In the 20th century, Kodak ruled the photographic film industry. Fast forward to 2012, how come Kodak filed for bankruptcy? As we dig further into the past, Kodak engineer Steve Sasson invented the digital camera in 1975. But, the discovery was kept secret since digital cameras are filmless. Kodak vice president Don Strickland even said that filmless photography affects the film market. Since Kodak pushed in marketing films, they failed to dominate the digital revolution, where competing businesses profited from digital photography. Suppose we evaluate, Kodak’s missed opportunity to innovate somehow led to bankruptcy. And that process of digging, reviewing, and investigating Kodak’s downfall is only a glimpse of an analytic assessment. If you want to gather more details of particular subjects and evaluate them effectively, then make an assessment report.
First things first, an assessment refers to the process of evaluating or estimating someone’s/something’s abilities, skills, quality, and nature. And when you follow each assessment, you create the assessment report. Thus, this report contains the results, interpretations, recommendations, and essential data about specific points. But what subjects to assess and the reasons behind them differ according to your application and purpose. Similar to an evaluation report, assessments outline the answers to specific tests and investigations—starting from the subject background down to the lessons imparted.
Did you know that 82% of businesses use a pre-employment assessment test?
Moreover, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) stated that two of the most popular pre-hire assessments are job simulations and culture fit.
Meanwhile, Harvard Business Review reported that 76% of companies with more than a hundred employees use assessment tools for the external hiring process.
An assessment report is crucial to different fields—may that be in school, business, hospital, and more. And the assessor presents the data collected from an assessment. Hence, stakeholders and people who need to know about the interpretation and analysis reports in assessments gain awareness, elaboration, and data transparency. Also, benefiting the future is one of the assessment’s know importance. Take, for example, a business that isn’t doing well with sales. You conduct an assessment to discover the factors affecting poor sales. The data may recognize poor marketing as the main contributing factor. Hence, the report leads you to the right path by making better strategy-driven decisions of marketing plans.
Are you familiar with what assessment reports contain? Although people use different reports for varying purposes, there will be common factors to notice too. And it is important to know what components must be incorporated in your report. So check out this list of the typical elements you can see inside an assessment report:
Since you learned that assessment reports help different fields, it is vital to discover what the common examples of such fields are. Also, determine how other applications assess and use such reports. Without further ado, here are common instances of when to use assessment reports:
SHRM informed us that 82% of businesses prepare a pre-employment assessment test. And the most prominent tests involve job training checklist and culture fit assessment. Clearly, an assessment report matters while hiring a new employee. The report even informs how an applicant performed in a job application interview. And those results help employers evaluate if the recruits are fit for the job or not.
Assessment report in the field of psychology is not easy. That is, according to Hadas Pade, PsyD of Alliant International University’s California School of Professional Psychology in San Francisco. There are writing skills to master that are taught in psychology programs. And when you seek counseling, experts rely on various assessment tools like personality tests, scoring, and interpretations. Lastly, these experts explain their findings clearly to you.
A way for schools to evaluate their enrollees is through entrance examinations and aptitude tests. And many elite schools have high standards where students who deliver high scores and interesting backgrounds in assessments make the cut. Hence, receiving an approval letter is not meant for every student enrollee in schools.
What is the best approach to find out if your business is doing well or not? That’s right—assessments. Take the popular quick-service restaurant McDonald’s, for example. McDonald’s sales declined in 2015. And after careful evaluation and analysis, the managers determined the problem, which is how most people perceived their products unhealthy. Thanks to the assessment, they learned that the solution is to create healthy options to their menu. Thus, they created salads and apple slices and prevented chicken with human antibiotics.
Assessment tools are standard in various industries. In fact, 76% of businesses having 100 or more employees rely on assessment tools for external hiring. But, remember that you can use these tools according to your application. And whatever your purpose is in assessing and reporting, be sure to process it correctly. Here are easy steps on how to make an excellent assessment report:
You already know that stating the purpose is one of the elements in an assessment report. So, begin by having a clear vision about the goal. Defining the goal is like your business plan. It outlines the flow of your report. When you finally have a clear purpose of the assessment, expect the whole process to run smoothly.
Bear in mind that someone will have to read or view the report. So write according to who you are writing for. Maybe you used a lot of technical terms into your report, but your audience hardly understands what those mean. Adjust your tone and language, too, because people perceive differently. And be careful if you disclose any sensitive information because some parts may be prohibited if stated under a confidentiality agreement.
In reporting, there is a general style used. First, write sentences in simple English and avoid jargon. Making the assessment report easy to understand is the objective anyway. Therefore, there is no need to complicate the details when you can present it easily. Second, sample brief. Short sentences suffice. So, don’t bombard your audience with wordy sentences and long paragraphs that could be simplified. And last, spell out acronyms when you introduce them. Don’t assume everyone knows the meaning behind those acronyms.
A common issue in writing assessment reports is when you lose your narrative. Keep in mind that the message should be organized and sequenced in a narrative report. That way, readers no longer get confused about which action happens first and last. However, there is no need to be poetic about it. Just be sure you structured the format and content appropriately. For example, a report begins with the introduction and ends with the recommendations.
Recall those assessment report elements mentioned earlier if you covered them one by one. Or make sure you got everything needed before submitting the report. An assessment report with incomplete data makes it ineffective. Also, did you fact-check all information written in the report? Preventing errors as much as possible is vital to keep it error-free.
Picture out an event manager. Before he or she assigns people to build and design at a worksite, a location assessment happens first. The assessment evaluates if the site is accessible, safe, and more. The manager also monitors the field’s condition if it is fit for the project. And that whole process is one application of an assessment.
Generally, there are five main principles of an assessment. These are feasibility, reliability, authenticity, validity, and washback. And your assessment is in good shape if these factors are present.
The assessment report is valid if it thoroughly explains what happened in the assessment or data analysis, and if it consists of the crucial elements. Such reports are also valid when all of its content was fact-checked, and the audience understood it.
American author Carol Ann Tomlinson once said, “Assessment is today’s means of modifying tomorrow’s instruction.” That statement leads us to why an assessment report ends with the recommendations section. Indeed, the report can lay out all the detailed findings, interpretations, and analyses. However, what we get from such data is how to improve after. Thus, assessments are not only meant to give criticisms. They teach us to keep progressing.
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