In-house assessment at Saint Gobain Construction Products

In-house assessment portal in practise

Rian Mourik is the HR director at Saint Gobain Construction Products B.V., with responsibility for a number of sites, including Etten-Leur. In the past few years, she has gained considerable experience in using various psychometric tools.

Mid-2017, she opted for Starcheck in-house services: a combination of Hrorganizer.com cloud services and the psychometric expertise of Starcheck.

Starcheck gives me around 80 data points per candidate. This is much more useful than a written report from a psychologist.” – Rian Mourik, HR director.

Choosing digital HR tooling

Online assessment: fast and easy

Rian Mourik is a keen supporter of online tools. According to her, online assessment tools offer important advantages. Rian: “They offer low costs; they’re efficient, and you don’t have to wait. You don’t have any hassle with psychological advisors and recruitment agencies. The data is in your possession, and you control the timing. There’s no wasting time in discussions with external parties. And because the costs are lower, you use the tools more often. This improves the quality and usefulness of your HR data.”

In-house assessment: more for less

Outsourcing is no longer an option for Rian. She explains, “Those written reports contain a lot of text and no comparable or clear KPIs. They also cost around €1,600 – €1,700 plus an employee who’s away for an entire day. By spending 90% less, I now receive around 80 psychometric data points, have a better overview, and it’s easier to compare candidates.” So, more for less.

“Online assessments enable you to make accurate decisions. We notice that some employees who are performing well because they’re working in their comfort zone have poor test results. This is quite a wake-up call. Because suddenly you see the possible risks of a promotion.” – Rian Mourik, HR Director

How does Saint Gobain Construction Products B.V. use the in-house assessment portal?

Saint Gobain Construction Products B.V. uses the assessment portal in 3 different situations:

  1. The portal supports the selection process during recruitment
  2. The assessment portal helps choose between different careers when an employee has career-related questions
  3. During a coaching process, the assessment portal offers all the necessary data for a good briefing at the start of coaching and more in-depth information during the process.

Saint Gobain Construction Products B.V. pays special attention to coaching talent. Rian: “This is meant for employees we want to encourage in their career with us by giving them a boost. All managers take 1 or 2 people under their wing. These are people they’re not in charge of. We offer these employees an extensive online assessment program.

The level of the online assessment program is agreed upon with the manager. The assessment provides an extensive data set that we use for briefing and more depth. As a result, Saint Gobain Construction Products B.V.’s coaching process is regarded as valuable and credible. Mainly by the employee themself.”

Saint Gobain Construction Products B.V.’s coaching process focuses exclusively on developable competencies. The assessment portal shows exactly which these are. The data from the online assessment is used to brief managers in detail about coaching processes. The coaching meetings become more interactive because real-life situations can be compared to the data from the online assessment. Rian adds: “The combination of the competencies report with the test score report enables us to highlight a competency that needs to be developed, and show the underlying factors. This increases the employee’s confidence in the value and credibility of the coaching discussion.”

Rian Mourik is klant bij Starcheck

“Innovation for free is an interesting option for executives” – Rian Mourik, HR Director

How to organize in-house assessment?

Saying goodbye to agencies and switching to online tooling was a no-brainer for Rian:

“The coaching process has enabled everyone to see Starcheck offers a good tool. This has made the assessment portal a widely accepted instrument. In the end, everything is about scores and results.

This assessment portal enabled me to show that costs could be significantly reduced while, at the same time, the quality of the data would lead to good decisions regarding talent. So, we were able to innovate at a lower cost.”

In-house assessment has now become accepted at Saint Gobain Construction Products B.V.. From the start, Rian spent a lot of attention on the acceptance process.

First and foremost, by continuously showing that it works and delivers good results!

Secondly, by teaching managers how to work with test score reports and competency reports. Rian ensures the assessment reports are being used and interpreted correctly.

What about support?

In some cases, Rian would like to go into more in-depth. That’s when she calls a Starcheck psychologist. That is a real added value. Rian: “This is mainly regarding a specific case.”

“A quick reflection: for example, how a competency is interpreted or specific connections between data points. In such cases, Starcheck’s support is easy to reach and helpful.”