HR teams need better talent assessments to promote workplace culture in 2024 by Aon

30-second summary

• Developing a people strategy framework that aligns with the organization’s values and future goals is crucial. This includes incorporating rewards, skills development, health and well-being, and inclusion and diversity.
• Organizations need to communicate their core values effectively to candidates and ensure that their EVP reflects the post-pandemic expectations of employees.
• By using assessments that measure personality and workplace behavioral preferences aligned with the organization’s values, companies can ensure a scientific and time-effective way to assess cultural fit from the beginning.

Culture can be both powerful and unifying. A company can attract and retain talent more effectively when its people feel aligned to the mission, purpose, and business strategy of the organization. And when employees can be their best selves — in a culture that supports them and suits their natural preferences — they are more likely to thrive individually and collectively. 

When working with clients who are looking to adapt or future-proof their organizational culture and values, we encourage them to consider the following steps:

#1 – Start by developing a people strategy framework that incorporates everything that brings meaning and purpose to the organization and its workforce with a fixed eye on the future. Think of this as the employee value proposition (EVP) that includes rewards, skills, training and development, health, wellbeing, and inclusion and diversity. It is also vital that organizations make certain that their business programs and processes — performance management, career development and total rewards — are in line with the desired culture.

#2 – Consider how your mission and values impact your EVP and ensure transparency across all candidate touchpoints. The post-pandemic workplace has seen a huge shift in what employees value and expect from an employer. As a result, firms must work harder than ever to attract and retain talent.

Indeed, failure to attract and retain talent ranks as the fourth biggest business risk, in Aon’s 2023 Global Risk Management Survey — the highest this risk has ranked in the nine years the survey has been conducted. Clients are seeing a rise in applicants researching potential employers, focusing primarily on ESG credentials and CEO reputation. Gen Z job seekers are even screening the profiles of existing employees.

These trends highlight the importance of creating a comprehensive and transparent EVP. This requires ensuring the organization’s core values are embedded into its company culture and communicated effectively to candidates from their very first interaction with the firm.

#3 – Leverage the right assessments to ensure culture fit, as well as recruiting for skills and role fit suitability. As many savvy companies move toward creating skills-based taxonomies to support agile recruitment, internal mobility, and employee development, it is important not to lose sight of the culture piece. Assessments that measure individuals’ personality and workplace behavioral preferences can be mapped to an employer’s organizational values. This creates a score to help screen high-volume roles, promote individual feedback, and pinpoint development and hiring manager reports for different types of roles.

Charlotte Schaller, partner and head of Aon Assessment Solutions UK, explains, “When culture scores are slotted in alongside the right skills-based assessments, this creates a scientific and time-effective way of ensuring culture fit from the start.”

Culture fit also creates the foundation for nurturing a greater sense of belonging among employees — an important social determinant of wellbeing, which is also linked to employee engagement and retention.

#4 – Invest in post-hire solutions to upskill a company’s greatest culture ambassador: people managers. People managers are often the most direct connection employees have to company culture. This is particularly true with hybrid or virtual employees. When nurtured and upskilled in the right way, managers have huge potential to role model organizational values and foster positive work cultures. This then generates higher engagement, feelings of belonging and team productivity.

Aon supports organizations to recruit and develop the right people managers — those who can lead change, empower their team, and drive success and accountability, while also promoting resilience and inclusivity. Organizations will have their own unique organizational values to layer on to this.

Aon believes these skills are universal and critical to success when balancing employees’ current expectations for purpose and flexibility, alongside performance pressures from above.

Increased levels of stress and burnout were seen among employees in 2023. This further highlights the pressing need to continue to navigate and heal in a post-pandemic world. Now is the time for organizations to get ahead of dissatisfaction and burnout and to prioritize the creation and ongoing sustainability of a positive, thriving workplace culture.

To learn more about how your organization can make the best use of assessments, please download Aon’s ‘A Guide to Making Better People Decisions With Talent Assessment’. 

The information contained in this document is intended to assist readers and is for general guidance only and is not intended to provide advice to the reader.