Mediocre Performers to Super Stars

By Bill Wagner Winter 2002

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Not only do tests aid the initial hiring process, it's a method to help existing employees learn how to use their talents more effectively.

A Harvard Business Review article reported that 80 percent of job failures could be traced directly to mistakes made in the selection process. The hard costs involved in hiring -- advertising, search agency fees, reference checks, start-up and training costs -- are only the tip of the financial iceberg. "Unhappy or ill-fitted employees can trigger a downward spiral of bad company morale, lost sales, poor customer relations, lost productivity, missed opportunities and expensive relocation costs," says Janet Shay, human resources manager at WCG, Inc. in Pasadena, Calif. It works like this: We have a first-time divorce rate in our country in excess of 50 percent. Yet no one enters marriage believing that it will ever end in divorce. But, if it's challenging for people to determine who they're marrying after five years of dating, then how easy is it to figure out who is really being hired after a three-hour interview! It isn't easy; it's virtually impossible. There are other hard-hitting realities. Today's job hunters are often media-coached, resume-assisted and interview-savvy. They are trained by professionals. They know how to come across as capable, efficient, experienced go-getters by projecting an image that may be more contrived than real. Worse yet is the inadequacy felt by many interviewers when evaluating a candidate's personality.

A Look at the Whole Person
Wise strategists know that the best defense is a good offense. Many companies have found that to gain a winning edge in the war for talent, it is important to tap reliable allies. This is where personality measuring is so valuable. Behavioral assessments range in cost from a per case basis of $100 to $200, to those that are licensed annually in the several thousand-dollar range. These are pen/paper or computer-based measurements that can take from a few minutes to several hours to complete. The strength behind a reliable, time-tested behavioral assessment is the way it measures character and personality traits vital for continued success on the job traits such as persistence, coping with stress, handling rejection, need for approval, sociability -- a measurement of the whole person.

A former president of Bethlehem Steel once said, "A railroad is 99 percent people and one percent iron." What he meant in part was the dire importance of getting the right people for the right tasks. Is Bernie LePage, who works at The Christian Memorial Cultural Center of Rochester Hills, Mich., adds, "I can honestly say that we've written millions of dollars of additional business just by having the right people in place." LePage found that behavioral assessments help employers on two fronts -- they are indispensable in matching applicants to the right job, as well as in the all important task of managing and coaching existing employees. Tests are particularly effective in the screening process, making sure the recruiter has the right people from the start.

Three Levels of Hiring
In today's recruiting market, it's important to know about the hidden agendas prevalent in every hiring interview. They revolve around three levels of appraisal. Level 1 characteristically evaluates candidates based on appearance, dress, self-expression, poise and professionalism. Level 2 involves such tangibles as experience, resumes, skills and education. Level 3 links to personal characteristics or personality, which involves measuring vital, long term behaviors such as attitudes and beliefs, self motivation, stability and persistence, maturity and judgment, and the capacity to learn. In short, those temperamental factors that make people do the things they do. "People make hiring mistakes when they base their candidate assessments on Level 1 and Level 2 criteria, which they understandably do because they are the easiest to determine and assess," says Michelle Gravelle of The McQuaig Institute in Ontario, Canada. "However, Level 3 characteristics must be assessed because they are the hardest things to change about a person and, ultimately, have the greatest impact on how well someone will perform and grow in a job."

Helping Managers Manage
Using behavioral assessments can be a double win for the organization. They not only give the interviewer an upper hand in the selection and screening of new employees, they also help managers become aware of the behavioral diversity that already exists in the office or on the factory floor. Robert Lavern of Tubman Funeral Homes in Ontario, Canada, is a believer in behavioral assessments. From his experience, accurate surveys allow managers to be more aware of different personalities in the workplace and the different styles needed to manage or motivate them. This involves a shift from the old career ladder model to the career lattice approach.

Some employees like the positions they are in. One of management's greatest challenges is accepting and understanding that many employees are happy in their current position with little or no desire for promotion. It is the confused will of management that keeps alive the fallacy that everyone wants to get ahead. Leaders have natural instinctive tendencies to promote people based on their skill, education and experience and they often fail. Why? They don't possess the right personality.

This is where scientifically researched, computer-based behavioral testing comes into play. The best behavior assessment tools will identify four key areas:

1. Dominance. Dominance is measured between two extreme reference points. People will either display tendencies of being more assertive or aggressive, and at the other extreme they will be the more accommodating or agreeable. The former typically makes a better leader and the latter a better follower. However, in the interview process it is difficult to distinguish whom the person really is.

2. Sociability. The sociability factor determines the preferred style of communication. Highly social individuals are usually better at working with people than systems, will be stronger in consensus-building, and will work effectively by, with, and through people. Their more computational counterparts are typically better working with systems, dealing with a more analytical process, and may be better troubleshooters and problem solvers. Imagination and creativity are the foundation that sustains these individuals.

3. Relaxation. This is a measurement of the pace at which people work. Those who are more relaxed are more comfortable dealing with repetitive tasks such as bookkeeping, engineering or construction work. Those with a lower level of relaxation get bored quickly and prefer working with a wide range of projects. They also have the ability to multitask and are better at dealing with stress.

4. Compliance. Compliance measures how well a person will do a project or task. Consider the "Odd Couple" of TV sitcom fame. The highly compliant Felix Unger, a professional photographer, was fastidious, well-organized and preferred security and structure. His roommate, the more independent Pro Sports Writer Oscar Madison was much more individualistic, strong-willed and occasionally stubborn. The key is knowing where each one fits.

The Perfect Personality?
Is there such a thing as the perfect personality? It depends on how well that personality matches the behavioral requirements of the job. Therein lies the challenge, which is to effectively and objectively match the behavioral requirements of the job with the behavioral attributes of a company's applicants or incumbents. Hiring is a lot like dating. When dating, people rarely project themselves as they really are. If they did, perhaps people would make different choices.

The evidence is hard to deny. Behavioral-assessment testing is a valuable strategic resource for any company or managerial team to possess. Issues of accountability, delegation and potential people conflicts within the organization can be identified ahead of time. By knowing and understanding behavioral traits and patterns, company executives and human resource staffers can save time, resources and money.

Objective Versus Subjective
Good assessment tools work well because they provide managers and hiring professionals with scientifically tested systems that get to the heart of the matter quickly. They measure objective, not subjective, factors. They help neutralize the "Law of the First Good Impression." These analytical tools help planners avoid placing the proverbial square peg in the round hole.

"When we place people with a temperament suited for service in such roles, they are able to handle 2,500 customers compared to 1,200 in the past," says Sandra Facey, a human resources coordinator at Johnson Inc., an insurance company based in northeast Canada.

In the early 1980s, Johnson Inc. was expanding at the rate of 10 percent annually. They needed a no-nonsense method to quickly screen recruits and get the most out of the existing staff.

In the 1990s, as Johnson competitors mushroomed, the need became even more imperative. A three-step process enabled employees at the company to more clearly define the job, assess each applicant, and enable mangers to retain the best people. 

Match and Win
Consider this: A manager purchasing a $100,000 computer system might invest hundreds of hours in due diligence. When the same amount of money is about to be invested in a person, barely five hours go into the interview process. The key to staying ahead in the war for talent is to identify prospective employee temperament and behavior patterns prior to the first interview. Then combine these indicators with traditional indicators of skill, education and experience.

Through assessment studies that measure more of the whole person, many companies are learning to meet the challenge of matching personalities to positions in the pre-hiring stage--and beyond. Using behavioral assessment is a win-win strategy. Managers gain valuable new insights into their staffs capabilities. And through assessment, employees learn to focus more realistically on their strengths and areas of development--an important first step in turning mediocre workers into superstars.

Bill Wagner is president of Accord Management Systems in California specializing in helping get the "people side" of business right.

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