Finding the right candidate for your company goes beyond hiring someone with a good skillset. You need employees who can make great decisions even under pressure to solve complex organizational issues. That’s where cognitive skills come in.
In truth, evaluating cognitive thinking can be a hassle, specifically because you can’t simply measure them by looking at a candidate’s resume. Fortunately, this guide has everything you need to know about cognitive thinking and how to assess it properly.
What is cognitive thinking?
Cognitive thinking is a non-technical skill that defines one’s learning agility, reasoning, focus, memory, and attention to detail. It is a mental process that helps people process information and apply it to their daily lives.
Biologically, cognition stems from your brain’s ability to pass information as electric and chemical signals through neurons. This allows it to process and react to different scenarios in different ways. In an organization, this will enable people to solve the same problem with unique approaches, allowing for workplace diversity.
Some people’s brain reactions are wired differently, and as such, they process information and respond to situations better. However, this skill is not written on paper, so in most cases, you’d need an in-depth analysis to identify people with sharp cognitive thinking skills.
Types of cognitive thinking
Cognitive thinking is a hard skill that encompasses individual thinking and analyzing skills. Below, we will explore the different types of cognitive thinking skills that make the perfect candidate for any role.
1. Additive reasoning
The concept of additive reasoning involves building on existing ideas or information by adding new elements as you understand the topic better. In essence, it means using known information to develop more complex thoughts. In doing so, candidates can:
- Gather more data on a task or problem
- Develop new ideas from old ones
- Solve problems with in-depth research
At the end of the day, candidates with great additive thinking skills can apply information gathered from different sources to better understand a particular problem, thus making it easier to find a solution.
2. Analytical thinking
Analytical thinking involves breaking down a complex idea into smaller bits, making it easier to analyze and understand. In so doing, you can put together the insights obtained from each sub-idea and solve the problem.
3. Memory
This describes the ability to process and store written or spoken information and recall them when necessary. A great memory allows people to:
- Learn new things either through research, experience, or instruction
- Recall and apply old concepts to solve similar issues
- Function effectively in their workplace without needing constant direction
Overall, memory is vital to cognitive reasoning as it helps candidates remember and apply new information when necessary.
4. Attention
Otherwise known as focusing, attention refers to the ability of a candidate to center their mind on a specific stimulus, information, or issue. This allows them to eradicate distractions and prioritize completing a specific task, boosting efficiency.
5. Logic
This skill allows candidates to reason systematically, drawing sound conclusions from various scenarios. With logic, candidates can identify similarities and differences to spot relationships between different situations, concepts, and ideas.
6. Perception
Perception is the cognitive process through which a person interprets and organizes sensory information from their environment. This vital skill empowers candidates to:
- Gather and process data from their surroundings to make sense of a particular task
- Identify patterns and relationships between situations
- Sort through the information obtained and draw relevant insights
- Create accurate mental representations of tasks
Overall, this process defines how the candidate sees themselves and the world. It also allows them to adapt their understanding as new information becomes available.
7. Metacognition
Also known as “thinking about thinking,” this is the process of monitoring one’s awareness and understanding. It allows candidates to control and plan how they approach learning and problem-solving. If properly harnessed, metacognition can help a candidate refine how they respond to various scenarios and perform tasks.
8. Learning
This is the process of acquiring new knowledge through study, instruction, or experience. A candidate’s ability to learn defines how well they can adapt to a new environment, role, or task. Consequently, it also defines how efficiently they would be able to perform their responsibilities.
Importance of cognitive thinking in the workplace
Cognitive thinking skills are important for numerous reasons, especially in the workplace. In this section, we will explore some benefits of hiring employees with excellent cognitive skills in your organization.
1. Better decision-making
With excellent cognitive thinking skills, employees can properly weigh the pros and cons of a decision and analyze the possible outcomes to choose whether or not to go through with it. This allows for more informed decision-making across the levels in your organization, from those in leadership positions even to interns.
As a result, you can minimize the risk of new decisions, ideas, or strategies and maximize benefits.
2. Improved problem-solving
According to a 2024 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), 90% of companies prioritize problem-solving as a core skill when screening resumes, and for good reason. Employees with great problem-solving skills can develop new, creative solutions to issues both within and outside your company, making your organizational processes smoother and building a strong reputation in the public eye.
Cognitive thinking is a key indicator of great problem-solving skills. These skills allow the candidate to gain information, analyze their environment and the available data, and draw sound conclusions, which help them make decisions when solving problems. By harnessing these skills, candidates can develop new solutions to problems, which can make your company operate seamlessly and reduce costly errors in the process.
3. Effective communication
Excellent cognitive thinking involves receiving, processing, and passing information clearly from one person to another. In doing so, employees can better understand each other, allowing for better collaboration, streamlined information flow, and better data processing across the tiers in your company.
With good cognitive skills, employees can also communicate better with customers and understand their problems properly. As a result, they can relate better and procure solutions to various issues.
4. Enhanced resource management
With great cognitive thinking skills, your company can better allocate resources to various tasks and roles based on priority and necessity. This prevents under or over-utilization of resources.
Cognitive thinking can also help you foresee future needs and challenges, enabling you to plan. For example, when planning a project, a project manager with excellent cognitive thinking can anticipate resource shortages based on company project trends. As such, they can create strategies to meet these needs, such as including provisions for more resources in the budget.
5. Improved risk management
With excellent cognitive thinkers on your team, you can plan projects effectively, anticipate potential risks, and create provisions for them. As a result, your company can be several steps ahead of issues, analyzing relevant data and taking preventive measures to minimize risk.
How to Assess for Cognitive Thinking in Recruitment
Assessing cognitive thinking is a delicate process with different approaches, some more effective than others. In this section, we’ve put together some of the best ways to evaluate these skills during your recruitment to identify the best candidate.
Use a cognitive test
Cognitive tests are one of the most popular strategies that recruiters use to evaluate a candidate’s abilities to think and solve problems. These tests use standardized questions to assess cognitive skills like attention to detail, logical reasoning, and problem-solving abilities.
Cognitive tests can be verbal or nonverbal. Some popular examples include Raven’s Progressive Matrices, which is best used in the initial stages of recruitment, and the Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory, which assesses candidates for business-related cognitive skills.
While these tests are great for checking cognitive capacity, it isn’t ideal to use them alone in recruitment. This is because they can be very limited and only access general cognitive skills. Instead, it’s best to pair these tests with a more comprehensive pre-employment skill assessment.
Apply pre-employment assessments
Employers use pre-employment testing to evaluate candidates’ skills, personalities, and experiences, comparing them to the requirements for a specific role before hiring them. These tests differ from cognitive tests because rather than focusing on just cognitive thinking, they also evaluate other hard skills vital to a role.
Of course, to access a great assessment, you need great pre-employment testing software. Fortunately, Vervoe is a great place to look. Its extensive features, including realistic job previews, multi-format testing questions, and provisions for scalability, make candidate screening a breeze.
Vervoe allows you to screen the core skills required for any position, including cognitive skills, and analyze candidate performance effectively. As a result, you can see those with great cognitive, soft, and hard skills who are fit for the role with just a glance.
Utilize structured interviews
In a structured interview, the interviewer asks predetermined, standardized questions in a specific order to evaluate a specific skill. This approach ensures that all your candidates are evaluated on level ground, reducing bias and ensuring interview efficiency.
Beyond boosting interview quality, these interviews can be used to assess cognitive skills. By asking questions centered around logical reasoning, critical thinking, and even memory and retention, you can gauge a candidate’s cognitive thinking.
For example, to assess memory, you can tell the candidate a piece of information at the start of an interview and ask them a question based on it towards the end. You can also use situational interview questions to evaluate how they react in different scenarios.
Crack the cognitive thinking code with Vervoe
Assessing cognitive thinking is a walk in the park with the right tools and strategies. However, no matter what strategies you plan to implement, pre-employment testing can simplify and streamline the process.
Vervoe lets you access over 300 pre-employment skill tests in our comprehensive assessment library. It also has various impressive features that make it easy to spot top talent fast. From well-curated, scenario-based, and multi-format testing questions to options for customization and branding, Vervoe makes it easy to evaluate any skill required for a role.
Plus, you can personalize your grading system with our top-notch AI so that candidates are marked according to your own standards. Ready to take you’re hiring to the next level? Register for a free demo, and let’s get you set up!
