HR Solutions’ integrated suite of leadership assessments provides valuable tools to help you hire the best candidates, develop their skills for your mission, and support individual leaders. Based on the Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs), these assessments identify strengths and areas requiring support and attention to grow and develop effective leaders.

• With our selection assessments, you can evaluate, select, and hire qualified people with leadership potential.
• Our developmental assessments help leaders create self-awareness and identify developmental needs for future training and skill building.

A Common Framework: The OPM Executive Core Qualifications

All of OPM’s leadership assessment tools are centered on the competencies included in the Executive Core Qualifications (ECQ) Leadership Model. Each assessment provides leaders insights from a different perspective or on a different aspect of leadership effectiveness related to the ECQ competencies listed below:

• Fundamental Competencies: Interpersonal Skills, Written Communication, Oral Communication, Integrity/Honesty, Continual Learning, Public Service Motivation
• Leading Change: Creativity & Innovation, External Awareness, Flexibility, Resilience, Strategic Thinking, Vision
• Leading People: Conflict Management, Leveraging Diversity, Developing Others, Team Building
• Results Driven: Accountability, Customer Service, Decisiveness, Entrepreneurship, Problem Solving, Technical Credibility
• Business Acumen: Financial Management, Human Capital Management, Technology Management
• Building Coalitions: Partnering, Political Savvy, Influencing/Negotiating

Maximizing Insight with Powerful Tools

The optimal combination of leadership assessments for your agency depends on which facets of leadership are of greatest interest or are most critical to your agency. Whether you’re selecting or developing new leaders, building a cadre of future executives, or helping leaders become more effective in their current roles, we will work with you to design a cost-effective and integrated assessment battery that maximizes insight into leader effectiveness.

Click on the tabs above for more information on each of our Leadership Assessments.

The Leadership Assessment Center can be used to measure many of the leadership competencies that serve as the foundation for OPM's Executive Core Qualifications.  Exercises can be mixed and matched with relative ease to meet agency-specific requirements.  During the assessments, the candidate assumes the role of a leader in a fictitious government agency.  The assessment is designed to approximate the "look" and "feel" of a typical day in the life of a Federal Government supervisor, manager, or executive.  Four types of exercises are currently available:

• Individual Exercise. The individual exercise is designed to assess problem solving, decision making, flexibility, interpersonal skills, oral communication, and other related competencies. The candidate must quickly and efficiently sort through a variety of materials and determine the best course of action to complete the assigned task.
• Group Exercise. The group interaction is designed to assess interpersonal skills, conflict management, team building, oral communication, and other related competencies. Several candidates work as a group to resolve a problem within a specified period of time.
• Strategic Analysis Exercise. The strategic analysis exercise is designed to assess strategic thinking, vision, and other related competencies. The candidate must evaluate available information and determine the best course of action in response to a strategic planning situation facing the agency.
• Management Problems. The management problems are designed to simulate the high visibility, rapid response activities prevalent in a manager's workday. These exercises measure decisiveness, flexibility, and other related competencies.

Participants receive feedback on leadership competencies for all five OPM ECQs based on performance in the assessment exercises. The Leadership Assessment Center is an ideal tool for use in leader selection and selection into Candidate Development Programs or other agency leadership development programs.

OPM offers its Leadership Potential Assessment (LPA) to assist agencies with the identification of employees across all leadership levels that have the ability to succeed at the level of leadership immediately above their current positions. The LPA is a multi-source feedback tool that gathers information about participants from their supervisors, peers, subordinates, and other individuals with whom they work (e.g., customers) on two key areas research has shown are critical for leadership success:

1. Ability
2. Motivational Factors

Ability is assessed on the ten competencies most important to success at the leadership level immediately above the participant’s current position. Participant competency scores are compared with competency benchmark proficiency levels. These benchmarks can be based on OPM’s government-wide proficiency score database or customized to a specific agency. In addition to measuring ability, the LPA assesses each participant on five motivational factors critical to leadership success. These factors include: commitment to the agency, involvement with and enthusiasm for the work performed, motivation to lead others, desire to advance to a position of increased leadership responsibility, and confidence to perform leadership tasks.

The LPA can be administered at all levels of leadership in the Federal Government, including team leads, supervisors, managers, and executives, and is especially well-suited for individuals who are not currently in leadership positions. OPM administers the assessment online, and each participant receives a detailed, confidential feedback report. Group orientation and feedback briefings guide participants through the assessment process and results.

Additional LPA related services are also available. OPM can provide customized aggregate reports by supervisory status and by organization. The aggregate report can offer a snapshot of the agency’s leadership pipeline and includes information particularly useful for forming effective workforce and succession planning strategies. Participants can also take part in an individual feedback session where an OPM Research Psychologist or certified coach guides them through their results to help identify developmental opportunities.

OPM offers multiple options for administering its assessments to provide agencies flexibility in their approach to leadership assessment. The LPA can be used independently, as part of a developmental program, or in conjunction with other assessments.  Additionally, OPM offers an open enrollment process for individuals to complete the assessment independently as well as a group administration process for agencies with multiple participants.    

OPM’s Personality Assessment for Leaders (OPM-PAL) is a developmental assessment designed to assess the personality traits of Federal leaders. The assessment is based on a solid foundation of research concerning the relationship between general personality traits and effective leadership. It specifies how personality traits relate to the OPM Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) and is applicable to all levels of leadership in the Federal Government, including team leads, supervisors, managers, and executives. OPM-PAL provides participants with developmental feedback about their personality on five major traits (referred to as the “Big Five” personality factors):

• Openness 
• Conscientiousness
• Extraversion
• Agreeableness
• Emotional Stability

Participants receive scores on the five major personality traits, as well as scores on specific facets of each trait. The developmental feedback also provides information on how the participant's personality impacts performance as a Federal leader, as defined by the 28 leadership competencies associated with OPM's Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs). OPM-PAL provides useful personality and competency-based feedback to current and future leaders based on the relationship between specific aspects of personality and successful leadership. OPM administers the OPM-PAL online. Participants receive a detailed, confidential feedback report that contains sections devoted to:

• Interpretation of their general personality scores
• How their personality trait scores relate to effective leadership (both generally and in relation to OPM's ECQ competency framework)
• How their scores compare to norms for Federal leaders.

Group orientation and feedback briefings help guide participants through the assessment process and results. OPM also provides an aggregate report to the agency that summarizes results if there are ten or more participants from the agency.

Additional OPM-PAL related services are also available. OPM can provide customized aggregate reports by supervisory status and by organization. Participants can also take part in an individual feedback session where an OPM Research Psychologist or certified coach guides them through their results to help identify developmental opportunities.

OPM offers multiple options for administering its assessments to provide agencies flexibility in their approach to leadership assessment. OPM-PAL can be used independently, as part of a developmental program, or in conjunction with other assessments. Additionally, OPM offers an open enrollment process for individuals to complete the assessment independently as well as a group administration process for agencies with multiple participants.

OPM developed the OPM Leadership 360 assessment to provide feedback to Federal supervisors, managers, and executives on the 28 OPM leadership competencies included in the Governmentwide Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs). Items on the OPM Leadership 360 assess behaviors needed for success in public sector organizations, helping leaders identify their strengths and developmental needs. Also included are items to identify particularly important competencies and assess overall effectiveness and impact.

Benchmarks are available based on our database of Federal leaders who have completed the assessment. Currently the OPM Leadership 360 database includes more than 21,000 participants who have been rated by more than 220,000 raters. The database contains participants from all leadership levels, including non-supervisors, supervisors, managers, and executives.

The OPM Leadership 360 covers all competencies in the OPM Leadership Competency Model.

• Fundamental Competencies: Interpersonal Skills, Written Communication, Oral Communication, Integrity/Honesty, Continual Learning, Public Service Motivation
• Leading Change: Creativity & Innovation, External Awareness, Flexibility, Resilience, Strategic Thinking, Vision
• Leading People: Conflict Management, Leveraging Diversity, Developing Others, Team Building
• Results Driven: Accountability, Customer Service, Decisiveness, Entrepreneurship, Problem Solving, Technical Credibility
• Business Acumen: Financial Management, Human Capital Management, Technology Management
• Building Coalitions: Partnering, Political Savvy, Influencing/Negotiating

OPM administers the assessment online, and each participant receives a detailed, confidential feedback report. Group orientation and feedback briefings help guide participants through the assessment process and results. OPM provides an aggregate report to the organization that summarizes the results for the set of leadership participants.

Additional services are also available. OPM can provide customized aggregate reports based on supervisory status and/or organization. Each participant can also receive an individual feedback session where an OPM Research Psychologist or certified coach goes through the results with the participant to help identify developmental opportunities.

OPM offers multiple options for administering its assessments to provide agencies flexibility in their approach to leadership assessment. The OPM Leadership 360 can be used independently, as part of a developmental program, or in conjunction with other assessments. Additionally, OPM offers an open enrollment process for individuals to complete the assessment independently as well as a group administration process for agencies with multiple participants.

HR Solutions' assessments are designed and delivered by industrial-organizational psychologists and HR consultants and informed by federal agency managers to meet current and future needs. Many of our assessments are available online and can be completed during the application process, without the need for a proctored testing environment.

• NEW Federal Supervisor Assessment: Objectively measure critical leadership competencies to identify applicants with the skills needed to be an effective supervisor. (Learn more here)
• NEW Executive Assessments: Gather data to hire the best applicants for Senior Executive Service (SES) positions. Measure competencies within the ECQs. (Learn more here)
• OPM Leadership Assessment Center: Capture real-time behaviors of leaders as they face a "day-in-the-life" simulation involving unexpected real-world issues and critical interactions with others in the organization. (Learn more here)
• Customized Leadership Assessments: Contact us at Leadership_Assessment@opm.gov for a consultative discussion of your needs.

Federal Supervisor Assessment

The Federal Supervisor Assessment provides government agencies with a robust, online, off-the-shelf tool for assessing applicants for supervisor positions. The Federal Supervisor Assessment is administered through OPM’s USA Hire℠ online assessment program and is composed of two sections:

• Situational Inventory: Applicants are presented realistic work problems or scenarios common to supervisory positions in the government and asked to evaluate effectiveness of responses.
• Behavioral Index: Applicants are presented questions about their personal experiences and work styles as they relate to supervisor positions in the government.

The Federal Supervisor Assessment questions target seven critical supervisory competencies: accountability, customer service, decisiveness, flexibility, interpersonal skills, problem solving, and resilience.

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OPM Executive Assessments

HR Solutions' executive assessments are a suite of online assessments created by HR Solutions specifically for assessing SES competencies and executive experience and potential. Designed to provide insight into the ECQs, these assessments are immediately available to use as part of your selection process.

The executive assessments are designed by industrial-organizational psychologists, informed by federal agency leaders, and delivered on OPM’s online assessment platform for easy access. The assessments can be used individually or in combination.

• Situational Judgment Test (SJT): Applicants are faced with typical on-the-job scenarios and evaluate viable options for handling them. SJTs effectively tap both cognitive and non-cognitive competencies using a job construct-driven approach to create situations and response options.
  ECQs measured: Leading Change and Leading People
• Work Styles Assessment: This assessment determines an applicant’s work style through a mix of personality and biographical data measures.
  ECQs measured: Leading Change, Leading People, Results Driven, and Building Coalitions, as well as several fundamental competencies
• Work Simulation: This series of situations, structured as an integrated narrative, engages applicants as realistic on-the-job scenarios unfold. The assessment presents information through emails; videos; and documents, including organizational charts and data; and measures competencies critical to the job based on the applicant's responses.
  ECQs measured: Results Driven, Business Acumen, and Building Coalitions

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