the sales cycle. The emphasis is on consultative and relationship-oriented sales.
• Sales Motivations - The relative strength of eight sources of personal motivation to help to manage and motivate the candidate, if hired.

Why Use SalesMax?

Hire Better Talent

Everyone has made hiring mistakes.

Use SalesMax to minimize poor hires and focus on hiring individuals with natural sales ability.

SalesMax Selection Reports provide the following information to help evaluate candidates:

• A Success Index - The probability of the candidate’s success in a sales role.
• A Personality Profile – Quickly shows you a summary of the candidate’s personality results.
• Sales Knowledge Results - Evaluates a candidate’s knowledge of effective strategies in key stages of the sales cycle.
• Motivations – Explains what matters to the candidate and what does not.
• Interview and Reference Probes - Helpful guides for the interviewer to pursue areas of potential weakness.
• Management Suggestions - Recommendations for how to manage candidate, if you choose to hire them.

Develop Your Current Sales Team Members

To assist in Development, the SalesMax Development Report provides:

• A Personality Profile – A quick summary that shows personality results.
• Interpretation - How specific personality factors help or hinder effectiveness.
• Sales Knowledge Results – Summary of sales knowledge scores –use low scores and targeted training for improvement.
• Motivations – Scores show the relative importance of motivators and how the candidate can get more of what they want from the job.
• Developmental Suggestions - Recommendations on how to close developmental gaps with specific resources.
• Developmental Action Plan Guide - Tips on building strengths and recognizing weaknesses.

To learn more about how SalesMax can help your organization please contact us.

 

Welcome to Optimal Assessments

Data-Informed^™ Hiring
Data-Informed^™ Coaching
Data-Informed^™ Talent Mapping

Optimal Assessments & Consulting is an authorized distributor of the Assess™  suite of on-line assessment tools. The Assess™ system ensures you hire the best people, get the most out of them and get them ready for future roles. The Assess™ tools have the highest level of workplace validation and apply to all major points within an employee lifecycle.

Our cutting edge assessment tools and unique process help measure individuals and teams against the success models to improve performance.

Define Success.....Measure.....Improve!

The Optimal Assessment Process™

Benefits of using the OAP™ (Optimal Assessment Process)

• Measure performance and target areas for improvement
• Improved hiring efficiencies
• Quick integration of new employees
• Targeted training
• Improved team effectiveness
• Increased objectivity in the succession planning process
• Enhanced coaching capability

Contact page

We invite you to email us at info@opt-assess.com for more information, or use the form below.

We are committed to respecting your privacy, and we do not and will not loan, rent, sell or otherwise provide your information to anyone for any purpose.

 

Solutions

ASSESS™ Systems

Built specifically for business, ASSESS ensures you hire the best people, get the best out of them and get them ready for future roles.

 

ASSESS™ is the only assessment tool you will find in the marketplace that combines the highest level of workplace validation and applies to all major points within an employee lifecycle:

• Define Success - Create success models.
• The hiring process – measure potential hires vs. your success model*
• On-boarding – help set up new employees for success
• Performance improvement – can be used for coaching and development and to measure performance
• Succession Planning – can measure employee's performance and potential
• Team Effectiveness/Dynamics
  *quickly create a success model by using the ASSESS Library of 38 Competencies or link your existing competencies to the ASSESS Library.

ASSESS™ is an assessment tool specifically designed for the workplace. It’s not just looking at personality but specifically how personality positively and negatively impacts performance on the job.

• Only measures work-related personality traits (24 of them)
• Has the highest level of validation - Criterion-Related Validity – this means that results of the survey can be directly linked to performance in a role.
• Reports allow you to hone in on specific root causes of what will positively or negatively impact performance
• Coaching reports are complete with development suggestions – books to read and courses to take in order to improve performance
• Does not discriminate based on age, gender or ethnicity.
• Is used in over 42 countries, has been translated into 16 languages and has been used for workplace assessment since the 1940’s, with continuous improvement and re-validation.