Verbal Reasoning - What does it look like?

I sat in on an interview yesterday.

And whilst we provide Verbal Reasoning Assessment results for most campaigns – often the power in these results actually comes when you see them play out practically.

That’s what happened in yesterday’s interview.

As I watched and listened to the candidate being interviewed I began to wonder – where is the substance? they’re not really answering the question. Sure, there’s plenty of surface talk, lots of smiling and friendly body language [this candidate definitely has the likeability factor] but where is the stuff that matters?

As the interview continued we talked through the position’s main technical challenge. In the back mind I was asking, “Is this candidate lost?”

And then the proof came! Foot in mouth, call it what you will. This candidate said something that was so off the track and out of context with the discussion that it was a dead give away – they were not following!

Awkward moment! The interviewer knew it and I knew it. There was a definite question mark over this candidate’s ability now.

We just needed to determine exactly what the ability gap was. Was it listening skills [part of our communication piece] or were we seeing a weakness in their cognitive ability, specifically their Verbal Reasoning.

So we ran a Verbal Reasoning Assessment.

The result – a Percentile Rank of 22%.

The risk of this candidate not following the spoken or written word was high. What’s more, they were interviewing for a Senior Customer Service role which had a strong technical component.

How was this going to play out?

Not well, the likelihood of this candidate not understanding what the customer wanted was high.

Cognitive Ability sits at the heart of the ability piece. And ability is key to competitive edge.

If you want the best team dealing with your customers on the front line then you need to be assessing Verbal Reasoning as part of your Recruitment Process.