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A Matter of Manner - Predicting behaviour, predicting performance
14 October 2009
You've probably heard the saying: People don't quit jobs, they quit managers. Much in similar vein is the view that although people might get hired based on their experience and skills, they often leave a company because of behavioural or personality clashes. Any business is about people.
It’s usually only when an appointment goes dreadfully wrong that the issue of behavioural assessment, also known as profiling or psychometric testing, is pulled out for airing. Almost every manager worth his or her salt has had the experience of a failed appointment – in spite of every earnest endeavour to get it right. When filing away the exit interview notes, it might be useful to ask the simple question: “Was it because knowledge, experience or intelligence were lacking, or was it because the behaviour was wrong for the role?” Often, it will come down to behaviour.
Even in a knowledge-based discipline like engineering there is a place for behaviour. Although inter-personal roles that involve customer interface or leadership may contain more behavioural elements, it would be a mistake to assume that behaviour needn't be scrutinised in technical roles. Remember the graduate with the genius IQ who had to be managed outbecause of laziness? Laziness is a behaviour.
Because behaviour profiling provides a greater understanding of how and why people in the work environment behave in a certain way, companies are increasingly beginning to rely on this type of testing as part of a more sophisticated and rigorous selection process.
The Paradox
“The human being is a complex creature – we need as much insight into likely future behaviours as we can get,” says Sonja Masters, Director of recruitment consultancy JSM Appointments.
The Paradox
“The human being is a complex creature – we need as much insight into likely future behaviours as we can get,” says Sonja Masters, Director of recruitment consultancy JSM Appointments.
A major engineering client of JSM Appointments introduced Masters to a behavioural assessment tool called Harrison Assessments. Their client's HR team had been using it for some years and found it sufficiently accurate to be helpful to themselves as in-house recruiters as well as to their line managers. “We now use this instrument in our own practice to provide added value to clients who want a behavioural assessment run on shortlisted candidates,” adds Masters.
Local distributor of the assessment tool and Director of Workplace Profiling Company, Ann David, explains that Harrison Assessments is a work preferences profiling system that was developed by Dan Harrison who has a PhD in Organisational Psychology. He first launched the tool in Australia in 1993. Since then, it has been adopted in 25 countries as a tool of choice for recruitment and employee development by small and large players including Boeing, Microsoft, Panasonic, Ericsson and Cisco.
It is based on two psychological theories, namely Enjoyment-Performance theory and Paradox theory. Enjoyment-Performance theory is common to many behavioural assessment instruments, but Paradox theory is quite unique to Harrison Assessments. Dr Harrison’s research led him to conclude that productive behaviour depends on the ability to exhibit complementary or 'balancing' behaviours simultaneously: this is the paradox. For example, a manager needs to be optimistic about a situation on the one hand, but also willing to simultaneously scrutinise the potential pitfalls.
“Where behaviours are imbalanced, this has the potential to be counter-productive,” notes David. “In the example above, an imbalance of too much optimism with an insufficient willingness to consider the pitfalls, would result in blind optimism – a dangerous behavioural combination. On the other hand, an over-emphasis on the potential downsides of a situation insufficiently balanced by optimism would result in unnecessary, perhaps debilitating, scepticism. It is the use of Paradox theory that makes it possible to assess both desirable and undesirable behaviours.”
The instrument measures over 150 behavioural traits by means of a 30-minute questionnaire that is cross-referenced by the software with thousands of mathematical calculations and then converted via algorithms into easy-to-read, plain English reports and graphs. 150 traits sounds like a lot – fortunately the puzzle of deciding which behavioural traits relate to which role type is solved by means of templates. Each of these templates is a piece of validated research in itself. The template filters out extraneous information from the report and encapsulates only those behavioural traits that are relevant to the specific role.
Knowledge is Power
“Dr Harrison believes in de-mystifying workplace psychology so that it is accessible to the average business decision-maker who, typically, is not a psychologist,” David continues. The instrument is web-based as this overcomes most software compatibility issues, administration of the questionnaire is online and reports can be generated as soon as the profile has been completed.
“Apart from the personal recommendation of a valued client, we adopted Harrison Assessments at JSM Appointments based on the impressive predictive validity case studies,” says Masters. “The tool has a good international client base, we find it easy to use and the training and accreditation programme that enables us to use it at expert level didn't take much time and included plenty of practical interpretation work. In addition to highlighting the job/person match or mismatch, the text reports also give valuable 'how to manage' information which is based on the needs of that person.”
It is based on two psychological theories, namely Enjoyment-Performance theory and Paradox theory. Enjoyment-Performance theory is common to many behavioural assessment instruments, but Paradox theory is quite unique to Harrison Assessments. Dr Harrison’s research led him to conclude that productive behaviour depends on the ability to exhibit complementary or 'balancing' behaviours simultaneously: this is the paradox. For example, a manager needs to be optimistic about a situation on the one hand, but also willing to simultaneously scrutinise the potential pitfalls.
“Where behaviours are imbalanced, this has the potential to be counter-productive,” notes David. “In the example above, an imbalance of too much optimism with an insufficient willingness to consider the pitfalls, would result in blind optimism – a dangerous behavioural combination. On the other hand, an over-emphasis on the potential downsides of a situation insufficiently balanced by optimism would result in unnecessary, perhaps debilitating, scepticism. It is the use of Paradox theory that makes it possible to assess both desirable and undesirable behaviours.”
The instrument measures over 150 behavioural traits by means of a 30-minute questionnaire that is cross-referenced by the software with thousands of mathematical calculations and then converted via algorithms into easy-to-read, plain English reports and graphs. 150 traits sounds like a lot – fortunately the puzzle of deciding which behavioural traits relate to which role type is solved by means of templates. Each of these templates is a piece of validated research in itself. The template filters out extraneous information from the report and encapsulates only those behavioural traits that are relevant to the specific role.
Knowledge is Power
“Dr Harrison believes in de-mystifying workplace psychology so that it is accessible to the average business decision-maker who, typically, is not a psychologist,” David continues. The instrument is web-based as this overcomes most software compatibility issues, administration of the questionnaire is online and reports can be generated as soon as the profile has been completed.
“Apart from the personal recommendation of a valued client, we adopted Harrison Assessments at JSM Appointments based on the impressive predictive validity case studies,” says Masters. “The tool has a good international client base, we find it easy to use and the training and accreditation programme that enables us to use it at expert level didn't take much time and included plenty of practical interpretation work. In addition to highlighting the job/person match or mismatch, the text reports also give valuable 'how to manage' information which is based on the needs of that person.”
Masters furthermore explains the key criteria that she believes should be considered when selecting a suitable assessment tool. “A good assessment tool will be reliable and consistent; show how the norms are derived and against what a person is measured; comply with legal and equal opportunity requirements; illustrate validity of the tests based on historical performance and feedback received from previous users and illustrate validity of the test in predicting future behaviour.”
According to Personnel Today (http://www.personneltoday.com), companies can achieve at least 10 top business benefits with psychometric testing: Attract better staff, make selection more objective, reduce selection mistakes, lower recruitment costs, minimise legal risks, recruit faster, measure the recruitment process, improve credibility, build teams and enhance management and development.
Behavioural profiling and assessment in the workplace provide insight into the way people prefer to work, manage and communicate. If one is aware of the strengths and limitations of employees one can consolidate or compensate accordingly. “We think that a good behavioural assessment instrument can provide valuable information that is almost impossible to glean in any way other than by spending unrealistic amounts of time with the candidate,” Masters concludes.
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