First off, let me say that I believe that objective, professional talent assessments can have a very important place within the recruitment process.  However, they must be used wisely with the candidate being comfortable with the process and with the company only using these assessments as one piece of information in the overall evaluation of prospective employees.

A recent article on ERE by Todd Rogers does a very good job of describing some of the pitfalls of using these assessments from the candidate’s perspective.  More companies have begun the practice of sending out questionnaires which can take up to a few hours to complete as a first step in the interview process.  This is a great way to turn off some potentially outstanding more passive candidates before the process even starts.  I have always recommended to clients that they send out these assessments after an initial phone screen when mutual interest has been determined.  Not only does this benefit the candidate in feeling like it is certainly worth their time and effort to complete this questionnaire, but it also benefits the company since it will allow them to evaluate this candidate with more information than just the questionnaire alone.