As a partner in a professional background screening company I believe in sound documents that reflect an individual’s traits like a criminal record search, credit report or an employment reference. It was not until one day several years ago, a client called me and asked if we did physiological assessments. We did not. But now that a valued client was asking for them, I decided to do some research. I quickly found that there were several suppliers all eager to sell their wares to ISB. I was looking for the right “fit”, which I later found out was the true value to personality assessments. Does the candidate ‘fit’ into the respective job, work environment, management philosophy? I searched the internet, trade show meetings and several providers until one day a supplier knocked at my door.
It was a provider that ‘fit’ ISB and when asked to give a brief overview of what psychological assessments meant to them, they responded with this;
“With the world changing so fast with new technologies upon us every day, I think that what a person can do is more important than what he has done. The information from a hiring assessment shines a bright light on a persons ability to learn, adapt, socialize, and how manageable they are just to mention a few of the traits that should be considered when looking ahead at what the horizon brings.” Richard Morin President / Owner of Strategic Business Services Inc.
What I hope to do in this month’s blog is to clear the mystic air surrounding psychological assessments as it pertains to employment background screening.
What are psychological assessments? Is there a shrink in a room with a candidate looking at ink blotches? Is the candidate hooked up to a bunch of electrodes and asked questions? No, today there are firms that have years of complied relative data from similar positions and traits that form a ‘Job Match Pattern.’
Webster’s Dictionary definition of psychological assessment is;
Psychological: The mental behavioural characteristic of an individual or group
Assessments: To make an official evaluation
There are no laws in Canada governing the use of psychological assessments used for hiring. However as with anything else you do in the hiring process, these tests must be applicable to the position and the job at hand. As well it should not target a sector of the population so that there is no general discrimination or you may be looking at a human rights issue. Whether they are successful or not, it will take your time and money to defend your position. So use a recognized supplier or ask your employment screening company, as they have probably done the leg work for you. We find that in the US, employment background screening companies own the assessment part of the business where Canadian companies tend to partner with selected suppliers.
We at ISB Canada use Profile International for our assessments. They have been around since 1991, have serviced over 40,000 companies in 90 countries and have Canadian versions of their assessments.
In a recent survey, 40 percent of fortune 100 companies indicated that their employment selection systems included psychological testing. A similar survey by the American Management Association showed that 44 percent of its responding members used testing to select employees.
In talking with a human resources director of a large franchiser of Group 1 Automotive, a Fortune 500 company in Houston, here’s what she had to say about the psychological test they use for selection process: “Historically, our industry experiences extremely high turnover, and as such we have been looking for a tool to help put the right person in the right job. Since we began using a psychologically based selection tool to help in our sales selection process, our retention has jumped from 10% to 77%, which we have calculated saved us $32 Million over the past twelve months in related turnover and lost opportunity costs.” (Regina Roat, HR Director – Sterling McCall Toyota).
I have to say that I was a skeptic of this product until I ran one on a long term existing employee who I knew well and was looking to get promoted into a supervisory position. So I went online and programmed the Profile XT test to the job pattern of an office manager. About 45 minutes later, I received 7 reports by email. They nailed her to a T, both her good and not so good skills. I was sold that this was a very powerful tool enabling to see that she could do the job I needed her to do, took direction well, was a self starter and a good listener – all qualities that would make my management of her that much easier. So now imagine that she just walked off the street, not knowing anything about her…how else are you going to find this valuable information out but through a psychological assessment. They are a very useful tool, but not cheap. They are usually in the range of $200 per test but knowing a bad hire can cost $25k – a huge overall savings.
There are several types of assessments;
Step One Survey - General entry level profile which costs usually less the $50 and it includes; inconsistent responses, employment profile, theft, illegal substance abuse, criminal convictions, applicant’s attitude and suggested interview questions. This assessment is fast, easy and will reduce, absenteeism, turn over and liability while increasing productivity and profit.
A sample question could be ‘There is nothing wrong with using illegal drugs on the job if it helps you to relax and do a better job.’ (agree or disagree) Or ‘It is ok to get around rules, as long as you don’t actually break them.’ (agree or disagree)
Profiles XT -Used for promotion, succession planning, performance review, and training and find the right candidate with the right ‘fit’. ($200-$250 per assessment) This assessment takes about 45 minutes online and runs though several hundred questions that focuses on learning skills, verbal skills and reasoning, numerical and technical ability, people service, administrative, creativeness energy level, assertiveness, sociability, decisiveness, accommodating, independence and most importantly, manageability. This assessment will tell you; can the person do the job? how will the person do the job? does the person want to do the job?
360 – Used by an employee’s peers to review a employee from different angles and assess that person’s abilities or areas that need improvement in the hopes that the person will take on those improvements and be better suited for upward managerial movement in the company.
At ISB we supply assessments to our clients but are quick to pass this onto our partner suppliers. To set up an assessment only takes 5 minutes. Once the assessment is completed by the employee or candidate, several reports are generated electronically which include an easy to understand coaching report, job profile summary and a copy designed for the candidate. The JOB PATTERN MATCH is a critical part to be set up in the front end. If you are hiring or promoting a person to sales manager, the questions for office managers would be very different and the expectations on a scale from 1 – 10 would be different. For example, assertiveness for a sales person should be between 6 and 9 out of 10 and if your candidate scored 5 – it is clear that you have a passive sales person but as an office manager where you want a cohesive work environment – the preferred scale would be 3-7 and 5 would be perfect.
Profile XT Sample – Good/Poor Match
How do you know if the answers are staged or untruthful? Well these assessments are written in a way they ask the same question in several different ways and if the applicant tries to alter their answers, it becomes evident through the distortion factor number which is indicated on the report.
Psychological assessments are not new. They have been used for years to measure pathological personality traits, yet it is often used as a screening tool for law enforcement, seminary students, firefighters/paramedics, airline pilots, medical/psychology students, and nuclear power facility workers.
One executive who currently utilizes a psychological pre-employment testing program sums it up this way: “It actually expedites our interviewing process tremendously by assisting us in cutting to the chase in determining a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. The candidate profile and interview guide gives our managers the help they need to conduct a probing and revealing interview while requiring less preparation time.
Psychological Assessments are an invaluable tool in selecting the right person for the job which in turn will save you thousands in the long run.
If the people in your company are your #1 asset, how did you pick them?
