The Importance of Putting The Right People in The Right Seats
by Ashley Ward and Alyssa Hannan
Traditional hiring practices often fall short of identifying the best candidates for a role. While most employers review resumes, conduct phone screenings, and hold in-person interviews, these steps alone may not be sufficient.
During the hiring process, most employers review a candidate’s resume, conduct a general screening interview over the phone, and finally, if the person seems to fit the position, they attend an in-person interview. By offering a Behavioral Assessment to the candidate, employers can significantly enhance their ability to select the right candidate from the outset, reducing turnover and increasing job satisfaction.
What is a Behavioral Assessment?
Behavioral assessments, such as those developed by the Predictive Index (PI), offer a deeper insight into a candidate’s potential fit within a company. Predictive Index offers a variety of psychometric assessments that can be used to better understand each employee as an individual and within the workplace.
Unlike standard personality tests, the PI Behavioral Assessment is an untimed, free-choice, stimulus-response tool designed to uncover key behavioral traits. This tool has been trusted by thousands of businesses worldwide for over 60 years to help identify candidates who are naturally inclined to succeed in specific roles.
The Behavioral Assessment is used to uncover the top five behavioral traits that are scientifically correlated to an employee’s success in the workplace. This assessment helps identify candidates who are hardwired to be a great fit for the job.
What does the Behavioral Assessment Measure?
The Behavioral Assessment measures five key factors that are associated with workplace behavior; dominance, extraversion, patience, formality, and objectivity. These five key factors, or key behavioral drives, provide a framework for understanding your employees’ and candidates’ workplace behaviors. Behavioral testing can dramatically improve the hiring process by measuring and predicting these five behaviors in candidates:
A. Dominance is the drive to exert influence on people or events.
B. Extraversion is the drive for social interaction with other people.
C. Patience is the drive for consistency and stability.
D. Formality is the drive to conform to rules and structure.
E. Objectivity is the basis of judgement.
How does the Assessment Work?
Individuals are presented two lists of descriptive adjectives. The first list asks them to select adjectives that describe how they believe others expect them to act. The second list asks them to select adjectives that they feel truly describe themselves. Each chosen adjective is linked to one of the five key factors, creating a behavioral profile that is plotted on a bell curve for detailed analysis. Each term is associated with one of the five key factors (A, B, C, D, E). The figure below represents the scale in which each individual is measured on a bell curve.
Equal Opportunity for All
The PI Behavioral Assessment is rigorously validated and complies with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) regulations. With over 400 scientific validity studies and endorsements from prestigious organizations like the American Psychological Association, the Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology, and the International Test Commission, employers can be confident in the assessment’s reliability and fairness.
Additionally, the assessment supports diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives by being available in over 80 languages, including braille. This ensures accessibility for all candidates, regardless of their background or technological access, and helps eliminate biases in the pre-hire process by providing objective data points for evidence-based decision-making.
The Benefits of the Behavioral Assessment
The Behavioral Assessment is not a pay-per-drip assessment tool, but is provided to the employer with unlimited use to assess all candidates and employees. This removes the temptation for employers to only administer the assessment with specific candidates or employees due to cost, which is not EEOC compliant and can result in a breach of legal compliance. Our unlimited use of assessment tools adheres to EEOC standards in the workplace.
- Hiring and Selection: Identify candidates who are a natural fit for the role.
- Onboarding and Orientation: Tailor the onboarding process to match the new hire’s behavioral style.
- Self and Team Awareness: Foster better understanding and communication within teams.
- Managerial Insights: Equip managers with data to support objective decision-making.
- Employee Reviews: Standardize performance evaluations with behavioral data.
- Conflict Resolution: Address interpersonal issues with informed strategies.
- Building a Winning Culture: Develop a cohesive and motivated workplace environment.
- Career Mapping and Succession Planning: Plan for future leadership and role transitions.
- Project Assignments: Select the best-suited individuals for specific tasks.
- Retention: Improve employee satisfaction and retention rates.
Chick-fil-A®, Nissan, and Jim Koch, owner of Sam Adams Brewing | Boston Beer Company,are some of the adapters of the Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment, achieving remarkable results. Check out other customer success stories here. This tool is applicable to all types of organizations and industries that accomplish business results with and through people. If you are ready to join thousands of companies using the Behavioral Assessment tool, W Talent Solutions is here to help.
Behavioral testing, when combined with a clear understanding of cognitive ability, can dramatically improve the hiring process and the overall work environment for the entire lifecycle of the employee. It can give the employer a very solid understanding of what the candidate or employee will need in a role, how they will act and what will motivate them. It allows open conversation surrounding the type of environment an individual needs in order to thrive, how they best communicate, their strengths and their common traps. It can give employers a blueprint of how to work with each person in their company, or how a candidate will appear on day 30, not just at the interview. The first step to optimizing your workforce is understanding it — that’s where the Behavioral Assessment can help you get it right.
How W Talent Solutions Can Help
At W Talent Solutions, we specialize in leveraging the power of Behavioral Assessments to optimize your workforce. Our Talent Strategy division is dedicated to helping you understand and harness the potential of your employees from day one. By combining behavioral insights with an understanding of cognitive abilities, we provide a holistic approach to enhancing your hiring process and workplace environment.
