Most organizations have a clear sense of what they want to stand for. For many, the challenge is bringing those values to life and making them relevant to the decisions they make about people, such as who they bring into the organization, who they develop, and who they trust to lead it forward.
This is where values assessment can offer an additional perspective. By making values a more active part of recruitment, succession, and development, organizations can create a stronger connection between what they want to stand for and the people decisions they make along the way.
Here are three HR processes where you can apply Values Assessment.
This is where values assessment can offer an additional perspective. By making values a more active part of recruitment, succession, and development, organizations can create a stronger connection between what they want to stand for and the people decisions they make along the way.
Here are three HR processes where you can apply Values Assessment.
1. Recruitment: Looking beyond skills and experience
Two candidates can have similar qualifications, experience, and capabilities and still approach the same workplace situation very differently.
Values assessment adds another perspective to the selection process by exploring how a candidate’s value priorities align with those of the organization.
In CohrEx Values-Based Assessment (VBA), candidates respond to stories built around realistic dilemmas and competing priorities. Through ranking questions and choices between opposing values, the assessment builds a picture of what the candidate prioritizes and how this compares with the organization’s defined values.
This can be particularly useful in large-scale recruitment, where organizations need a consistent and structured way to assess values alignment across many candidates.
Values assessment is not intended to replace assessments of skills, ability, personality, or structured interviews. Instead, it adds another important question to the selection process:
Values assessment adds another perspective to the selection process by exploring how a candidate’s value priorities align with those of the organization.
In CohrEx Values-Based Assessment (VBA), candidates respond to stories built around realistic dilemmas and competing priorities. Through ranking questions and choices between opposing values, the assessment builds a picture of what the candidate prioritizes and how this compares with the organization’s defined values.
This can be particularly useful in large-scale recruitment, where organizations need a consistent and structured way to assess values alignment across many candidates.
Values assessment is not intended to replace assessments of skills, ability, personality, or structured interviews. Instead, it adds another important question to the selection process:
Beyond whether someone can do the job, how do their priorities align with what the organization stands for?
2. Succession Planning: Adding values to the equation
Succession planning typically focuses on performance and potential. But when identifying the leaders of tomorrow, there is another important consideration:
What behaviors and values do we want our future leaders to represent?
A high-performing employee is not automatically the right person to lead others or become an ambassador for the organization’s culture.
CohrEx VBA can complement existing succession data by providing insight into how an employee’s priorities align with organizational values, both overall and for individual values.
This adds another dimension when discussing leadership potential, future roles, and succession pipelines. It helps broaden the conversation from Who could take on a larger role? to a more fundamental question:
CohrEx VBA can complement existing succession data by providing insight into how an employee’s priorities align with organizational values, both overall and for individual values.
This adds another dimension when discussing leadership potential, future roles, and succession pipelines. It helps broaden the conversation from Who could take on a larger role? to a more fundamental question:
Who has the potential to lead in a way that reflects what our organization wants to stand for?
3. Development Center: Turning values into a key KPI
Organizational values can easily remain abstract concepts such as words on a website, in a presentation, or on an office wall. Development Centers provide an opportunity to make them more tangible and personally relevant.
Used alongside exercises, simulations, interviews, and feedback, a values assessment can help employees explore how their own priorities influence their decisions and behavior.
Because the assessment uses realistic dilemmas rather than obvious “correct” responses, the results provide a useful starting point for reflection.
Used alongside exercises, simulations, interviews, and feedback, a values assessment can help employees explore how their own priorities influence their decisions and behavior.
Because the assessment uses realistic dilemmas rather than obvious “correct” responses, the results provide a useful starting point for reflection.
Where does an individual naturally align with the organization? Where do priorities differ? And what happens when two important values come into conflict?
These insights can support richer development conversations around leadership, decision-making, team contribution, and organizational culture, helping turn values from statements into something people can actively reflect on and develop around.
Grounded in research
CohrEx Values-Based Assessment provides a structured way to bring values into people decisions, complementing insights about skills, performance, and potential.
CohrEx VBA is grounded in research on Person–Organization Fit and value alignment. Its scenario-based methodology is designed to reduce the influence of socially desirable responding.
Using paired comparisons, ranking questions, and choices between opposing values, the assessment generates both an overall Values Alignment Score and individual Values Match Scores, providing insight into overall alignment as well as specific value priorities.
The assessment takes approximately 20 minutes and can be used with candidates and employees across organizational levels.
CohrEx VBA is grounded in research on Person–Organization Fit and value alignment. Its scenario-based methodology is designed to reduce the influence of socially desirable responding.
Using paired comparisons, ranking questions, and choices between opposing values, the assessment generates both an overall Values Alignment Score and individual Values Match Scores, providing insight into overall alignment as well as specific value priorities.
The assessment takes approximately 20 minutes and can be used with candidates and employees across organizational levels.
References
Kristof,A. L. (1996). Person–organization fit: An integrative review of itsconceptualizations, measurement, and implications. Personnel Psychology, 49(1), 1–49.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1996.tb01790.xKristof‐Brown,A., Schneider, B., & Su, R. (2023). Person–organization fit theory andresearch: Conundrums, conclusions, and calls to action. Personnel Psychology.
https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12581WorldValues Survey Association. (2024). World Values Survey Wave 7(2017–2022) official aggregate v5.0.
https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSDocumentationWV7.jspLyons,S., Duxbury, L., & Higgins, C. (2006). A comparison of the values andcommitment of private sector, public sector, and parapublic sector employees. Public Administration Review, 66, 605–618.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2006.00620.xTreviño,L. J., Egri, C. P., Ralston, D. A., Naoumova, I., Li, Y., Darder, F. L., de laGarza Carranza, M. T., & Furrer, O. (2020). A cross-cultural examination ofperson–organization fit: Is P–O fit congruent with or contingent on societalvalues? ManagementInternational Review, 60(2), 287–314.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11575-020-00411-0