In previous blog posts, I introduced the concept of Performance Profiling and mentioned that this technique, together with that of Performance Appraisal can be used together to create an evidence-based approach to recruitment in which the effectiveness of recruitment methods can be continuously verified by looking at the data generated through the regular assessment of employee performance.
My decision to develop Performance Profiling arose after I had become interested in the links between motivation and creativity while teaching at Cambridge University. I first completed a Personality Test many years ago, when I was recruited to become part of a senior executive team overseeing the integration of British Steel and Vanderbilt Engineering Corporation in South Africa. I immediately became fascinated with the technique and soon discovered that such tests were extremely accurate when it came to the prediction of an individual’s personality.
At that time, I was involved in the restructuring of the organization and decided that I would try to use personality tests to help me. From the outset, I was pleasantly surprised not only by the accuracy of the tests I used but also with its consistency. So much so that when the test indicated a shy, cautious person, I could be almost certain that the applicant would almost always exhibit this both in terms of their manner and the way they dressed when they turned up for interview.
Alternatively, when an individual was predicted to be outward going and highly creative, they invariably demonstrated this both in terms of their interpersonal behavior and their very real capacity for generating ideas during the interview. The correlation between predicted behavior and actual behavior at interview was so strong that I came to rely more and more on the test results and less on my own subjective viewpoint when it came to selecting job-applicants for employment.
Over the following year however, it became apparent to me that, while personality profiles produced through such testing, accurately described personality, they had serious shortcomings when used to identify individuals with the potential to be long-term high performers. The scientist in me became curious as to why this should be the case.
Over the next two years, I studied how such tests worked and, during the process, the reasons for their failure as performance predictors became clear. Psychometric test publishers use two groups of people when they develop the statistical norms underpinning their tests:?
- A group of test subjects (who answer the questions in the questionnaire being developed) and,
- A group of people who know the subjects well enough to describe their personality
A personality test then links the test subjects answers to the personality information provided by the group of people who know the subject well. The result is surprisingly accurate. At no stage in the development of such tests was any effort made to take performance into account. Psychometric tests were designed to measure personality and they were very good at doing this. No effort was made to relate this to performance.
It was this experience that led me to the concept of evidence-based recruitment. To create this technique, it is necessary to link answers to the type of questions in multiple-choice questionnaires used by psychometric test publishers not to the opinions of people who know them well but to actual performance ratings obtained through regular performance appraisal.
By integrating two managerial activities that normally proceed independent of each other, namely recruitment and performance; it is possible to create an evidence-based approach to recruitment in which the efficacy of recruitment screening methodologies can be continuously monitored. The Talent Chaser Evidence-Based Recruitment & Management Development Software is successfully using this technique to improve employee retention.
Please read our white paper and learn about the difference between personality tests and performance profiling and learn why a personality test cannot predict employee performance or improve employee retention.
Has your organization been using Personality Tests?
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