Setup checklist for assessments

Make sure you've set up everything required to successfully create and dispatch assessments

In this article:

Build job descriptions

When you create an assessment, the first step is to select a job. Make sure your job is published so it’s available to select.

Add competencies to jobs

If the job includes competencies that are linked to assessment questions, CompetencyCore will suggest these questions so you can add them to your assessment. Follow the steps in the Quick start for Jobs to set up your jobs and add competencies.

Link users to jobs through positions

The employee being assessed is called the ‘subject’ of the assessment. This employee is linked to the job that the assessment is based on through a position. You can make this association as you dispatch, but this only creates a temporary association. Link the position to a job and a user before creating assessments to speed up the dispatch process. Follow the steps in the Manage positions article to link each position to a user and to a job.

Create or customize assessment questions

Assessment questions are usually copies of behavioural indicators. For example, “Addresses clients’ issues in order of priority” is an assessment question copied from a level 2 behavioural indicator on the Client Focus competency. The participant then selects how effectively they believe the subject performs this behaviour. You can copy behavioural indicators from all of the competencies on your site to quickly set up assessment questions.

You can also customize your own questions stored in a question group. These can be general questions that are not associated to competencies. Follow the steps to create general questions.

Customize response options

For in-depth assessments, a scale is associated to questions so the user can select a scale level to rate the subject. We provide a default Effectiveness scale. With this scale, participants select from the following options to answer each question:

  • Somewhat Effective
  • Limited Effectiveness
  • Fully Effective
  • Highly Effective
  • Extremely Effective

To offer a different set of responses, follow the steps in the Manage scales article.

Customize email messages, intros, and conclusions

We provide default documents for email messages, the introduction of the on-screen assessment and the introduction of the PDF report. You can customize these defaults as well as create your own conclusion for the on-screen assessment or the PDF report. Follow the steps in the Manage content documents article. Make sure to save new email documents in the Assessment Dispatch Email Templates category. Save new intros or conclusions in the Assessment Documents category.

Introductions and conclusions are selected when you’re creating an assessment. If you created a new document for an email, you’ll need to select that document in Settings. Go to Administration > Settings > Assessment. Scroll to Communication, make your changes, and click Save.

Manage language settings

This step only applies if your assessment questions are translated into multiple languages. Go to Administration > Settings > Assessment and scroll to the Language settings.

Language options page: Participants select the language they’ll use to perform the assessment.

Question languages: Repeat each question in the languages selected in this setting.

Manage report settings

Once an assessment is complete, CompetencyCore generates a PDF that identifies the strengths and gaps of the subject and displays participant responses in bar charts. Go to Administration > Settings > Assessment and scroll to Report settings to customize the format and appearance.

Assessment report view mode: Applies to the Competency Group Summary section of the assessment report. Group view sorts questions by library group. Architecture view sorts questions by Core, Job Family, and Job Specific.

Resource types: Only resources from the types selected here are suggested on the report.

Select resource types on assessment: Turn this setting on to allow selecting resource types on each assessment you create. If no selections are made on an assessment, we fall back to the resource types set in Settings.

Number of learning resources: Place a limit on the number of learning resources to suggest per competency for development per resource type. If you selected three resource types in the Resource Types setting and you select five here, the report suggests up to 15 resources per competency for development (five resources from each of the three resource types).

Number of strengths: Limit the number of competencies labeled as strengths to build on.

Number of competencies for development: Limit the number of competencies labeled as competencies for development.

Colour settings: Bar charts are displayed in the assessment report to compare how the participants evaluated the subject. You can customize the colours used to represent each participant group.