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When evaluating talent for recruitment or development, you have just two key questions to answer: What should you assess? And how?
The what question is in part context-dependent. (For example, the skills and knowledge required to be a good neurosurgeon are quite different from those needed to be a good lawyer, banker, or software engineer.) Yet you’ll also be looking for certain universal characteristics associated with effective employees, regardless of their job or role. First, you’ll keep an eye out for the best learners and problem solvers — those who have good judgment and are most able to get the job done. Second, you’ll want to know which people are most willing to work hard. And third, you’ll try to identify the ones who are the most rewarding to deal with, the most likable and pleasant in their interactions with others.
These three dimensions of employability and career success have strong links with broad psychological traits. The first relates to IQ, curiosity, and decision-making styles; the second to motivation and ambition; the third to emotional intelligence and social skills. Employees who are smarter, nicer, and more hardworking than their peers will always be in demand.
As for the how question, there has been much innovation in talent identification over the past five years, mostly as a result of the digital revolution and the ubiquity of smartphones. Although many developments are still works in progress, three approaches in particular deserve consideration because of their potential to quantify individuals’ talent and predict their future job performance:
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