Common Mistakes With Employee Skills Assessments (And How To Fix Them)

Employee skills assessments can provide valuable insights for personalizing continuous development plans. But when done wrong, these assessments can discourage employees or give you misleading data, negatively impacting your decisions.

Many businesses fall into this trap, making avoidable mistakes which reduce the effectiveness of their assessments. Common errors include vague questions, failing to align assessments with job roles, or not acting on results.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the biggest mistakes businesses make when assessing employee skills, how to counter this with accurate and engaging assessments, and how ScoreApp can make this process easier.

Mistakes that weaken employee skills assessments

Businesses are keen to use employee skills assessments to create personalized learning plans for employees, test knowledge, and encourage leadership development. However, these need to be strategically implemented to achieve the best outcomes. 

By reducing the number of mistakes, you’ll be able to make these assessments as effective as possible and keep your employees engaged. 

Let’s explore some of the most common mistakes with employee skills assessments.

1. Using generic or irrelevant assessment criteria

There is a temptation to use a one-size-fits-all employee competency assessment to save time. But this may prove to be a waste of time. If the employee competency assessment doesn’t accurately reflect the roles or skills required, the results will fail to provide meaningful insights you can apply to your business.

How to fix it:

• Start by customizing assessments based on industry, job role, and individual goals so that the questions are relevant to each employee.
• You can use employee assessment tools to align skill evaluations with key competencies and shape your training programs.
• ScoreApp allows businesses to tailor employee skills assessments with criteria for departments and job functions. This means you can make your assessments relevant to each employee with just a few clicks.

2. Making assessments too long or complicated

Complex surveys can cost companies money, with one business recognizing that overly long employee assessments were costing them over a million dollars. The same is true of employee skills assessments. If they’re too complicated, employees may feel frustrated and give rushed or inaccurate responses.

How to fix it:

• Don’t be tempted to ask extra questions. Instead, keep assessments concise and focused on the most critical skills.
• Use a mix of question formats, such as multiple-choice, scenario-based, and self-assessments. Quantitative questions are quicker for employees to complete and give you measurable data.
• ScoreApp’s employee self-assessment templates allow businesses to design engaging, user-friendly, accurate assessments without overwhelming their employees.

3. Failing to communicate the purpose of the assessment

We all find it easier to follow instructions when we know the reason behind them. Without explanation, we create a vacuum of uncertainty. Employees can feel anxious, disengaged or insecure if they don’t understand why they’re being assessed.

How to fix it:

• It’s crucial that you clearly explain the purpose and benefits of the employee assessment before conducting it. This will likely increase your response rate and lead to more useful insights.
• Reassure and remind your employees that assessments are designed for professional development, not punishment. Everyone is working toward the same goal.
• ScoreApp enables businesses to provide pre-assessment explanations and follow-up reports for keeping their employees informed and motivated.

4. Not analyzing results effectively

Collecting assessment data is only useful if businesses take action on the insights gained. Without effective analysis, you’re left with a nonsensical list of data.

Organizations often fail to analyze employee competency assessment results properly, missing key trends or training opportunities. If they don’t see any changes as a result, employees won’t know why they’re being assessed.

How to fix it:

• Use structured analytics tools to identify trends in assessment data and get an overview of your team’s strengths and weaknesses.
• Compare skills gaps across departments to refine your training programs and improve those areas.
• ScoreApp’s employee assessment analytics give you access to clear, data-driven insights at a glance, saving you time and allowing you to take action faster.

5. Ignoring self-assessments as a valuable tool

Some businesses only focus on external evaluations, measuring knowledge and skill. Overlooking the importance of employee self-assessment in terms of understanding skills and confidence levels can deny businesses key information which will help them develop and grow.

How to fix it:

• Use self-assessment performance review examples alongside skills evaluations to get a full picture of employee development. You may spot a difference between an employee’s ability and their perception of themselves.
• Encourage employees to reflect on both their strengths and their areas for improvement.
• ScoreApp provides customizable self-assessment templates that allow employees to evaluate their own skills, which can then be compared with external assessments. This gives you a complete overview of an employee’s progress.

6. Failing to follow up with actionable training plans

One of the biggest mistakes companies make is conducting assessments without creating employee personal development plans based on the results. This lack of follow-up renders the data useless and can lead to employees feeling that assessments are a pointless exercise.

How to fix it:

• Develop training plans aligned with employee assessment results to ensure continuous development based on genuine feedback.
• Offer relevant training courses, mentorship opportunities, and hands-on learning experiences which address areas of weakness your employees identified.
• ScoreApp’s training needs analysis template helps businesses map out tailored training programs.

7. Not assessing soft skills and behavioral competencies

Many employee assessments focus purely on technical skills but overlook behavioral assessments that evaluate leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving abilities. This can result in a blockage in your leadership pipeline or prevent you from spotting issues caused by team culture.

How to fix it:

• Include behavioral assessments to gain a well-rounded understanding of employee capabilities. This will help you spot leaders and ensure people are in the right roles.
• Use scenario-based questions to assess decision-making and leadership potential so you can see how employees react in pressurized situations before they arise.
• ScoreApp offers employee behavioral assessment tools that measure communication, leadership, and collaboration skills rather than just knowledge-based assessments.

8. Conducting assessments too infrequently

Some businesses only run employee assessments once a year, missing opportunities to track ongoing progress and development. This reduces your ability to identify trends and measure how effective your actions are.

How to fix it:

• Implement regular employee competency assessments to monitor skills over time and build this into the work calendar.
• Use pulse surveys or quarterly evaluations instead of relying solely on annual reviews for more regular insights.
• ScoreApp’s automated assessment tools make it easy to conduct ongoing evaluations and adjust training strategies as needed.

How ScoreApp helps businesses create better employee assessments

ScoreApp simplifies the entire assessment process, making it easy to design, distribute, and analyze employee assessments with precision. You can then refine your training programs accordingly and invest time and money in resources in the areas which need it most.

ScoreApp can help businesses implement skills assessments effectively with the following features and benefits:

• Customizable templates for businesses to create industry-specific employee assessment samples tailored to their workforce rather than generic and vague questions.
• Seamless data collection. ScoreApp gathers structured insights from employee self-assessment forms and competency evaluations, saving you the time-consuming task of analyzing and processing the data.
• Actionable analytics via clear reporting on the ScoreApp platform. Create personalized training and leadership development programs, addressing areas of weakness.
• Automation and integrations. ScoreApp connects with your HR and training platforms to enable automated follow-ups and learning recommendations.

Employee skills assessments are essential for employees to develop and improve. However, if they’re not carried out effectively, they can become time-consuming and expensive and won’t lead to valuable results.

By avoiding common mistakes and leveraging ScoreApp’s powerful employee assessment tools, businesses can gather meaningful data, keep employees engaged, and design impactful training programs which deliver real results.

Try ScoreApp for free and start building more effective employee skills assessments for maximizing your training programs and leadership development pipelines.