The companies that are hiring are no doubt being inundated with applicants, but selecting the best applicant for the job often becomes a gamble if the company only relies on traditional methods of assessing the candidate.

In an article for Kennedy Information Recruiting Trends, consultant Sharon Birkman Fink says that assessments that account for three factors—characteristics of the individual, the situation, and the interaction between the two—maximizes the potential for predicting and understanding job performance and satisfaction – “getting the right person in the right place.” “That means determining whether a given person’s personality traits mesh with the requirements of the job that person has or might have,” Fink says. “Job requirements go beyond hard skills and experience to include the ability to work with others or lead others productively and effectively, to exhibit and use certain behaviors, and more.”