Passing the test

How employee assessment tools can help distributors manage their businesses more effectively

by Cyndi Sax, Caliper

Personality assessments have long been a valued component of the employee selection process. By delving beneath the surface to better understand the job-related motivators and personality attributes of candidates, a statistically reliable, valid personality assessment can improve the quality of the hiring decision. Caliper, a global leader in the field of talent management, was recently asked, “What’s new in assessments?”

While we could extol the virtues of today’s robust assessment instruments, including the Caliper Profile, we believe there is greater value in broadening our field of vision to explore best practices in their application. Business leaders have learned that by integrating data gained through personality assessments throughout the life cycle of their employees, employee, manager and the business in general can benefit.

Employee selection
The integration of personality assessments into the hiring process is a well-established best practice. Caliper’s research studies, two of which have been published in the Harvard Business Review, have proven that job performance improves when there is a match between an individual’s fundamental personality strengths and the requirements of a job.

A validated personality assessment can objectively gauge the job candidate’s intrinsic personality attributes, allowing managers to better assess whether the job match exists. Of course, there is no “silver bullet.” One must carefully select the assessment using stringent criteria, and apply the gathered data consistently. There must be published proof that the test does not discriminate against individuals by gender, age, race, religion or national origin. It must be a valid predictor of performance, should measure specific qualities required for the particular job, and should not be used randomly. Finally, personality assessments should be used as one part of the hiring process and never as a sole determining factor.

On-boarding tool
Even if it has been a long time since you last experienced a first day in a new job, you may recall the experience with some anxiety. New hires are often left to their own devices to assimilate all the new information they are exposed to during the first days of their employment. They are required to become familiar with how things are done in the new company, the names, positions and responsibilities of a group of colleagues, and how to work with their new manager. Even seemingly simple tasks — like how to use the phone system, set up an e-mail address, and settle into a new work station — can be overwhelming.

Most of us would like for our new employees to get up to speed as quickly as possible. The same personality assessment that helped you identify the best person for the job could provide invaluable insights toward facilitating the on-boarding process.

Our suggestion is that the hiring manager share with the new employee some insights gained about his or her personality strengths and developmental opportunities within the first few days. Optimally, the manager will share some information about his or her own preferences and working style, as well. In so doing, the two can begin their working relationship by having an open dialogue about how they might best communicate and work with each other.

I recall my most recent first day on the job. The person who was training me is a private, reserved, analytical individual. She executed her work in a focused way, with fine attention to detail. I tend to be more socially oriented and prefer to work collaboratively, in a less structured fashion. It wasn’t long before our styles clashed. By referencing our Caliper Profiles and discussing our differences, Laura and I were able to arrive at a mutually acceptable compromise. Each day on our lunch break, we would put on our walking shoes and walk a one-mile path around the neighborhood together. It not only provided a good break in the action for us both, but gave me an opportunity to socialize and interact with my new colleague in a way that satisfied my needs. Laura, on the other hand, knew there was a beginning to our time together and a predictable end to it just 20 minutes later. We both looked forward to our daily outings and, I am happy to say, are still colleagues and friends more than 10 years later.

Guiding management style
Each employee may respond best to a different style of management than other members of the same team. It is a widely held premise that it is the manager’s responsibility to adjust his or her style in order to help each employee achieve optimal productivity, not the other way around.

By reviewing the personality assessments of each team member, a manager may gain invaluable insights to better inform many management decisions. When faced with a decision to delegate a particular task, a manager may first review personality assessment results to determine which of the team members may have more of a proclivity for the required competencies, whether or not they have the specific experience.

Managers often rely upon assessment results to make decisions such as which employee will work best with some autonomy and which will require closer supervision. Knowing that an employee responds defensively to feedback because of low self-esteem may allow a manager to adjust the way in which he delivers a difficult message the next time around. That may sound very different from how a similar message is delivered to another direct report when the same manager discovers that underlying the second employee’s defensiveness is an overly developed ego and closed-mindedness. In these decisions, and many other day-to-day management decisions, the information gained from a personality assessment can augment the manager’s experience with the individual and allow for improved relationships.

A related application is that of building a cohesive team. By integrating individual and team aggregate personality data to team-building activities, an organization can facilitate the collaborative process. The “win” is on several levels: individuals gain greater self-awareness, teammates learn about other members of the team and, together, they can identify ways to maximize their individual and collective strengths.

During one recent team building workshop, individuals who had worked together for a relatively short period of time identified how the newly discovered insights to a commonly held trait, a high level of skepticism, had contributed to their shared struggle in accepting a major management decision. By discussing the situation, they were then able to laugh about how their approach had limited their success. Transitioning into a productive discussion about their greatest business priorities, the team members were comfortable reflecting upon and sharing which of their greatest personality traits they could leverage more fully to contribute to the attainment of those shared goals. The team left the workshop with a clearly articulated plan for not only contributing more effectively as individuals, but also supporting each other.

Support coaching efforts
Somewhere along the way, nearly every employee could benefit from coaching support. Whether to turn around a performance shortfall, correct negative behavior, or support an employee’s ability to reach his or her full potential, a manager’s coaching efforts can be critical to an employee’s success.

Personality assessments can help manager and employee understand why he or she may be excelling at certain competencies and struggling with others. In addition, by understanding the internal, emotional composition of an employee, managers can make a better informed decision about how to successfully motivate them, provide them with feedback and manage them.

Multi-rater assessments, such as 360 degree feedback, can provide another objective measure of feedback for the employee. When appropriately gathered, reported and analyzed, the personality assessment and 360 can help the individual to more accurately gauge his or her impact on others and create a comprehensive development plan.

Identifying future leaders
Finally, assessments can be an invaluable resource in defining an organization’s succession management strategy. By reviewing employee potential, as measured by personality assessment and performance, an organization can identify where their talent gaps lie. As a component in a comprehensive succession planning process, the organization can then determine what type of leadership development efforts might be most impactful, which employee populations are best suited for those opportunities, and what types of strengths it may need to hire from the outside in order to best prepare for future organizational needs.

In summary, by taking a strategic view of your approach to talent management, and integrating personality assessment results into each phase, you will greatly improve your ability to make the best hiring decisions, manage each employee during each phase of their tenure, and plan for future success.

So, open that file drawer and dust off those pre-employment assessment reports. There’s gold in them!

This article originally appeared in the 2008 STAFDA issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2008.

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