How Siemens India utilized 30+ skill assessments to take unbiased employee performance appraisal decisions

With an ever-growing employee strength, better and effective employee assessment is one of the major initiatives that Siemens is aiming at. Siemens knew the importance of having the right skilled people in the right jobs. Hence efficient workforce planning was the prime agenda where Siemens could audit its current employee strength, their skills, and also identify the skills gaps.

Siemens wanted to set a process which will help them evaluate their employees on various parameters like technical skills, soft skills, job requisite skills and so on. On the employee evaluation parameter, assessment of technical skill amounted to almost 35%.

Siemens did not have an assessment process in place and with such a large work-force, the entire evaluation process looked quite a time-consuming task. It was not simply about the assessments either, Siemens needed an assessment partner that could provide with the latest technology assessments like HANA administration, HADOOP, Struts, Webdynpro, Spring MVC, Apache TomCat, CAST IRON and many more. Besides a wide assessment library, Siemens had to ensure that the tests were reliable. It was mandatory for all tests and assessments to follow EEOC (The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) guidelines.

In the current scenario, employee appraisals took an enormous amount of time, was not a fully transparent process, and did not depict an exact scenario of employee skill competency.

To cut a long story short, Siemens needed a skill testing solution that would assist in assessing employees across departments, for various technical and cognitive criterion, and give an accurate picture of the employee’s abilities. They also wanted the process to be as transparent as possible.

Siemens decided to design its employee evaluation process by moving past age-old methods which were tedious and time-consuming. Instead, they wanted employee assessments that were quick, fun, and at the same time provided precise results.

When Siemens tried out iMocha, they were impressed with the extensive skill library. They had access to a wide variety of skill assessments. With an automated assessment partner, they were able to set up a process wherein each employee was given an assessment based on the job roles they handled.

This set up a well-oiled employee appraisal process. Online assessments meant that there were no manual bottlenecks which usually happens in the case of traditional appraisal methods. Moreover, for each employee, there was systematic data filing in the form of reports. Reports gave an accurate representation of the employee’s skill competency.

One of the most important factors was that this process provided a transparent view to the employees. Reporting managers could share the assessment reports with the respective employee, discuss with them, and evaluate them accordingly thereby eliminating any scope of bias.

Looking at the success of the appraisal process, Siemens India is now also looking to use iMocha for their IT department hiring.