Employees Can’t Self Assess

“Without proper self-evaluation, failure is inevitable.” (John Wooden)

Performing a self-assessment seems to be typical with discovering personality traits, or narrowing down a career path. When it comes to an employee or potential employee self-assessing their own skill level within a computer program (that also happens to be continually updating its own data), the results seem to be more opinion-based. So how do we figure out what somebody's starting point is when they need training? Here's my key: 

Employees cannot self assess their skill level.

Especially a new employee— think about when you're interviewing someone and ask,” So what's your skill level at work? What's your skill level at teams? What's your skill level at Excel?” They do not have an objective measure of that. They only have a context to a measure based on where they've walked last. If they guess they’re an advanced user, that could mean either they were the person people asked for help in basic features, or simply that they found what they thought they needed to know through YouTube. 

Knowing the Unknown

Employees can’t self-assess accurately or objectively. If they were in an organization that didn't really require them to use some advanced features of Microsoft Word, they don't know that they don't know them. Especially when you have a trainer to recommend the latest tools and features, you can't be mad or surprised when they get into a role and you say, “Oh, you said you were an advanced user.” They may have been in their last organization. 

How to Level the Playing Field

Don't depend on your employees to self-assess. Instead, let's find another way for them to get a clear objective measure of their skill level. Connect with us today to see where your needs might be so we can get you and your team on the same page, and on the right track to growth and success.