FAQ Templates for Internal Employees

Updated by Amy Thomas

Are you conducting a pilot program, benchmarking exercise or rolling out Develop? Your employees may have questions about who Criteria are, what is required of them, and what to expect.

We have compiled a list of questions your internal employees may ask, to help you start building FAQs for your team. We have highlighted the sections that you will to customize for your organization and project.

We recommend copying the text of any questions below to a new document to share with your employees.

Explore our ready-made email templates designed for communicating with your internal employees and stakeholders.

About Criteria

Who is Criteria? 

Criteria Corp empowers companies of all sizes to hire and develop top talent with assessments, interviews, and employee development resources that are grounded in science and designed to engage candidates, highlight potential, reduce bias, and drive superior outcomes.   

They help organizations uncover valuable insights throughout the employee journey with a user-friendly, comprehensive suite of tools, thoughtfully designed to help companies make better talent decisions, faster. Their solutions enable companies to engage their candidates, streamline their processes, increase productivity, reduce turnover, and build high-performing teams.  

What kind of companies use Criteria? 

All kinds! Over 4,500 organizations today from 60 different countries use Criteria’s talent success platform to assess, interview and develop their people. Hiring teams use Criteria to make better and more informed talent decisions.  

Explore how Criteria is helping employers all around the world make better talent decisions.  

What kind of products do Criteria offer and what do they measure? 

Criteria offers a suite of products that help companies assess, interview, and develop happy, high-performing teams and impactful leaders.  

Their robust and comprehensive assessments help organizations like ours gain a more complete picture of candidate potential with insights that predict success. Their structured interviewing tools make it easy to pinpoint top talent faster, while reducing bias and ensuring a more equitable hiring process. For employee development, Develop by Criteria helps companies build happy, high-performing teams and more impactful leadership. 

Explore Criteria’s products. 

Why we use Criteria

Why are we using Criteria’s assessments and structured interviewing? 

Leading organizations incorporate assessments and structured interviews in their hiring to objectively assess people’s skills, abilities, and job-related competencies and traits. By incorporating science-based assessments and structured interviews into our talent decisions, we are taking a huge step towards making our hiring process more reliable, objective, and efficient. 

Here are some key benefits we can expect from using Criteria: 

  • Better hires - Criteria’s scientifically validated assessments provide us with reliable data on candidates’ skills, abilities, work preferences, and job-related behavioral competencies. This enables us to predict job performance more accurately, increasing the likelihood of hiring individuals who will excel in their roles. 
  • Reduced bias - By using assessments and structured interviews, we add fairness to the recruitment process by ensuring every person who applies for a job is considered using the same objective criteria. Using Criteria helps us to minimize unconscious bias that may influence our hiring decisions. 
  • Enhanced candidate experience - Using Criteria’s assessments and structured interviews demonstrates our commitment to providing every candidate with a fair, objective, and equitable experience.  
  • Improved efficiencies and streamlined decision-making - With Criteria’s assessments and tools, we can streamline our decision-making process. The insights provided by these assessments allow us to identify top candidates more efficiently, saving time and resources, while ensuring we do miss out on exceptional talent.  

Why are we being asked to do this assessment? 

By having our own team members complete the assessment, we will be able to establish a benchmark that will assist us in future hiring. The purpose is to collect data to support future hiring decisions, and to make sure that we attract, develop, and retain great talent like you. This assessment and your involvement will have no impact or bearing on your or anyone’s performance rating, and all results will be anonymized and aggregated to create our benchmarks. 

Are Criteria’s assessments scientifically validated? 

Every Criteria assessment is rigorously validated and goes through stringent scientific standards that are backed by experts in I/O psychology.    

Criteria’s large team of I/O psychologists validate their products across multiple validity measures to ensure they accurately measure job-related competencies in a consistent and reliable way. They conduct item-level analysis to reduce bias and provide a more accurate, fair, and objective signal of candidate potential, and their product development efforts are also directed by a scientific advisory board which includes some of the world’s leading experts in statistics, psychometrics, cognitive psychology, and testing.     

Read more about Criteria’s stringent scientific standards.  

Assessments

What kind of assessments will be given and what do they measure? 

You will receive an email invitation to take [two] different types of assessments – [a basic skills test and a personality assessment, and in some roles a mechanical aptitude assessment].  

[The basic skills test measures basic math and verbal skills, attention to detail, and basic learning ability. The personality test is a general personality inventory that measures twelve personality traits that provide valuable insights into a person's work styles and how they are likely to interact with co-workers and customers. The mechanical aptitude assessment measures the ability to learn how to operate, maintain, install, and repair equipment and machinery]. 

When will this assessment occur? How long will it take, and will this testing be a reoccurring event?   

You will receive an email to take the assessments on [date]. The deadline for completing the assessments is [date]. The [two] assessments can be completed in about [30 minutes]. The assessment is a one-time event. 

Does everyone receive the same assessment?   

The assessments are dynamic, which means that each person receives a unique test that has been validated to ensure that every test has an equivalent difficulty level.   

What if I have issues/difficulties taking the assessments? Will any accommodation be provided?   

If you come across any technical difficulties with completing the assessments, Criteria’s support team are available to assist and can be contacted via the icon in the bottom right of the assessment center screen.

If you have a disability which means you may require reasonable accommodations for the assessment, it is your responsibility to promptly notify your supervisor.

Who sees the results of the tests? How will the results be used?   

All results will be de-identified (anonymized) and will only be seen by Criteria and a select group of [leadership members]. Criteria will aggregate the results in an anonymized format, perform a validity analysis, and then use them to help set job benchmarks for future job candidates.   

Can the results lead to termination or a change in job responsibilities? How will the results be used?    

The results will have absolutely no impact on anyone’s employment status, performance ratings, or potential promotional chances. The only goal of this exercise is to gather accurate information to establish a baseline that will support our future hiring decisions.  

Will I receive the results of the assessments I take? 

Generally, no. The results will be sent to Criteria and held privately. 

However, some assessments do trigger a Workplace Insights Report for the test taker on completion. If you are invited to complete one of these assessments for the benchmarking exercise, you will receive a Workplace Insights Report based on your individual attitudes, outlooks, work habits and temperament. This report can give you valuable insights into your unique strengths and growth areas, including personal development suggestions. 

When will these assessments ultimately be used for prospective candidates? At what stage of the hiring process?   

The assessments will be used for all applicants in [2025]. If this pilot is deemed successful, then these assessments will become part of our hiring process for all new applicants. 

Who can I contact if I have additional questions?   

Please reach out to [contact name] at [contact details], if you have any questions or concerns.  

Structured Interviewing

What is a structured interview and why are they important? 

A structured interview involves asking all candidates the same job-related questions, in the same order, by the same interviewers. Each answer is then evaluated using an anchored rating scale.  

Extensive research demonstrates that structured interviews are the strongest predictor of overall job performance. In fact, the research shows that structured interviews are two times more predictive than unstructured interviews.   

One of the best benefits of conducting structured interviews is that it reduces bias by cutting through the noise and providing a strong, clear talent signal. They’re more objective, fair, and have less adverse impact than unstructured interviews.   

The other major benefit in using structured interviews is that they contribute to an improved candidate experience for several reasons. When interviewers follow a structured interview guide, they become more prepared and organized, which enhances the overall interview process. This preparation allows for a more focused and efficient conversation, ensuring that job-relevant information is gathered from each candidate.  

Additionally, structured interviews demonstrate our commitment to creating an equitable hiring process. By providing every candidate with the same set of interview questions and evaluation criteria, we ensure that each individual has an equal opportunity to showcase their skills and competencies. This approach eliminates potential bias and ensures a fair and objective evaluation.  

Candidates also appreciate the transparency and consistency that structured interviews offer. They can confidently prepare for the interview knowing that the process is standardized and that all applicants are evaluated on the same criteria. This clarity enables candidates to present their best selves and feel that their abilities and qualifications are being evaluated fairly.  

Ultimately, structured interviews not only benefit the hiring team by improving objectivity and decision-making but also provide a positive experience for candidates. By demonstrating our commitment to an equitable process, we create an environment that fosters trust and engagement, attracting high-quality candidates who feel valued throughout the interview process. 

Develop

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