Online assessment How good are you?

The situation
When two big consulting firms merged, they encountered a huge human resources challenge. Our client needed to conduct performance assessments for their 14,000 U.S. consultants; at the same time, the assessments would be the baseline for placing employees into appropriate consulting engagements. There wasn’t enough management staff to handle this task. What to do?

The process
O’Donnell & Associates worked with our client to develop a process and an online tool for assessing the 14,000 consultants. Our process was relatively simple: the consultant took an online self-assessment of his or her demonstrated capabilities which was validated by colleagues and project supervisors. O’Donnell & Associates developed the process, the assessment, and the software for conducting the process.

Each consultant completed the online assessment, which took several hours. The assessment tool provided a rating for the consultant, based on the various demonstrated capabilities; for example, a consultant could rate a 6 in one area and a 2 in another. These ratings were used for both performance and for placing consultants on future engagements. The assessment results and ratings were sent to 5 colleagues who validated and critiqued the self-assessment. A coach met with the consultant to reconcile differences between the consultant’s self-perception and the perception of others. Questionable assessments were sent on to a review board for resolution.

The project was much less simple. First, we worked with the client team to turn a framework for assessing a consultant’s capabilities into an online self-assessment tool. We put together a project team and programmed the tool in Lotus Notes. We also developed tools to systematically send the assessment to 5 validators, then on to a coach and to a central human resources repository.

Conducting the assessment electronically was a new concept, and we knew that our client’s employees would not all relish the change. There wasn’t time for extensive market development, but we held a series of focus groups around the country to gather employee feedback and build the consultants and their managers into the process.

The results
The merger of two big companies isn’t easy; and, neither was this first assessment. Employees grumbled that first year, and our client made some adjustments to the product. By year two, it was rolled out to the global workforce. Consultants around the world were familiar with the process and knew what to expect. The global roll out was a success.