The Importance of Putting The Right People in The Right Seats

by Ashley Ward

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. What most people don’t know is that by offering a Behavioral Assessment to the candidate, you can dramatically improve the hiring process and the chances of hiring the right candidate for a given position from the start.

What is a Behavioral Assessment? 

The Behavioral Assessment was created by a company called the Predictive Index. Predictive Index offers a variety of psychometric assessments that can be used to better understand each employee as an individual and within the workplace. 

The Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment is an untimed, free-choice, stimulus-response tool that measures much more than a standard personality test. This assessment has been used for more than 60 years by thousands of businesses around the world. The Behavioral Assessment is used to uncover the top five behavioral traits that are scientifically correlated to an employee’s success in the workplace. Another way to use the PI Behavioral Assessment is during the hiring process. 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 respondents to select the adjectives they feel describe the way they are expected to act by others. The second list asks them to select the adjectives they feel really describe them. Each term is associated with one of the five key factors (A, B, C, D, E). If you think back to stats class, the figure below represents the scale in which each individual is measured on a bell curve.

Equal Opportunity for All  

The Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment is scientifically validated and complies with EEOC regulation (the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). There have been over 400 scientific validity studies conducted using the Behavioral Assessment in the workplace, and it is verified by the American Psychological Association, the Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology, and the International Test Commission, to name a few.

The Behavioral Assessment was created with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in mind. Predictive Index provides functionalities with DEI at the forefront. The Behavioral Assessment:

• Has the ability to be administered in over 80 languages, including braille.
• Has the ability to be reported to the administrator in over 80 languages, including braille.
• Has the ability to be completed at the administrator’s organization for individuals with limited access to technology.
• Removes bias in the pre-hire process.
• Provides objective data points to incorporate into an evidence-based selection process.

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.

The behavioral data acquired by the Behavioral Assessment is leveraged through the entire employee lifecycle and used for:

• Hiring and selection
• Onboarding and orientation
• Awareness of self and others
• Equipping managers with objective data
• Standardizing employee reviews
• Conflict resolution
• Building a winning culture
• Career mapping
• Succession planning
• Creating a “common language” in the workplace
• Designing winning teams
• Selection for special projects or assignments
• Increasing retention

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 tool. 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. 

Are you interested in learning more about the Behavioral Assessment and W Talent Solutions’s Talent Optimization division? Learn more at our Talent Optimization page or reach out to speak directly with a Talent Advisor.