Are You A Believer?
– June 2009
There are two strong camps around the idea of Personality
Profile Testing. Those who support the benefits of profile
testing and those who believe they can gather all the
information necessary from the interview.
record been? Are there few others that meet the candidate
for collaborative feedback? You can hire a great employee
with out Personality Profile Testing but there are definitely
times when it is nice to have additional information.
I have often been surprised how much can be gleamed from Personality Profile Testing. A few years ago I spoke to a lady who was being considered for a promotion from a Product Manager's position to a Sales Manager's role. She told me of her experience with profile testing. Her company would send employees that were being considered for promotion to an agency for testing. The employee would be given several sets of tests followed by a one-on-one session with a Psychologist. She went to their facility and finished off a number of the tests on site and was given half a dozen more to complete at home. That night while completing the tests, she was doing her best to answer the questions in the "right" way she did not believe in the instructions "there are no wrong answers"). She would mull over each question and if unsure of the question or what the best answer was, she would ask her husband what he thought. The completed tests were then forwarded back to the agency.
Two days later she sat down with the Psychologist. The Psychologist had the test results in front of him and he looked a bit puzzled. The Psychologist then said that the results were interesting because it was almost as if 2 people had done the test. Go figure!
Personality Profile Testing can be taken too far. Companies who sell Personality Profiling Testing present their system as one more assessment tool in your bag of tools. They are intended to be used in conjunction with interviewing. More often than not the test becomes the dominant screener. Almost without exception, the companies I have dealt with over the years who test all candidates after the first interview, establish a required passing grade. The candidate must achieve this grade/level in order to be moved forward to the next round. In other words, the test result has more weight than the opinion of interviewer. Where is the balance?
This can lead to an even more grievous decision of putting all potential candidates through testing before they are met and use it to screen out people.
One company I have worked with put all new potential "hires" through a test very similar to a GMAT test. Sales, marketing or management, all had to take the test. It was strongly suggested to the candidate to study for the test and even get a copy of a GMAT test to assist in preparation. According to the hiring manger, the candidates who do better on the test have not been out of university for more than one year. Everyone had to pass with the established mark regardless of the position and unfortunately many good candidates with great experience were passed over.
Profile testing companies are selling accuracy and the completeness of the test. However, they are not fool proof. Personality Profile Testing can be intentionally altered if a smart candidate thinks the potential employer is looking for a particular trait. Questions can also be confusing and contextual. Even though a trait is being measured by several questions, picking an answer to questions you do not understand is not ideal when you are working for a "passing grade".
Neither the interview nor the profile test is fool proof. A candidate can embellish at an interview or can skew a profile test. However Profile Testing is another tool that can add to your decision-making. With a balanced approach you can augment information gathered during an interview to make the best hiring decision. The point is not to pass over the gems and to put the proper amount of weight to test results.