Most hiring assessments break communication, empathy, active listening, and problem-solving into separate scores. The problem is that frontline employees don’t use those skills separately. They use them together during real conversations with customers.
HiringBranch takes a different approach. Candidates respond to open-ended scenarios using their own voice or writing, giving employers a better look at how they would actually handle the job.
In this episode, Assaf Bar-Moshe talks about new HiringBranch research showing that evaluating skills together can be more accurate than scoring each skill individually. He also explains how HiringBranch turns real job responsibilities into assessment scenarios and uses performance data to improve those assessments over time.
Key Takeaways:
Empathy alone doesn’t make someone good at customer service. They also need to understand the problem, communicate clearly, and help move the customer toward a solution.
Open-ended assessments require candidates to respond in their own words. There are no multiple-choice answers pointing them toward what the employer wants to hear.
HiringBranch found a stronger connection to human judgment when skills were evaluated together instead of scored one at a time.
The right response depends on the job, customer, industry, location, and situation. Context matters when deciding what good communication looks like.
Better assessments start with what employees actually do every day. HiringBranch turns those responsibilities and conversations into scenarios candidates are likely to face on the job.
Guest:
Assaf Bar-Moshe, Chief Research and Development Officer at HiringBranch
Connect with Assaf on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/assaf-bar-moshe-3807738/
Host:
William Tincup, Co-founder of WRKdefined and host of the You Should Know podcast
Resources:
Chapters:
00:25 Meet Assaf and HiringBranch
01:10 Assessing frontline communication roles
02:07 How open-ended assessment scenarios work
03:42 William’s retail customer service story
04:40 The value of scenario-based assessments
05:20 What HiringBranch evaluates
06:20 Measuring language, communication, and soft skills
07:19 Personality testing versus linguistic analysis
09:12 Assessing integrity, grit, creativity, and adaptability
11:21 How acceptable responses are determined
12:20 The new HiringBranch research
13:18 The challenge of measuring empathy
14:45 Why soft skills need context
16:07 Comparing machine learning scores with human judgment
17:07 Evaluating skills together
18:45 Connecting assessment scores to job performance
20:54 Turning job descriptions into conversation flows
22:27 Working with bad job descriptions
23:54 Using customer transcripts and recruiter input
24:52 Building more adaptable assessments
26:30 Where to find the research
Connect with Us :
William Tincup LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tincup/
Ryan Leary LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanleary/
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Substack: https://wrkdefined.substack.com/
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