Assessment tools for recruitment and selection

Assessment tools for recruitment and selection are usually sold as instruments; this sheet is the arithmetic underneath one. Enter the weight of each of three criteria and each candidate's raw score out of ten, and it returns the weighted score per candidate, the gap between them, and what the same scores say unweighted. On the worked example the weights are 40, 35 and 25, candidate A scores 8, 6 and 9 while candidate B scores 6, 9 and 7: A comes out at 7.55 against B's 7.30, so A leads. Unweighted, they read 7.67 and 7.33, which is the same order but a different margin. When the weighting changes the ORDER rather than the margin, that is the moment to check the weights are what the hiring manager actually believes, because the ranking is being produced by the weights and not by the candidates.

The weights are the decision

Scores feel like the substance and the weights feel like bookkeeping, but the weights are where the judgement lives. Deciding that criterion one is worth 40% and not 25% is a hiring decision made before anyone is interviewed, which is exactly when it should be made.

Always look at the unweighted pair

The sheet returns both so you can see whether your weighting is doing real work or just adding decimals. If weighted and unweighted disagree about the winner, the weights deserve a conversation.

A small gap is a real result

0.25 between two candidates on a ten-point scale is not a mandate. The sheet shows the gap rather than only the ranking, because a near-tie should be settled by something other than arithmetic.