Human Resources Trends Blog

What is the difference between DISC and other personality tests?

Ira Wolfe — Sun, 27 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Without exaggeration I hear clients, prospects, and even consultants lump DISC and personality tests together every day when discussing pre employment tests. In some respects that is like comparing apples to oranges, peaches to bananas and so on. In other words, there are literally thousands of tests available measuring attitudes, interest, motivation, intelligence, skills, behavior and personality. Many of these appear quite similar on the surface and everyone one of them claims to be predictive. But behind every report there is an important story.

With so many assessment options available, what’s a manager to do?

This post focuses on a few qualifications every manager and HR professional should be asking assessment providers.

You might be thinking – here he goes again: more about that validity gibberish. So let’s get that out of the way. This column is not about validity and reliability. Those criteria are a given in the world of psychometrics. This post is about two terms you likely never heard of.

The broad description of "personality tests" fall into two distinct types – ipsative and normative. It is essential that an organization understands the differences between these test types because both types can pass the validity and reliability litmus test. Not knowing whether the construct of the assessment is ipsative or normative can be risky business for a business that wants to ensure predictability for future job performance and defensibility if ever challenged.

DISC assessments are considered ipsative tests. Like the hundreds of other assessments based on the four style behavioral model, DISC reports the relative strengths of the person being tested. For instance, D represents “direct” or “dominance” and S represents “steady.” If a DISC assessment reports the individual is “high D” and “low S,” this merely means this individual is more energized by asserting him/herself in dealing with problems than maintaining a steady pace. What it does not reliably predict is how two people with similar DISC patterns will perform a job or interact with others. Just because an individual describes himself as direct, does not mean he will be effective at asserting himself or making decisions. It is also not an accurate predictor of how much more or less assertive he might be compared to other “high D”
employees.

The reason for this ambiguity is that ipsative literally means "of the self” and therefore have extremely high face validity – when a test-taker reads his report, he agrees it is very accurate at describing his approach to people and tasks. Ipsative tests therefore indicate how one individual prefers to respond to problems, people, work pace and procedures. It however offers little correlation at comparative strength of relationship skills or task completion between one person and another.

Ipsative tests are very effective when used for developmental, coaching, team building and interpersonal conflict resolution. On the other hand, ipsative types of test should not normally be used in recruitment and selection as the exclusive assessment and should never be used to predict performance or job fit.

Normative tests, unlike ipsative tests, measure quantifiable personality characteristics on individual scales. An individual’s “score” measures a specific characteristic against confirmed patterns of normality, usually represented as a bell curve. Normative testing allows people to be compared to particular groups and populations. In business, normative testing allows individuals to be compared to other employees who have met with success or failure in a job. The hope for managers using normative tests is that they can predict candidates who will have the best chances of success if hired or promoted and to avoid placing the wrong employee in the wrong position. Normative tests are therefore best suited as a recruitment and selection instrument but are also useful in developmental, coaching and training.

Normative testing generally has a higher validity than ipsative. Depending on the instrument used the predictive or criterion validity can be 70 percent or higher depending on the assessment and the job..

Success Performance Solutions offers both ipsative and normative testing. DISC and Business Values and Motivators are considered ipsative while Prevue, ASSESS, and Clues are normative.

Answers to the Most Common Questions About Pre-Employment Tests

Ira Wolfe — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Wouldn't it be nice to give a single test to job candidates that could instantly gauge their reliability, honesty, aptitude, and social skills? What would it look like? What questions would it ask? These are just a few of the questions I am commonly asked. What follows are answers to a few of the most common questions I'm asked about personality and other pre-employment tests.

Aren't personality tests considered risky in today's litigious environment?

Only to the degree that everything is risky in today's environment. A psychometric test certainly comes with some risks. But so does the interview, checking backgrounds, drug testing not to mention the financial risk of terminating the wrong hire or exposure to negligent hiring if you don't do everything possible to hire the right person the first time. In fact, according to the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, any inventory or procedure utilized during an employment decision is considered a test. Much to the surprise (and dismay) of many managers, the interview must meet the same validity and reliability standards as personality tests, ability tests, and even background and resume evaluations. Taking that into consideration, a validated and reliable assessment offers an unbiased third-party validated evaluation of candidates and when used properly may protect the employer from claims of personal bias.

If pre-employment personality tests are used, can they be used instead of interviewing candidates?

Definitely not. The U.S. Department of Labor embraces the "whole person approach" for all employment decisions. The "whole person approach" encourages the manager to factor in the results of a variety of accepted tests along with prior actual performance and interview results, to get the most complete picture of an employee or candidate.

Why not just train all the managers in the technique of behavioral interviewing?

Every hiring manager should be trained. But a well-designed pre-employment test when used correctly enhances the interview. Research has shown time and time again that the traditional interview, even the behavioral interview, alone is not always predictive of success. Compared to flipping a coin or rolling the dice, the interview gives you just slightly better odds. The structured behavioral interview improves reliability up to about 75 percent. But its success depends on the abilities of the manager to ask the right questions, and observe, listen and evaluate the answers without personal bias. Few managers are trained to do this and candidly, many don't have the time or interest to invest in structured interviews for all the candidates.

How do you choose the right pre-employment tests?

There are literally thousands of tests available. Not all of these tests are recommended for use in the workplace. To be deemed acceptable, it must meet three basic criteria:

The test itself must be validated - that is, the test is examining what it says it is.
The test must be reliable - meaning the results must be repeatable over time.
The test must be job relevant and job skill predictive. Many tests on the market meet the first two criteria.

The problem employers face wihen selecting the best test is that not every validated, reliable employee assessments is job relevant or predictive.

Four Reasons Why Every Business Needs a Competency Model

Ira Wolfe — Tue, 22 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT

In the 1970's David McClelland, a renowned Harvard professor and an expert in motivation and achievement, directed research to explore the ingredients of superb job performance and in 1973 published "Testing for Competence Rather than Intelligence". In this paper "he proposed that a set of specific competencies distinguished the most successful from those who were merely good enough to keep their jobs."

Since then many organizations have attempted to hire, promote and train employees based on competencies. What many have failed to do however is identify and differentiate the skills and behaviors that are proven predictors of success. Too often, managers are enamored with intelligence, education, charisma, and personality only to discover too late that many top candidates can barely swim when they were expected to walk-on-water.

In an article in the Financial Times (October 12, 1994), Richard Donkin and McClelland analyzed what differentiated superior performers from those who missed and barely met expectations. They concluded that "value-adding" qualities in an individual are not totally related with academic achievement. They indicated that, from a cost effectiveness stand-point, it Is better to hire for core motivation and trait characteristics and develop knowledge and skills. Chris Dyson, a colleague of McClelland explained, "you can teach a turkey to climb a tree, but it is easier to hire a squirrel."

While more and more organizations begin to imbed competency modeling into their performance management infrastructure, an October 28, 2003 Wall Street Journal story reported that several businesses are requiring SAT scores to screen and qualify candidates. How absurd. The SAT is designed to predict performance in the first year of college, and that's it. Moreover, SAT results are typically at least five years old when an examinee enters the job market, so even if the scores were relevant to a professional position, they would be outdated by the time a person applies for that job.

Academics and consultants as far back as the 1920s have attempted to identify key competencies. They have relied heavily on past behavior as a predictor of future performance. McClelland expanded the practice of competency modeling to include the abilities, skills, behaviors and personal characteristics that impacted individual experiences and how superior performers perceived critical events.

In 1972 he wrote, "if you want to test who will be a good policeman, go find out what a policeman does. Follow him around. Make a list of his activities and sample from that list in screening applicants."

Revealed through the practice of competency modeling are four benefits that help organizations manage costs and maximize individual productivity:

You hire only people with the potential to success.
You target training, development and coaching resources to improving those skills and behaviors that have the greatest top-line/bottom line impact on results.
You develop an employee evaluation system that encourages ongoing feedback.
You link individual rewards for productivity and performance improvement to corporate profitability.

As the economy begins to turn the corner, employees will begin to churn again, just like the late 1990s. It is time to inventory your talent and implement plans for retention and replacement.

Case Study: The Rise and Fall of a High Potential Manager

Ira Wolfe — Sun, 20 May 2012 11:15:00 GMT

It was just 3 or maybe 4 years ago that Randy applied for a manager's position at your company. He interviewed brilliantly. He demonstrated intelligence, resourcefulness and an ability to innovate. He displayed a quick wit and a dazzling ability to charm you and everyone he met. Randy was a surely a winner.

Randy appeared to have it all. He was on the fast-track for promotion into a senior position. He went to the right schools, graduated with honors, lettered in several sports, received quite a few leadership awards, and was active in his church and community. In fact, word around the company was that Randy was being groomed to be the successor to the boss.

Zoom forward to today when the wheels have begun to fall off the "Randy-career-express". It is a dangerous illusion that people have about themselves that often leads to fatal overconfidence. And when that happens, it is like someone else inhabits your body and takes over your mind.

What once was valued as Randy's drive for results is now viewed as a need to win at any and all costs - even when he is wrong. Randy was hired for his competitiveness and rewarded for his "2nd place is the 1st place for losers" attitude. His penchant for innovation and resourcefulness led to his favorite quote: "rules are for fools".

In the beginning his managers praised his candor and willingness to question the status quo. Now he was being criticized for always testing the limits and taking unnecessary risks. When Randy couldn't go through the front door, he always found a back door - or a side door if he had to - even if they were off limits. Golden-boy Randy now considered himself exempt from rules that govern other people's behavior. He stopped paying attention to others around him, squashing anyone who disagreed with them.

This wasn't entirely Randy's fault since management encouraged and rewarded his behavior for the past 3 years. "Why can't you act more like Randy" was the mantra from management. His file was filled with exemplary standard performance appraisals from Randy's managers. Too bad no one checked with his peers.

His resourcefulness became exposed as conniving and cunning. His ability to innovate crossed the line into creative accounting, budgeting and deal-making. His quick wit became sarcasm. His charm became seductive and Randy's previously admired hustle now conjured up thoughts of the "hustler".

The life cycle of Randy-like employees is repeated day after day in thousands of businesses every day. What takes place when a potential super-star gets drunk with his own success? How and why does this happen? Was Randy, with all his talent and smarts, a victim of the organizational culture or was his behavior predictable and inevitable?

We all have shortcomings. Our natural tendency is to ignore them or cover them up. Talented candidates and employees have become more skilled at highlighting their strengths and covering up their flaws than interviewers and background checkers are at exposing them.

Natural talent only takes an individual so far. As employees assume more responsibility and move up the career ladder, two things must take place. First the employee must recognize that what got them in the door and to the place they are today may not be good enough to get them where they want and need to go. Continuing to rely only on the skills and talent that got them hired and promoted and ignoring their undeveloped or poorly developed skills eventually sinks their ship.

But just learning new skills and minimizing your weaknesses is not enough. Having the skills is one thing. Knowing when to use them is another. The difference between being cooperative and competitive, tolerant and tough-minded, patient and decisive, or candid and discreet is what separates the best from the rest. It is similar to the difference between the week-end warrior handyman who owns a garage full of the very best tools and the craftsman whose handiwork rivals art.

Pre-employment testing and leadership assessments do more than just gauge personality fit. The right employee test helps managers assess current job fit and future potential. Most importantly, employee assessments can identify potential innate weaknesses that generally don’t show up in performance until it’s too late.

Why Your DIY Pre-Employment Test May Not Be Legal

Ira Wolfe — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Every employer wants employees who have a positive attitude and will stay on the job so they often follow the hire-for-attitude, train-for-skills approach to staffing. To identify candidates with the right fit, many employers administer employment tests - including ones they've designed themselves. Unfortunately, the design-it-yourself path is laden with legal landmines.

One human resources manager recently shared this story with me:

For several months, I have been reviewing different pre-employment assessments to use in our organization. During this week's managers meeting, one of the managers announced he was creating his own test and the rest of management bought into the idea. His arguments were convincing. First, he outlined how it would save money if they didn't have to purchase a system. Second, he felt that he and the other managers knew what it took for an individual to succeed in their organization.

This situation prompted her to email me, "Is it legal for us to use a manager's do-it-yourself pre-employment test?"

The short answer is yes. It's perfectly legal...as long as it can be proven to be job-relevant and fair. That means a homegrown test must meet the same criteria as one developed by a test publisher or industrial psychologist. While it might be true that many small employers fall under the government's radar when it comes to hiring practices, that doesn't mean they are immune to the likes of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection of 1978. These are the 800-pound gorillas guarding the rights of employees. They, along with several other laws, include pertinent guidelines and instruction on ways in which testing can be appropriately used to make hiring decisions and to prevent unjustified adverse impact.

Businesses run into trouble when their hiring, promotion, or other employment decisions substantially differ and disadvantage members of a certain race, sex or ethnic group. This means that if, whatever process or tools you use to assess employees must the following criteria:

The questions and recommendations must be relevant to the job.
They should not adversely impact a candidate based on race, sex or ethnicity.

Creating your own test to save money is enticing. But it's like buying vitamins instead of buying health insurance because you are young. As long as you don't get in trouble, you save a few bucks. But all it takes is to get challenged by one disgruntled employee and what you saved by doing it yourself is a drop in the bucket to the cost of defending it in court. Reputable publishers of pre-employment tests avoid questions that are not predictive, irrelevant or invasive.

As I learned nearly 25 years ago during my anesthesia rotation, it is easy for anyone to put another person to sleep. The real skill of an anesthesiologist is being able to wake the patient up after the surgery. When it comes to creating test, it is easy for a group of managers to come up with a list of questions to ask. The real skill is identifying which questions can actually predict job performance and asking them in a way that is legal and defensible. If you are using or considering developing your own test or procedure, expert help is advisable to make sure your procedure as well as the test is fair to all relevant groups.

The Department of Labor offers an excellent "Employer's Guide to Good Practices" on testing and assessment.

(First published in The Total View Newsletter - June 16, 2010)

How 4 DISC Styles Deliver Good Customer Service

Ira Wolfe — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT

There is a gaping chasm between what it takes to keep customers satisfied and loyal and what actually happens. Why?

Good customer service starts with the customer service representative. But not every employee hired to manage customer dissatisfaction is suited to the task.

The reasons for customer dissatisfaction are as varied as the people complaining. Yet, many customer service representatives address all problems the same way. For good customer service, cookie-cutter tactics don't work. Sure, it's fine to teach people to be "nice" and "good listeners." Customer service goes beyond a friendly smile and answering all phone calls within three rings. Excellent customer service starts with speaking to each customer in a "language" he or she finds engaging.

By way of example, let's look at four responses to a customer complaint. Each scenario represents one of the four behavioral styles identified through DISC. Remember DISC? It's the "universal language" of communication and assessed through CriteriaOne DISC. As you read, try to visualize each scenario. Recognize the participants? Remember, each employee believes the response given the appropriate one.

We start with the D style, the assertive employee."Just tell me the problem and I'll take care of it right now," says the employee with a high "D" behavioral style. No beating around the bush. On the plus side, high D employees listen to the complaint and quickly offer a solution. This person is perfect when customer service means getting to the point, fixing the problem, and moving on to the next customer. But bear in mind that assertive behavioral type employees are impatient and relationship building is secondary to fixing the problem. Never put an employee who exhibits high "D" behavior across the counter from the customer who wants to vent. If you do, this customer service representative may cut-off the customer mid-rant. An explanation may come across as an excuse, with an apology that seems insincere. "Oh yeh, I'm sorry too" sounds more like one more thing on the checklist even if the intentions are straight from the heart. Remember, DISC is a language and two-thirds of the population hear an abrupt "tell me what you want me to do to the fix your problem" as cold and un-empathetic.

Let's move on to the "I" behavioral type."I " represents the influencer. This customer service representative offers explanations, over and over again. It's next to impossible for a customer, who is lucky to get a word in edgewise, to vent. The influencer offers assurances, often not knowing if the promises can be fulfilled. Influencers measure results by good intentions. They trade on creating relationships, sharing personal information as a routine part of a customer service call. When the conversation winds down, the Influencer may have to ask a customer to restate the problem. "I'm sorry, what was your problem again?" she says. "I have had so much fun talking; I forgot to write it down." As an employer, you have to make a choice. Do you want customer service staff to satisfy customer complaints or make friends with disgruntled customers? "I" behavioral types often are the naturals at communicating but the least likely to track the details and follow through, without a conscious effort to do so. Apologies sound like, "I can't believe this happened to you too. I had the very same problem." High I's generally tell stories about themselves, hoping that company relieves the misery of customer dissatisfaction.

Next is the "S" behavioral type, born to serve mankind, or so it appears. This person gets energy from cooperation. She is easy going, reserved, and listens well; a behavioral style most compatible with customers who need to vent.

The "S" behavioral type employee easily builds endorsement, making it comfortable for an unhappy customer to speak freely. "Have we (note "we", not "I") successfully resolved your problem?", asks the high "S" behavioral type employee. This person gets energy from bringing closure to what she starts, so follow-up is a natural extension of a service call. However, this behavioral style is exhausted by confrontation and may go to great lengths to avoid any type of conflict. An irate, demanding, verging-on-hysteria customer eventually gets to the high "S" customer service representative who simply wants to resolve the problem and close the file. Open projects and unattended files in the inbox frustrate a high "S" employee. Apologies from the high S appear the most sincere and honest when they say "I really wish this never happened and I'll do whatever I can to make this right." And most people believe them, too.

Finally, we get to the "C" behavioral type, as identified by CriteriaOne DISC. High "C" behavioral type employees are evaluators. They need to understand everything about everything. The employee with this behavioral style makes sure the problem never happens again. He provides a minutely detailed product history including product evolution and repair record. This customer service representative believes failure to read directions is the root cause of most problems. Skeptical to the core, the high "C" employee goes through instructions line-by-line to rule out operator error. He may ask a complaining customer to answer detailed questions to ensure that he gets all the facts. Because accuracy is important, questions must be answered in order. This customer service representative may want to assign blame, although it's important that the right person (who may be the customer) or department be identified as the culprit. The high "C" behavioral type offers an apology after identifying the problem's cause and only if one is warranted. If an apology is offered, expect conditions and contingencies, and assurances couched with "there really are no guarantees in life." When you are finished complaining to the high C agent, you're comfortable the company has the whole story but not sure anything will change.

So, what is the best behavioral style for customer service? The simple answer is the best style is SITUATIONAL. Flexibility is the essential core competency required from customer service employees. Interpersonal skills, listening skills, emotional stability, organization, and follow through are important, too. Good analytical and root cause analysis skills don't hurt either. The key is the best customer service employees intuitively understand which skills to apply at the right time and with the right intensity. That's how DISC tests can help a manager determine which employees are the best natural customer service fit, if they will be motivated by helping people and solving problems, and how they will relate to different customer styles.

How crucial is putting the right people in customer service jobs? You tell me. More than half of all dissatisfied customers decide against doing business with the company again. Ninety percent admit to complaining about the experience to friends, family, neighbors and anyone else willing to listen. The take home lesson for business owners is that dissatisfied customers WILL vent. It's up to the employer then to choose the listener - will it be to an employee or another customer or prospect?

Effective Leadership Banks More on Testing for Emotional Intelligence

Ira Wolfe — Sat, 12 May 2012 16:40:00 GMT

Without a strong, emotionally intelligent leader, personal and professional failure is much more likely to occur than is accomplishment.

Effective leadership depends on the so-called "soft skills" that a leader possesses. But soft leadership skills are anything but soft. Soft skills depend more on transferable competencies and abilities and less on the experiences and accomplishments listed on a resume. Circumstances and situations change. What worked in the past might not work the same in the future. Repeatable results will come from the ability to apply past knowledge and adapt it to new problems. The ability to do this requires emotional intelligence and has become increasingly important considering the demands placed on managers and leaders of organizations today.

Emotional intelligence is even more critical when the need to effectuate organizational change arises. A few thought leaders have asserted recently both the existence and importance of soft leadership skills, thereby providing evidence that they do indeed matter.

McKinsey Quarterly recently focused on leadership development in the context of major operations improvement. While conceding that major organizational changes demand unwavering focus on business details at a granular level, McKinsey further stated that "...senior executives overlook the "softer" skills their leaders will need to disseminate changes throughout the organization and make them stick." In other words, leaders selected for their strategic and operational prowess will fail when they can’t get others to respond.

The same week McKinsey published its article Inc. Magazine wrote that there are, in essence, "8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses." In short, they were all extensions of the Inc. article's basic premise that "business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield." That simple statement encapsulates what emotional intelligence is all about: The ability to strike a balance between the practical need for tough, often difficult business decisions with the emotional and psychological needs of those upon whose efforts the organization relies to succeed.

To be an effective leader, one must possess the ability to:

1) communicate goals and actions,

2) motivate others to meet those goals, and

3) provide appropriate responses when dissatisfaction results from 1 and/or 2.

Call these abilities whatever you like - soft leadership skills or emotional intelligence. It doesn't matter. They just matter.

What’s your emotional intelligence? Learn how to test your EI skills here.

Ask These 6 Questions Before Selecting Employee Assessment Tests

Ira Wolfe — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT

I tried one of those DISC-type instruments and the report really seemed to describe me pretty well. Doesn't that mean the test is a good one?

Not necessarily. All personality tests do what they say to some degree. The question for you is whether the information is specific enough to predict hiring decisions, or job relatedness as the EEOC calls it. Many simple instruments rely on a psychological experience known as the "P.T. Barnum Effect." Experiments have demonstrated that when personality reports are written in fairly general terms, most people judge them to be accurate representations of themselves. This "Effect" is the trick behind the "try it and see if it is accurate" approach. It is not that the information is wrong, but that it is seldom adequate for employment decisions. In fact, one expert described such reports as being "just right enough to be dangerously wrong.

What should I look for in selecting a pre employment assessment test?

First of all, be clear on what you want the instrument to do. Instruments are designed for specific uses. Ask to see example of how the instruments were used.

Second, consider your resources. Who will be using the information? Certain instruments provide excellent information but considerable training is required to use the information effectively. This can be a problem if you want the information to be useful to a wide range of people. PeopleClues, Prevue, and Assess^TM produces a unique form of report writing, known as a virtual interview. This type of report requires little or no interpretation or training and offers specific information on job behaviors. Many reports even include behavioral interview question guides to keep hiring managers focused on job related factors.

Third, consider the logistics of your application. Is the hiring test available online? Does it require any special equipment or requirements to access it? How quickly are the reports available? Do you want or need to process the reports in-house?

Fourth, how much time do candidates have? In the past, higher quality instruments required as much as 3 or 4 hours to complete, a psychologist to interpret, and several days or weeks to process. Shorter pre employment tests often lacked validity. Technology and automation have all but eliminated inaccuracies, improved objectivity and validity, and reduced the time to receive information from days to minutes. PeopleClues, Prevue personality, and Assess Screening are good examples of employee assessments that require 15 to 30 minutes to complete and offer real-time results.

How do I know if an instrument is valid?

All instruments are valid for some purpose. Validity is not an intrinsic characteristic. Assessments are validated for a specific use within a specific population. (Eg. DISC-type and Myers-Brigg Type instruments were never intended to be used as a stand-alone for hiring decisions, but as a vehicle to discuss communication styles or to assist in behavioral interviewing.) Be certain that the products you choose were developed for the purpose you need.

I have heard that I should ask to see the technical manual for the instrument. What is that?

An employment test technical manual describes the development of the instrument. It will generally include the objectives of the instrument's use; the concepts behind its design; the methodology used in the development process; and the statistical data upon which the instrument's information is based. Unfortunately, the existence of a technical manual, regardless of how thick or complex it may be, is not a guarantee of quality. Knowing that most human resource professionals and small business owners are not trained to understand psychometric terminology and statistical data, a number of companies have put quite a bit of creative energy into providing an impressive technical manual for some rather unimpressive products. You would do well to consider the author of these manuals and who was the technical expertise behind the development of the instrument. Fortunately, many of the newer instruments are offering user-friendly versions of their technical manuals, which are designed to educate the users and provide a guide to making a sound decision.

We have used a first generation instrument for years and everyone really likes it. Why should we change?

First of all, it is important to separate the emotional feelings of familiarity from the pragmatic issues of effectiveness. Think back to your first computer. Was it a 386; 486; Apple IIE? Do you still use it? Of course not! Did it stop working? Probably not. You just changed to newer technology because it could do things the old computer could not. Assessment technology is the same thing. New generation instruments are simply capable of providing levels of information undreamed of with earlier instruments.

We were considering creating our own tests. Wouldn't that be better than buying something off the shelf?

It depends on what you are trying to measure. If there is some unique skill, ability, or set of knowledge that is critical to successful performance in a particular job, and there is not an existing instrument that measures that, it may be necessary to construct one. However, if job success is more dependent upon a unique combination of fundamental characteristics of behavior and abilities, it is much better to use established tools. The most effective and predictable employee assessment instruments require years to develop; thousands of people to participate in the normative studies; many hundreds of thousands of dollars; and the expertise found in a relatively small number of psychometric experts. It is usually more economical and more effective to buy that level of expertise. While producing "customized" tests may offer a surface appeal, it is rarely a wise expenditure of resources with so many other options available and often exposes the business to considerable risk.

Answers to 9 FAQs About Pre Employment Personality Tests

Ira Wolfe — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT

I have heard that testing is not legal. Is that true?

That is clearly not true. In fact, proper use of good assessments can provide the most effective documentation of objective and nondiscriminatory hiring practices. Most legal issues occur when those instruments are used inconsistently or improperly. It is important to consult with individuals who are knowledgeable in such applications. Too often companies have failed to gain the benefits of new assessment technology because of conservative but uninformed advice. In today's competitive world, businesses can no longer afford not to explore every possible competitive advantage.

Won't some people be offended by being asked to complete a test?

Certainly, but if some people are offended by a company's sincere and professional efforts to ensure the success of their employees through effective job matching, it is a small price to pay for the overall benefits to all employees in the company.

Aren't there some people who just don't do well on tests?

The inherent concept in the newest assessment technology is that all people are good at something, but no one is good at everything. That includes testing. In general, most people are anxious about taking any kind of assessment. This reaction has been conditioned by years in school, where passing or failing a test determined an individual's class standing. Other tests such as driving tests or medical tests also contributed to this attitude. This is why it is important to explain the purpose of any test or assessment to all candidates before it is given. Right and wrong answers do not exist for many pre-employment assessment tests. They merely assess personality traits and personal values and then match them to job benchmarks. Outliers are not wrong but indicate that individual might need to adjust extra hard to be successful if hire. Skill tests, like Excel, typing, and math tests, on the other hand, do have right and wrong answers. People who don’t do well taking tests will certainly be affected by technical and administrative type tests. Many of the latest instruments provide preliminary messages that do exactly that and put the candidate at ease.

It is important to recognize that people with poor skills will seldom be enthusiastic when asked to take a test to measure those skills. People with performance problems will not be enthusiastic about completing an assessment to see how their abilities match a particular job. That is exactly why assessments are a vital part of today's business world. Effective assessment instruments can identify the critical areas that people do not want to reveal, but that the business must know in order to make the best decision.

Our selection process is rather long now. How can we find time to fit in any tests?

The use of good assessments tends to collapse the time needed for selection decisions, not make it longer. Using a 10 -15 minute instrument such as PeopleClues Personality Fit enables an employer to effectively screen out unsuitable candidates before spending substantial amounts of interviewing time with them. By focusing the selection efforts on those candidates that are most likely to succeed, employers can not only make faster decisions but more accurate decisions. By accelerating the hiring decision, employers also become more competitive at capturing talent in their job market.

We use recruiters for our key positions. Finding good people is their job. Why should we use testing?

Professional recruiters can offer significant advantages in seeking candidates for many positions, but it is important to remember these caveats:

- Recruiters get paid for filling positions.
- Recruiters do not get paid for screening out candidates.
- The worst recruiter using good assessments will make fewer mistakes than the best recruiter who does not use assessments.

By incorporating good assessments into the recruiting process, you gain the benefits of recruiting professionals and at the same time, gain insurance against them making a mistake that costs you money.

We use a customized interview system that seems to be effective. Do we also need testing?

Customized interview systems, behavioral event-based interviewing, targeted interviewing, and competency-based interviewing are all sound methods for identifying potentially successful job candidates. Several systems use bio-data surveys to profile successful employees and then attempt to match interviewees to that profile. These programs can be an effective part of an employer's hiring process. They, however, lack the objective measurement of current assessments. As more people become involved with the interviewing, the system becomes more vulnerable to the subjective differences of each individual interviewer. The process also requires a substantial amount of interviewing time to accomplish the screening that newer instruments such as PeopleClues can do in a matter of minutes. These instruments even provide behavioral interview questions based on the individual characteristics of the candidates. By screening candidates before in-depth interviews, the process is made much more efficient. PeopleClues and other pre-employment tests provide recommended interview questions in each employee assessment report, and then you can have the best of both worlds.

We use an industrial psychologist. Why should we consider assessments?

Industrial psychologists play an important role by supplying a professional psychological opinion as a supplement to many decision-making processes. This can be quite expensive however. It often makes sense to use an inexpensive assessment tool, such as PeopleClues^TM, to screen out unsuitable candidates before incurring the expense of the psychologist.

Several things must also be clear about the role of the psychologist:

- The use of an industrial psychologist to supply information used for a hiring or placement decision in no way limits the exposure of the client company to federal and state regulations (e.g. If that information can be shown to be discriminatory, the decision can be shown to be discriminatory.).
- The psychologist's summary information is only as good as the assessments used to obtain the initial data. (i.e. A psychologist's analysis cannot compare to the quality of information gleaned from a validated pre-employment test.).

I want to use assessments to help us hire better people. What is the best way to do that?

The best answer to that question depends upon many factors, such as the culture of the employer, the population of job candidates, the current market conditions, and many more.

Can we use assessments with our current employees?

Of course, you can use most assessments in many ways with existing employees. The exception might be honesty and integrity tests which should only be used for pre-hire candidates. For all other situations, good assessment information can help solve performance problems and improve working relationships dramatically. You may also use them selectively; it is not necessary to test as comprehensively as in a hiring situation.

3 Good and Bad Things About Using Applicant Tracking Systems

Ira Wolfe — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:26:00 GMT

3 Good and Bad Things about Applicant Tracking Systems

It’s easier than ever for small business to upgrade their recruiting process. Technology has improved and costs for applicant tracking software have dropped. To fill open positions quickly and maintain or raise the quality of hire, automation of screening job applicants is a necessity. But that doesn’t mean that an applicant tracking system can do everything. Here’s a list of 3 things that good ATS can and can’t offer.

1. Candidate Sourcing.

Good: An ATS makes it easy to source candidates from many sources at once. Posting jobs on paid and free job boards, social networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook, as well as CraigsList and Twitter takes time. It takes even more time to store and review applications coming from multiple sites. Without the automation of an ATS, that is a huge problem for most small businesses. Few have recruiters and if they have a full time Human Resource professional on staff, they likely wear many hats.

Bad: An ATS is not a replacement for good recruiting. Word-of-mouth and networking in the right channels remains the best source of quality candidates especially in industries or regions that have a shortage of skilled workers. The biggest benefit of automating employee screening in your company is that time saved reviewing applications from non-qualified and unqualified candidates can be invested in reaching qualified applicants.

2. Candidate Engagement

Good: An ATS improves the branding and image of an employer by showing a level of sophistication in your business practices. Many times it is the first contact a candidate might have with your business and it presents a progressive company image. That’s a competitive advantage. A company career website that links to an ATS beats submitting an application and resume to an anonymous email hands down. But qualified candidates aren’t interested in interacting with your ATS. They want your personal touch.

Bad: “Applicant tracking is to recruiting what order tracking is to sales. Tracking an order doesn’t close the sale,” writes a reviewer on Software Advice. It organizes process and ensures “things don’t fall through the cracks.” Quality employees expect a level of personal engagement beyond automated responses, especially those that merely acknowledge receipt of an application. Automated emails should be written so that they read like a human wrote it. But they substitute for a personal note or phone call. Automated emails merely free up more time to spend with your more promising applicants.

3. Recruiting Strategy.

Good: Automated applicant processing improves implementation and execution of a recruiting strategy. It reduces the labor and resources - generally the most expensive cost of recruiting - required to review, screen, and store applications from unqualified candidates. It makes a good process better. It doesn’t make a bad process good.

Bad: An ATS is only a tool. Like CRM software, applicant tracking software automates administrative tasks so recruiters, HR, and hiring managers can focus on high potentials. It is a means to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of recruiting. It is not itself a process nor is it a replacement for recruiters and HR. It simply makes better use of a company’s time, money, and resources.

We have moved beyond the age in nearly all aspects of business where automation is enough. No business can remain competitive without an ample source of job candidates, quality engagement with applicants, and a solid strategy.

ATS software is a necessity these days but it merely allows small business to wear big-boy pants in a very competitive and sophisticated war for talent.

Aptitude Tests Help Fit Applicants to Right Jobs

Ira Wolfe — Sun, 06 May 2012 19:04:00 GMT

Comparing employees to square pegs and round holes seems to be a bit cold-hearted. But the message behind that image is the key to hiring the right person.

People aren’t pegs, of course, but some people simply fit into a job slot better than others, because of their knowledge and innate abilities. Their personality, their existing skills, and their capacity to learn can all help predict which candidates will perform up to expectations in a particular job.

Using pre-employment aptitude tests is the best way to help predict which candidates are the best fit for your company. Aptitude tests can be tailored specifically for the job you are trying to fill, targeting exactly the traits that best match the job or the traits found in previous successful holders of the job. These may be traits that won’t be visible on a resume or during an interview, so testing can help you select the best candidate out of the applicant pool.

In addition to personality traits, a good aptitude test will look at a job candidate’s mental abilities, including cognitive ability and skills with logical thinking, conceptual thinking, abstract thinking, comprehension, and spatial relations. The results can be analyzed to show you the applicant’s strengths, so you can determine how he could best be placed in your company. The test results can also help you determine who would be a poor fit (you might not want someone with low math skills handling money or low stress management skills working customer service, for example).

An often overlooked opportunity resulting from using employee assessments is development. The test results show individual skills and preferences. With training, many employees can learn new skills that offset weaknesses or improve proficiency in administrative and technical areas.

Administering pre-employment aptitude tests can help you narrow the applicant pool to the top contenders before you interview anyone. At a time when technology has made it easy for jobseekers to apply for jobs, even those they aren't qualified, an effective hiring process and employee screening system is a necessity to filter our high-risk candidates quickly.

With test results in hand, employers can then tailor interview questions to check out any perceived weaknesses in the individual candidates, making the most effective use of the time spent in the interview. The test results, combined with a structured behavioral interview, can help select the best person for the job, and avoid the expense and trouble of making a bad hire.

As many hiring manager know, the wrong hire, like a square peg, can rarely be made into a good fit for your company.

5 Steps to Improve Manager Interviewing Skills

Ira Wolfe — Thu, 03 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT

I've written several posts about how ineffective the interview is in hiring the right employees the first time. To be fair, the interview can be effective when hiring managers have the training and the skills needed. But even a good behavioral interviewer can only uncover so much information assuming the candidate is a good interviewee and not over-spinning the truth.

But even I was shocked earlier this month when I attended a human resource association meeting. The presenter asked for a show of hands to "how many people use behavioral interviewing as part of their hiring system?" Nearly everyone in the audience of nearly 100 professionals raised their hands. She followed with this question: "Can anyone give an example of how behavioral interviewing improved their hiring process?"

Not a hand went up. Zero. None. Nada.

Based on studies assessing the predictability of common hiring tools, the interview is only 52 percent effective. What this means is that for every hire a company makes using the interview alone, it will take nearly two new hires to find one right employee who can do the job.

The cost of this ineffectiveness is huge. For every $10,000 a company spends on hiring using the interview, it costs them over $19,000 before they find the right employee.

Where does this leave a hiring manager? First, it is imperative that managers become better interviewers. Below I have included five steps to help improve interviewing success. But even under the best of circumstances, the interview lacks predictability. Businesses demand better in today's competitive job and economic markets.

The solution is job matching. Job matching, a combination of a behavioral interview combined with appropriate behavioral, personality and ability testing increases the odds of hiring success to a whopping 87 percent. In terms of dollars invested in hiring the right employee, job matching saves more than 40 percent compared to the interview. For every $10,000 the cost to hire using job matching is under $12,000. (Remember the cost to hire using the interview alone was over $19,000.)

Now first things first. Let's start by improving the interview.

By using the following five interview steps, you will start putting the odds in your favor at getting what you need to know about a candidate at the interview.

1. Ask only interview questions that are job related. Identify a maximum of three to five non-negotiable competencies or skills the candidate must have to perform the job.

2. For each competency or skill, write three or four behavioral interview questions for each skill or competency. Additional competencies may be added and asked only if the candidate satisfactorily responds to these "non-negotiable skill" questions.

3. Use open-ended questions whenever possible. Examples

a. Describe for me.....

b. How would you....

c. Why did.......

d. Offer another example.....

e. If you had to .....

4. During the interview, limit your talking to no more than 20 percent of the interview time. Eighty percent of the time should be spent observing and listening. The purpose of the interview is to explore the fit of the candidate to the job, team and company culture. Selling the candidate on your company (assuming you want him/her) comes at follow-up interviews or just before the job offer.

5. Allow time for candidates to ask questions. Listen to the questions that are asked. Do they indicate the candidate has researched the company and understands the job or is the candidate focused on salary and benefits and vacation days?

Observe if the candidate appears confident or reluctant in asking the question. Having no questions to ask can also be a red-flag indicating lack of interest, low curiosity, or lack of preparedness.

Poor Interviewing Skills Cause Hiring Mistakes

Ira Wolfe — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT

We left off last week with Michael, our motor-mouth manager, doing all the talking during an interview for a key position. To re-read Part 1, click here.

In response to last week's column, I did receive several emails in response to my challenge of "can you top that?" Below are a few of my favorite responses: they ranged from illegal questions to "incredulous."

First, the illegal question of the day:

"Will your husband be upset if you aren't home to put dinner on the table at 6:00?"

From another reader I received:

"I was interviewing for a receptionist/inside sales/customer service position with a small company that had a great product and a good reputation. I was excited about all the different things I would be earning and the various career paths the job could lead to. The interview went very well. I received a call back, not to offer me the job, not to tell me I had been denied, but to go out on a date!"

So....back to more talk about why the interview just isn't cracked up to be all it is thought to be. Even if you can get beyond the hiring manager asking illegal questions and using the interview process as an alternative for speed dating, the reliability of the interview just does not cut it as a predictor of job success, regardless of how many years you've been interviewing or how many people you've hired. The job market has changed, the jobs are more complex and the candidates are more savvy and sophisticated.

As you just read, reliability is closely aligned to the competence of the interviewer. By most people's standard, Michael's meeting with the candidate could hardly be called an interview. That however doesn't stop managers from using Michael's interview format as the tool of choice: the manager talks and the candidate listens. The questions they ask are superficial at best and the accuracy of these hiring decisions are no better than if the manager flipped coins and circumvented the interview entirely.

Even more challenging these days is the reliability of the candidate.

Fibs, fables and outright lies are sprinkled throughout resumes today like never before. Candidates are coached in high schools and colleges by career counselors. Terminated employees are mentored by high profile outplacement services on how to put their best foot forward.

Candidates are well versed in role playing the most-asked interview questions. Ask a question and the candidate likely has been practicing the answer. (Don't believe me? Just Google "interview questions" and see how many sites offer answers to the most popular interview questions.)

Skilled interviewers understand it is not asking the "best" question that is important, but observing and listening for the responses. Too often hiring managers and human resource professionals get hung up on finding the best questions to get the right answer and avoid any training in interviewing techniques because they feel it's beneath them or not their job. Egos get in the way of objectivity.

Interviewers should focus on a few questions, then sit back to observe and listen. Unlike Michael and many others like him, the interviewer should do less than 20 percent of the talking. Armed with as few as a handful of open-ended questions, a good interviewer can elicit everything they need to know and more by just adding, "Interesting, tell me more" or "Can you give me a time when you repeated that success" or "What would you do differently the next time?" It really doesn't matter what question you ask or what response is given, open-ended questions serve as a catalyst for more questions if you just observe and listen. Although I prepare for interviews by having ten questions, I rarely need more than two or three before the candidate begins telling me their story. By listening to what they say and how they say it, candidates cover all the bases without much prompting.

What other factors besides the competence of the interviewer and the reliability of the candidate might influence the job success predictability of the interview? The setting although subtle, has an effect on both the interviewer and interviewee. Is the setting professional, clean and quiet or is the interview taking place in a cluttered office, with peeling paint, stained ceiling tiles, and constant interruptions? The environment will affect how the interviewer interviews and candidates respond.

Rapport also has a lot to do with the quality of the interview. Just the body language of the manager or the tone and pace of the candidate (or vice versa) can make or break a candidate's chances to get the job or a company's chance to recruit the candidate.

Where does this leave us? By following 5 interview tips, you will be able to ensure that your new hires have the best chance of success on the job. So stay tuned for Part 3.

In the meantime..........

Michael is not the only manager who lacks interview style and skills.

Post your interview "war stories" below: comments made by managers that forced your jaw to drop, questions asked that made you cringe.

Manager Interviewing Skills Cause Hiring Mistakes

Ira Wolfe — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Last week a client asked me to be an observer in a series of job interviews. These interviews were for new positions on a new service line. The margin of error for hiring mistakes was zero to none. In other words, one wrong hire and the whole project could go up in smoke. The "drop-dead" deadline for opening had already passed and any additional delays would only add costs, reduce sales, and turn the company from front-runner to has-been.

The first interview was scheduled for 9 AM. Additional interviews were scheduled on the hour throughout the day. Prior to the interview, I spoke with Michael, the manager and interviewer, and asked him how much, if any, he wanted me to participate in asking questions. Michael had been the CFO of a two-billion dollar business before being recruited to run and turn-around this new venture. "I've been interviewing for over thirty years and have hired nearly 1,000 employees," he responded. "Just watch and tell me if you see anything I miss."

I wanted to ask him about the 1,000 he hired. How many successful hires had he made, how many failed? I wanted to ask him but I decided in the interest of time to go with his game plan. It didn't take me long to figure out the answer.

At 9:25 AM, 25 minutes into the interview, Michael was still talking. With the exception of a brief "good morning and I really appreciate the opportunity to interview with you," the candidate hadn't spoken another word. It's not that she didn't want to; she wasn't given the chance. From the very start, Michael took over the interview. I was amazed how long he could talk without taking a breath.

Both the candidate and I heard about the whole history of the company, Michael's role in the company, Michael's role in the project, how he'd hired and managed over 1,000 employees in his career, and what Michael was looking for in the candidate he was about to hire.

Throughout Michael's monologue, I couldn't help but see the dazed look in the candidate's eyes. Finally she made eye contact with me and her glare shouted out: "Don't just sit there, rescue me."

Ten minutes later, I couldn't take it anymore. I interrupted Michael and asked the candidate, why she was pursuing this position? Before she had a chance to utter a word, Michael jumped in and answered my question! He told her how thrilled he was to be working for this company and what a fantastic opportunity this was for the right person. Unfortunately I had no clue at this point if the candidate was qualified or interested.....and neither did Michael.

Finally, the clock approached 9:50 AM. Only ten minutes to go and Michael finally got around to asking his first question: Does this job seem like something you'd be interested in? Hopefully he didn't see my dumbfounded look. How could he ask the question: what could he possibly know about the candidate? He didn't ask her a single job skill-relevant question. Hope still loomed as he asked his second question: are there any questions you have about the job? The candidate smiled and said no. "You did a great job explaining the job," she said, "and I'm really interested."

We all stood up, shook hands, and I escorted her to the front door. End of interview for candidate #1.

When I returned to the room, Michael had a big smile and asked what I thought. Before I had a chance to answer, Michael told me "she's the one." I asked him what he liked about her. "I learn a lot by just observing how they listen to me," he shared. "When you've been around as long as I have, you get a sixth sense about people."

Unfortunately this interview process was repeated another seven times during the day.

Interviewing remains the most popular assessment for employee screening, and the reliability remains low, often in the 50 percent range. Michael is not the only manager who lacks interview style and skills, especially when managers are left to their own devices.

In an upcoming post, I'll address five tips for improving the job interview and recommend a process that is proven to be 70 percent more effective than the interview.

In the meantime..........

Post your interview "war stories" below: comments made by managers that forced your jaw to drop, questions asked that made you cringe.

Excuses, Excuses, and More Customer Service Excuses

Ira Wolfe — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 17:11:00 GMT

You've likely been on the receiving end of one or more of these bad customer service excuses:

"My computer is down."
"We're short-handed"
"I'm all by myself."
"The salesperson didn't give me the right information"
"I've been off work. Please bear with me."
"I'm just filling in."

Customers are tired of the excuses employees give instead of delivering excellent customer service. We've all been customers ourselves, and we're tired - tired of inadequate service, a lack of concern, and a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. We're tired of being told everything under the sun except that which we long to hear, "How may I help you?" followed by the appropriate action.

Because so many companies neglect customer service, good customer service is a competitive edge.

Delivering good customer service begins with hiring customer service representatives that have the right personality fit, service attitude, and customer service skills. Good customer service skills require the active listening, etiquette, problem solving, and general reasoning skills. A positive customer service orientation, collaboration, teamwork, and communication skills are also critical. Candidates can be screened for all these job requirements before they get hired by using customer service pre-employment tests.

Once on the job, training is important. The book "Excuses, Excuses, Excuses" is an excellent ice-breaker for departmental meetings and training. "Excuses, Excuses, Excuses....For Not Delivering Excellent Customer Service - and What Should Happen!" highlights 117 excruciatingly-painful-but-all-too-common Customer Service Excuses followed by common sense recommendations and insights to delivering good customer service. This book is for any company, business, or organization that deals with customers and has a passionate desire to survive. This book is about excuses we both hear and use for not giving excellent customer service and how to shoot those excuses down.

You can order Excuses, Excuses, Excuses online now or call 800.803.4304. Supplies are limited.

3 Characteristics Top Performers Must Have

Ira Wolfe — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:17:00 GMT

Ask a dozen people to describe the most important characteristics and competencies of the ‘right’ or ‘best’ employee for a job and you’ll often get at least 12 different answers.

Most managers agree that the right employee must be honest, reliable, and motivated; however, consensus on the next most important criteria for job success is less obvious after listing those qualities.

Some managers consider a candidate’s long-term commitment (loyalty) to the company as a non-negotiable requirement. Others value a candidate with the flexibility to adapt to new roles and working conditions. Good interpersonal skills are fairly common items on many lists too. As the wish list of qualities of the dream-team employee grows longer, managers begin to create a wish list of skill sets that would likely require nothing short of a miracle to find in one individual.

The secret, from my meta-study of the research, to finding the high performing employee is to narrow down the wish-list criteria to three essential requirements. Every employee must fit all three of these requirements to be successful, although the order of importance might vary from business to business, manager to manager, or location to location. These three requirements are:

Job Skills: Does the candidate have the technical and soft skills to do the job?

Team Fit: Will the candidate work well with the rest of the team?

Culture Fit: Will the candidate be motivated by the culture, responsibilities, and incentives offered by the company?

Most managers tend to focus on only one or the other. A common approach is to hire attitude and culture fit because skills can be trained. It’s also quite popular to give deference to job skills and consider team and culture fit as an after-thought. But a good employee will have what it takes to fit well in all three areas.

For instance, have you ever managed an employee who had a great personality but only marginal job skills? The employee was probably well liked by all. He was loyal and hard- working, yet there were still problems with his performance – he could not see the big picture and had an inability to learn new skills. The employee just couldn’t seem to keep pace, but co-workers would defend and protect him, even if it meant that they work off the clock to complete his projects. In that scenario, the employee’s fit with your team and culture may be stronger drivers for long-term retention than job skills because terminating the employee for non-performance and low productivity would likely create an employee revolt.

Or, consider the sales superstar who brings in 50 percent of your revenues, or the manager who consistently improves productivity year after year. These employees may be the round peg in the round hole when it comes to sales or operations, but they are clearly the very square peg on a team of round holes when it comes to charisma and building relationships. These employees are insidiously toxic to the culture. No co-worker would lift a finger or go one step out of their way to help these employees. If these jerks aren’t run off first, they will run off the rest of your team. If minimizing turnover and encouraging long-term commitments from your team is a critical strategy, then hiring candidates for their job skills without considering their fit within your team and culture is a disaster waiting to happen.

A candidate is deemed a good fit for the organization if he/she (i) has the necessary job skills (or can learn them, if applicable) for the position, (ii) complements and supports co-workers, and (iii) is motivated by the company’s culture.

To recruit and hire employees who meet all three requirements for good job fit, I’ve outlined 7 surefire steps to hiring top performers. You can download a free step-by-step guide here.

How to Hire Employees with Good Customer Service Skills

Ira Wolfe — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Your business can offer the most amazing products and launch the greatest marketing campaigns, but without good customer service skills, you'll have a tough time bringing customers back, let alone building loyalty.

Like other office skills, customer service skills can be measured with online tests to measure proficiency and knowledge. But skills may not be enough. Customer service personality tests measure the candidate's behavior and personality fit in most customer service jobs.

To identify good customer service skills and job fit, these are the things you need to measure.

Interpersonal Skills
Some jobs can be performed with little to no human interaction. Customer service isn't one of them, so interpersonal skills are essential if one's customer service potential is going to be assessed.

Customer service workers must maintain a postive attitude and be friendly and sociable. They have to be eager to approach customers, answer questions, and respond to various issues. Skill tests will show you which candidates have these traits, as well as which of these traits could use some improvement.

Conflict Management
Every customer service representative (CSR) inevitably has to deal with a difficult customer who seems impossible to please. It can send even the most patient person over the edge, but strong conflict management skills make these customers easier to work with. By giving customer service skill tests that raise hypothetical stressful situations and ask how applicants might react to them, you can find out who can manage those situations and bring them to a peaceful resolution.

But knowing what to do and say is only half the battle when it comes to delivering excellent customer service. CSRs have to keep their cool with even the most hostile customers. Sometimes that's easier said than done. Five factor pre-employment tests help assess an applicant's resiliency and how applicants cope with stress.

Problem Solving
While most customer service issues can be resolved in minutes, some situations can be real head-scratchers. When there's no quick and easy solution, a good customer service rep knows where to find one.

Problem solving is one of the most valuable customer service qualities. Good problem solving includes both critical thinking skills and the ability to think on your feet. Skill tests let applicants demonstrate their ability to find creative solutions, or to find the resources or people who can quickly. This is the kind of thinking that can differentiate your customer service reputation from the competition.

Customer service representatives are interacting with customers all the time. They need the necessary skills to manage those relationships. When you test for good customer service skills, you find the people who are best qualified to leave your customers raving about their experience.

Discover Six Employee Motivators That Drive Employee Engagement

Ira Wolfe — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Recruiting employees with the right skills is hard enough. But hiring job applicants without understanding their fit into the company culture is a recipe for low employee motivation and engagement.

To assess good company culture - employee fit, management and HR first must be able to identify and quantify the motivators that drive customer and employee behavior and then figure out what rewards and benefits they can provide that push the right buttons.

Employee selection therefore must include a process to assess candidate values to confirm he or she will be engaged and motivated by the work environment, the job itself, the rewards, and the benefits.

(Keep reading to learn how to receive a FREE copy of the book Understanding Business Values and Motivators.)

One model that helps companies create a blueprint for employee motivators and business values is based on the work of Eduard Spranger. His research identified six core values that drive employee behaviors and therefore employee engagement and productivity.

The six values and how they impact recruitment and retention are:

Conceptual Value – Organizations that promote continuous learning, research, subject matter expertise, and problem solving attract employees who share the conceptual value. Individuals in these cultures are self-motivated by the discovery of truth. They are generally curious and inquisitive, with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Objectivity reigns and problems are solved based on facts, not hunches or gut instinct. A theme for the Conceptual organization might be “knowledge is power.”

Aesthetic Value – Form, harmony and beauty pervade cultures that value aesthetics. Individuals most comfortable in these cultures tend to be inner-directed and self-actualizing, searching for the link between their job and a greater purpose. Cultures that encourage self-expression and individualism are easily identifiable with the Aesthetic value. Aesthetic cultures are most often shared by employees in businesses that value the arts, design, creative marketing, and environment. “Be yourself” might be theme for the Aesthetic culture.

Economic Value – Talk about the bottom line dominates the Economic –driven culture. Return on investment drives all decisions and discussions. Individuals who thrive in the Economic culture value efficiency and resourcefulness. Everything and everyone is measured by time, money, and effort. Top performing sales organizations are driven by the Economic Value. “Money is power” or “Waste not, want not” could be the slogan for the Economic Value.

Power and Authority Value – “Winning is everything “sums up the Power & Authority culture. Organizations that encourage intense competition, power rankings, and dangle corner offices as rewards epitomize the Power & Authority driven culture. GE under Jack Welch prototyped the Power & Authority culture, when the top 20% were celebrated and the bottom 10% “retired.” Individuals in these cultures want to be control of their own destiny beyond anything else. When these energies can be channeled toward a common purpose, winning teams results. When individuals turn rogue, the cultures can become cut-throat and dysfunctional. “Second place is the first place for losers” dominates Power & Authority thinking.

Social Value – When management talks about creating a “family-like” culture, they are referring to the Social value. The Social culture promotes harmony, collaboration, team-work and community involvement. The Social-driven culture is most often associated with Best Places to Work companies and is often the driving force behind community activism. Nearly every mission and values statements of Social driven organizations includes words such as work-life balance, family values, and quality of life. A Social culture theme might be “one for all, all for one” or “it’s better to give than receive.”

Doctrine Value – The Doctrine-driven culture epitomizes an organization that walks and talks a particular viewpoint. It is most often associated with faith based organizations. But other cultures like the military, police and political parties also attract individuals who are willing to fight – and sometimes die - for a particular cause. Doctrine-driven cultures exude passion but are the most likely to struggle with change, adaptation, and diversity. The Doctrine value drives much of the rhetoric during political campaigns when the extreme views of one party claims that the election of one party over the other guarantees the entire country will be pushed to the brink of collapse and ruin.

Assessing what matters most to management, its current workforce, and job applicants is easy. The Business Values and Motivators assessment is only 12-questions. It's completed online and takes only 10 to 15 minutes to complete. A team or company map can then be compiled that displays the distribution of managers and employees. Patterns often expose similariites between participants as well as values that are less important. These patterns might expose opportunities to leverage or threats to strategy execution.

To learn more about each of the values and how they impact employee motivation, employee engagement, and subsequently productivity and employee turnover, download a free copy of the book Business Values and Motivators - for a limited time only.

Master Good Interviewing Skills in 2 Easy Steps

Ira Wolfe — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Your ability to hire the right employees is only as strong as your interviewing skills. That's why your interview question skills need to be up to snuff if you're going to compete effectively in the war for talent.

Job candidates get all kinds of advice about how to conduct themselves in interviews. Interviewers often don't any behavioral interview training. When they do get training, it is often a crash course or an HR legal workshop on questions managers can and cannot ask.

But, as an interviewer, you're the one who should control of the interview. If your skills aren't as strong as they should be, the entire hiring process suffers because you're not getting the information you need to make an informed decision.

Recruiters, hiring managers, and HR professionals can avoid this scenario by following these steps to mastering interviewing skills.

Brush up on the basics.
Even the most seasoned hiring managers were once thrown into the interview den and started interviewing candidates without ever learning the basics of interviewing. This is a big mistake especially when the cost of a bad hire runs in the thousands of dollars, even for an entry level worker.

The first and most essential step to learning basic interviewing skills is to read blogs, download ebooks, and visit websites. There are plenty of websites that offer interview question checklists and training videos. A quick Google search of “interview training for managers” produces over 35 million results. Local SHRM groups sponsor many seminars for first time managers as well as refresher courses for experienced recruiters.

Practice, practice, practice interviewing
Practice makes perfect, so put your skills to work by role playing an interview with people you know. Conduct a mock interview and ask for feedback on how you explained the job or the organization, how you evaluated the candidate, and whether you missed anything. Watch and listen to interviews on TV and radio. Listen to how they set the rapport and follow up on questions. Observe how they handle the nervous guest as well as the evasive one. Take notes, prepare questions you plan to ask, and practice again.

A good interviewer knows how to get the candidate to relax and when to challenge. Develop checklists handy for every type of phone screen and face-to-face interviews. Master the art of the interview and start adding real star power to your workforce.

Test your interview skills NOW!
What better way to gauge your interviewing skills than by testing them? Click here – instant results.

Applicant Tracking System: Faster Screening, Higher Productivity

Ira Wolfe — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT

It is no longer a secret that companies get dozens of resumes and cover letters for every job they post. It is also common knowledge that after a while, all those resumes form a stack so high that recruiters and hiring managers get lost in the paperwork. What you may not know is that an applicant tracking system can make recruitment of qualified workers a lot easier and more effective.

Applicant tracking systems allow recruiters and HR departments to build searchable databases that organize and manage information on every job applicant. These systems are finding their way into more small and medium sized businesses because they save recruiters and HR teams precious time and resources.

Here are three ways they do it.

Better Organization

For many HR managers, stacks of resumes go into stacks of folders, which go into stacks of file cabinets and are never seen again. Even resumes that are filed electronically are hard to organize because they're saved as separate files, often on manager desktops and company servers, in different folders.

With an applicant tracking software, all job candidates apply online where their applications are entered into one database, which recruiters can access to evaluate and categorize, and then forward the most qualified to hiring managers. An ATS makes the information searchable and easier to find. A single database lets you search for specific job titles, qualifications, and experience. Equally important, it lets you build a talent pool in which past job applicants can be contacted who might be the right fit for another job opening.

Better Screening

You're looking for a particular type of job applicant, one with a specific skill set or experience. Are you going to flip through hundreds of resumes to find it? Not very likely. Generally speaking, hiring managers might scan the first 50, select a few applicants that catch thier eye, and begin the email/voice mail chase. Unfortunately the most qualfied candidate might be #51 or #116. With an applicant tracking system that includes the option of creating screening filter questions, a recruiter or manager can quickly reach the diamonds in the rough, not having to hunt and peck.

For instance, if you want to fill a marketing position with an applicant with 5 years of experience, you could search the database for resumes featuring words like "marketing" or "advertising" and "5 or more years." You could also search for specific locations, companies, or colleges. Whatever types of candidates you want, a tracking system helps you find them.

Higher Productivity

Instead of spending days opening emails, reviewing resumes, and filing folders, you can focus your time and resumes with the most qualified candidates. Interviews can be schduled quicker allowing more quality time to be spent with top candidates. The less time spent on administrative tasks frees up resources for current employees, which improves retention and creates a more productive workforce.

By deploying an applicant tracking systems, companies can screen applicants faster, hire smarter, and retain employees longer.

General Mental Ability Tests Improve Hiring Decisions

Ira Wolfe — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Today's jobs are more complex than ever. Most workers aren't doing just one thing anymore; they're solving problems, managing projects, and finding creative ways to improve their companies' operations and performance.

A candidate might say he has experience in these areas, but does he have the ability? How can you be sure that the candidate in front of you can tackle all the challenges of the job? Critical thinking skill tests provide the answer.

These are the best reasons to use critical thinking skill tests in your hiring and recruitment process.

1. Better Employee Performance
People use critical thinking skills in their everyday lives to manage finances, make household repairs, care for their children, and a host of other things. If their critical thinking skills improve their personal affairs, imagine what they can do for your business.

Employees with strong critical thinking skills can manage multiple projects at once, create better workflows for themselves and their teams, and deliver quality work. Critical thinking skills are valuable in the workplace, and cognitive skill tests help you find the candidates that can add the most value.

2. More Innovation
People with strong thinking skills know how to work more efficiently, so they also know how to develop solutions that help others do the same. In other words, strong thinking abilities can equal innovative ideas. For example:

People with spatial skills know how to organize offices and turn abstract thoughts into clear visuals.
Those with mechanical skills create products that solve everyday problems.
Those with verbal skills communicate and summarize important ideas quickly.

All these things can be developed and standardized for others to follow. Anyone can implement new systems and procedures, but people with strong general mental abilities know how to create them.

3. Competitive Advantage

When your staff has demonstrated strong thinking skills, they know how to innovate and deliver key products and services, including the products and services you offer to customers.

Companies don't generally talk about the critical thinking skills of their employees, but they do talk about their staff's expertise, knowledge, and level of service. Those with strong thinking abilities know how to provide these things in a way that sets your business apart from others who don't perform such tests.

A business is only as strong as the people working in it. Make sure your business has the best in the field; use critical thinking skill tests and find the people that can make your company work more creatively, and efficiently.

Which is Better: Employee Screening vs. Job Selection Assessments?

Ira Wolfe — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 19:00:00 GMT

Employee testing is becoming commonplace in the workplace. More and more employers are using or considering the use of employee screening and selection assessments to help them ensure they hire or promote the right fit.

But this increased popularity raises the level of confusion as human resource professionals and hiring managers resolve to find the best assessments for their company. Turning to Google is little help since a simple search for the keywords “pre-employment test” turns up nearly 17,000,000 results in less than 0.25 seconds.

The first step in due diligence should be to decide if an employee screening or job fit selection test is the best choice. You might ask “what’s the difference” because the terms screening, selection, pre-employment test, and employee assessment are often used interchangeably.

An analogy I found helpful is this:

The typical employee is hired using the assessment battery of a resume, several interviews and background checks. But studies have demonstrated time and again that this combo is just slightly more effective than flipping a coin. That’s like trying to read the bottom lines of an eye chart from 20 feet away. A few people might be able to pick out a few of the letters; most people will likely see no more than a blurry line.

That opens the door for pre-employment tests to help screen out and select in the right job applicants.

When reading, one might try to move closer to the chart. Unfortunately that doesn’t work quite so well when interviewing, even when you are sitting toe-to-toe. Another option might be to use a magnifying glass. Of course, a magnifying glass (that is, the pre-employment screening test) can enhance the interview plus uncover a few hidden blemishes the candidate might be hiding. The interviewer can then focus the interview on the potential weak areas or challenges, likely missed during the traditional interview and resume review.

Pre-employment screening tests are best used when the purpose is to easily disqualify, or “knock-out”, the unqualified and poor fit candidates as early in the hiring process as possible. That’s because screening assessments identify high-risk behaviors. They are best at weeding out poor fits quickly. Screening tests may confirm a candidate’s assets but expose those blemishes too that get missed too often. It’s quite easy for a candidate to hide those blemishes and modify his or her appearance and behavior with a little interview “make-up.”

Pre-employment screening tests however don’t generally probe deeply enough to answer questions about skills such as decision making, customer service, problem solving, or leadership, or motivating employees.

Pre-employment selection tests, often called job fit personality assessments, are the equivalent of examining the eye chart under a microscope. The hiring manager will get to see more than just clear, sharp letters; he can examine the “pixels” that make up the letters. Selection assessments expose not only the surface blemishes but also their “DNA” – job potential, mental abilities, motivators, values, and behavioral style. In other words, pre-employment tests reveal what makes the candidate tick. These employee assessment tests measure a candidate’s potential for competence, cognitive skills, behavioral styles, business values, team fit with co-workers and even cultural fit with the organization.

Want to learn more about which pre-employment assessment is better? Click here to download our free ebook "How to Hire Top Performers?"

Critical Thinking Skill Tests Make Good Sense

Ira Wolfe — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:45:00 GMT

Critical thinkers look at issues with clear eyes and an open mind. They know which problems to focus on and use a cool, logical head to find the best way to solve them. They also can make good decisions quickly even when faced with ambiguity and paradox.

Critical thinking skills are vital to a company's success, and companies that test for critical thinking skills are far more likely to succeed than those that don't. Here are three reasons why.

Stronger Project Management

Even small-scale projects have a lot of moving pieces, including schedules and budgets, goals and benchmarks, and team members handling important tasks. The people managing these projects have to look at all these parts as a whole unit.

Critical thinking skill tests help you find people that can take this big-picture view. When you test for critical thinking, you discover who has the capacity to set priorities, keep projects on track, and make sure everyone is working together to meet one common goal.

Better Decision Making

One of the most important skills critical thinkers possess is the ability to secure input from as many sources as possible, analyze the information quickly, consider the options, and then make the right decision. They don't rush to judgment, but also don't hesitate to make a decision when it needs to be made. This leads to smarter decisions and better results for your company. Critical thinking skill tests help you identify the people with these decision-making skills.

Greater Long-Term Planning

Because critical thinkers can see the big picture, they can also recognize the long-term impact of their decisions. When you test for critical thinking skills, you test a person's ability to look beyond the here and now when they act.

People who can't look beyond the short term tend to vacillate from one idea to another. This makes consistent long-term strategies difficult to develop and impossible to execute, leaving the whole company in disarray. Critical thinkers keep their focus on end goals and take careful steps to reach them. Their decisions are more thoughtful and have more impact because they've taken the short- and long-term views into account.

Strong critical thinking skills are the key to a stable, focused, and organized company. Test for critical thinking skills and you'll find the right people to keep your business on solid ground.

Learn How Employers Save 3 Ways With Customer Service Skills Testing

Ira Wolfe — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Customer service has long been considered a ‘soft skill’ by the corporate community. Unfortunately for employers, customer service skills are notoriously hard to teach to people without the right personality and/or motivation for direct customer interaction. With that in mind, many Human Resources departments are charged with hiring employees already grounded in good customer service. This isn’t always easy, however, because there is a huge demand for employees with good customer service skills; and identifying these skills through the traditional interview process is difficult at best.

Employees in every business, large or small, interact with people on a daily basis. Whether working with customers, vendors, creditors, investors or other employees, good service can make or break a company. Over time a company may be able to determine whether or not their representatives are providing good service by conducting customer surveys and analyzing direct customer feedback. The problem is that surveys take time to administer and by the time the resulting data is analyzed, a recently hired employee may have already caused irreparable damage to the customer relationship or company brand.

So how can an employer identify candidates qualified to build a high performance customer service organization prior to offering them a position? .

The answer is through pre-employment customer service skills testing. These skills tests, administered through a variety of comprehensive online tools, verify the employees’ potential and understanding of the processes and concepts associated with good customer service skills, and demonstrate the candidates’ ability and willingness to apply these skills in the workplace. These pre-employment tests can weed out candidates unable to communicate clearly, identify personality weaknesses that would make customer interactions challenging, and help determine their potential success in the posted position.

Customer service skills testing can result in three huge savings for employers: time, money, and resources. Validated and reliable skills tests can help employers differentiate between candidates that have the potential to quickly acclimate to the position they are trying to fill, and those jobseekers that are simply not a good job fit.

Customer service skills testing helps reduce costs by allowing the HR Department to screen out unsuitable candidates before the company invests both time and money in training people without the necessary skills to succeed in the position. These skills test results can also help reduce training time and ensure a shorter on-boarding period for new hires.

Customer service is often the defining element that separates a world class organization from the average company. Customer service skills testing is a solid investment in people, time, and funding. Customer service skills tests can help ensure that the new employees you hire are well-suited to the job, confident in their work, and professional in their interactions. What a great way to generate confidence and loyalty from your customers.

Click here to learn more about Customer Service Skill Tests.

7 Tips to Attract and Recruit More Top Performers

Ira Wolfe — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Make it visible. A company’s careers page should be clearly accessible from the homepage – a reasonably sized link or tab placed above the fold. If the applicant has to go on a search and seek mission to apply for a job at your company, you’re doing it wrong. Navigation should be intuitive and as simple as possible.
K.I.S.S. job descriptions. When it comes to job descriptions, They should be specific yet interesting. But Keep It Simple and too boring. Most importantly: no typos!
Got Benefits? If you offer benefits, brag about them.
Get social. A presence on social networking sites – LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook - is more important than ever. In fact, savvy skilled younger workers, especially Generation Y, seek companies that are connected.
Brand your company culture. Job seekers want to know what it will be like to work at your company. Companies spend significant time, money, and resources branding their company and culture to customers. But when it comes to job applicants, they are often treated as the fair-haired stepchild. Build an employer brand (including company culture, videos, bios, and community activities) into a company careers site.
Single recruiting software platform. Finding enough skilled workers requires sourcing candidates from multiple sources. That’s impossible to do without using some sort of automated applicant processing system. Employers must stay on top of the latest application technology – to manage an increasingly complicated recruitment process efficiently and to screen more candidates faster.
Keep in touch. There is nothing more unprofessional than receiving an application and ignoring the candidate. The best career websites acknowledge the recruitment process by laying out what’s next on the website or in a follow-up email. If a candidate is disqualified, let him know right away. If the process is delayed, don’t keep candidates in limbo.