Interpersonal Skills Matter. Businesses depend on customer-facing employees to win over prospects and existing customers. They rely on leaders and supervisors to motivate and lead their people.
Traditionally, hiring managers can evaluate a candidate's interpersonal skills by conducting role-plays during an interview. This method can often be quite effective and telling, but it can also be time-consuming and expensive. More time-efficient and less costly assessment methods are available, such as situational judgment tests, but they are less effective.
Recent advances in Generative AI have introduced a new alternative for measuring interpersonal skills that is both effective and inexpensive. And HR Avatar is taking full advantage of this new capability, starting with our Chat-based Role-Play assessments, which are powered by Generative AI.
What is a Chat-based Role Play assessment?
A Chat-based Role Play assessment consists of one or more role-play 'Sessions.' Each session is a multi-interaction, pre-staged chat session between the candidate and the computer.
In a Chat-based Role-Play session, the candidate plays a role similar to the job they are applying for, while the computer assumes the role of the customer or employee. The computer is provided extensive instructions on their psychological state and concerns, and how they should respond while interacting with the candidate. A back-and-forth chat takes place until either a certain number of exchanges have been completed or certain milestones have been accomplished. At this point the session ends. Then, during scoring, the entire transcript is evaluated by the computer (again using AI) against pre-defined scoring criteria.
Why chat instead of AI-generated video?
There are two reasons, both of which may change in the near future. First, the lag time in generating AI video in a real time conversation is currently too long. Additionally, consistency in AI-generated video characters and their voices remains a problem. These factors affect the candidate experience. Both are improving rapidly and this constraint will probably be eliminated soon!
What are the benefits of Role-Play Assessments?
The biggest benefit is that Role-Play assessments are effective in evaluating critical interpersonal skills. The second benefit is that they are also cost-effective.
Are there any drawbacks?
While there are no known drawbacks, there are some issues for consideration which stem from the newness of the approach. First, the use of generative AI to conduct and then to score interactions is a new capability and additional research is required to verify its efficacy and fairness. Therefore, employers should exercise extra caution when making employment decisions, and never base any decision exclusively on role-play assessment results.
How do I administer a role-play assessment?
HR Avatar's role-play assessments are listed and administered just like any other test in our catalog. They have the additional term 'Role-Play' in the name as well to make them easier to identify. You find the test in the catalog, then click the 'Administer this Test' button. You can also add them to test batteries as well.
Are the results different?
No. Test results are presented on a 0-100 scale just like other HR Avatar tests. Reports are organized to show an overall score and individual competency scores. Competencies measured by role-play assessments will include a transcript of each chat session, so you can observe the session yourself if desired. Results also include additional information and narrative in the detailed result section.
What role-play assessment titles are available?
We are releasing new assessments all the time. Click here to search the catalog for applicable titles.
