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<\/p>\n\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tGordon Ramsay in the kitchen. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and interior design. Serena Williams and tennis.<\/p>\n
\n\tSome people seem to be in the perfect job that matches their personality to a T. But most of us move around a bit before we settle into the role and company that\u2019s exactly right for us. That perfect recruitment match can be difficult to get right, for employers and employees.<\/p>\n
\n\tPersonality profiling can help the recruitment process by providing a greater depth of information than a cover letter, a CV and a 45-minute chat could ever uncover. This is the fourth in a series uncovering the role personality profiling in recruitment. We\u2019ve looked at the history of psychometrics<\/a>, the role of testing in finding and keeping the best talent<\/a>, and how it can help align cultural fit<\/a>. This time around, we chatted to Alan Redman, psychology lead from our personality testing partners, Criterion<\/a>, to learn more about how recruiters and candidates can get the most out of the test results.<\/p>\n \n\tThe results of personality profiling can shine a spotlight onto a trait of a candidate that could have otherwise been hidden. Making decisions based on interviews alone can result in people who aren\u2019t right joining the company. But profiling allows businesses to understand the core make up of their candidates, and, crucially, not just what they have achieved, and but how they approached it.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen we advise people on how to pull together a recruitment process, we always encourage them to focus on three broad questions\u201d, says Alan. \u201cOne is, \u2018How will they do the job?\u2019 which is the style and behavioural part of personality. We also ask, \u2018Do they want the job?\u2019 which covers motivation and cultural fit. That will tell you if they\u2019re going to find the role motivating and emotionally engaging and like being there. Lastly, ask, \u2018Can they do the job?\u2019 The basic knowledge, capabilities and experience that you cover at an interview only uncover part of that answer. Great personality profiling can do the rest.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cImportantly, the tests help you understand whether a candidate has the essential mental firepower to deal with the role. \u201cIf you hire someone and they haven\u2019t got that, then their style and their values don\u2019t matter, they will simply be overwhelmed by the mental demands of the job\u201d, Alan explains. \u201cIt will be too much for them and they will underperform. It\u2019s not about employing rocket scientists every time, it\u2019s about just making sure that there\u2019s a good level of fit between the person and the role which, sometimes, academic qualifications will miss.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tProfiling can tell you so much more than just a line on a CV. That may state that they have the qualification, but personality profiling can reveal how they got it, and what kind of worker they are.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIn the IT sector, for example, you\u2019ll hear managers describe two developers who\u2019ve got equal levels of qualification and certification – but one\u2019s great and one isn\u2019t\u201d, Alan explains. \u201cThe preferred candidate may have some personality elements working in their favour, but their general skills may also be better, and quicker.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWith any kind of qualification or certification, obviously, intelligence is a factor, but other factors such as how much work you put in, how motivated you are, how practised you are at taking exams also count. Whether it\u2019s degrees or technical qualifications, there are factors beyond your pure reasoning ability that can get you the result. Someone who\u2019s clever but lazy may not get the certificate.\u201d Personality profiling can uncover these deeper motivating factors that set one candidate aside from another. For employers, this is invaluable information if they want to build a team of self-motivated, hard-working employees that will help the business grow.<\/p>\n \n\tAlthough personality testing may sound like a slightly daunting introduction to a company for candidates, it offers multiple benefits to them beyond the job in question. \u201cOn the face of it, no one really likes being tested, especially if that test might make it harder for you to get the right job, or to get the job you want\u201d, says Alan.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cBut if you position the use of any formal assessment properly with candidates they will see the benefits. Make sure it\u2019s not excessive, that it\u2019s appropriate for the level of role, and make sure it makes sense to the candidate. That way they can see how it relates to the job and that it\u2019s not a meaningless exercise. If you can make the actual candidate journey painless and hopefully even engaging, then people will engage with it. They will take it seriously.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIf they think they\u2019re getting something back, like feedback, they can see that their investment of time and energy is going to be rewarded – that tends to engage candidates even more.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe insights that come from profiling aren\u2019t there to put anyone in particular boxes. By understanding personalities, and their inherent motivations and challenges, personality profiling allows current and potential employees to consciously develop strengths and train their personalities like muscles.<\/p>\n \n\tAlan has a great analogy for this: \u201cYou know, most of us are right-handed. That doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t use our left hand but, when we do, it can feel difficult and not as effective. We can get better with our left hand and it\u2019s the same with personality. If you\u2019ve got certain foundational personality attributes and you find yourself having to use alternative approaches, they might be a bit clumsy at first if you haven\u2019t practised. So if, for example, you are someone who\u2019s not naturally extroverted, you can find yourself needing to become that in work situations. But the less you do it, the less natural, the harder and more energy sapping it\u2019s going to be for you until you train that \u2018hand\u2019, as it were, to get better.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cSo, really, what we\u2019re interested in with personality assessment is understanding what your default, plumbed in way of doing things is. If that fits with the role, brilliant – we\u2019ve called out a strength. But in those areas where it doesn\u2019t fit so well with the role, to what extent can you manage that? Can you either adopt the alternative style or use some of your other strengths to overcome it? We never look to change people\u2019s personalities, but most roles these days demand a degree of flexibility. You can\u2019t just rely on one way of doing everything.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWith personality profiling, it’s important to understand that there aren\u2019t good or bad, or right or wrong scores. It\u2019s always about relating those to the job that you\u2019re recruiting for. \u201cWith higher volume recruitment you can build algorithms based on that fit. There are \u2018Goldilocks ranges\u2019 which is essentially that \u2018just right\u2019 fit. You don\u2019t look for a single type of personality but you do get a degree of fit score between the individual and the role. You can use the results in different ways, whether it be for personal feedback, interviewing, analysis or onboarding. Any of the scores you get from a modern business-facing questionnaire will use benchmarks from the workplaces that are as close to the job as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tInterviewers and hiring managers can initially be as daunted as candidates by the idea of using these tests. But it is possible to get them on board. \u201cWhen they first experience the results of these sorts of tools, they start to understand the value that can be added to their decisions. The tests aren\u2019t here to reduce your amount of decision-making ability, they\u2019re here to enhance it\u201d, Alan explains.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cSometimes, researching the role itself can be a really valuable way of getting everyone to buy in. Talking to people who are doing the job now, talking to the line manager: getting people\u2019s views of the role, from a day-to-day, operational level to a more strategic one. Just having those conversations where individuals are starting to develop insights into what\u2019s important, what\u2019s valuable in terms of personality, can engage staff in getting on board with profiling.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cTrialling the psychometrics on current workers can also demonstrate the value because, often, when you get psychometric results back from current employees plus their performance scores and you correlate the two, you can actually see it working, you can see how one is predicting the other. That\u2019s a valuable source of reassurance for a new user.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tTests can be both accurate and effective, eventually saving time down the recruitment line. \u201cIf you\u2019re using psychometrics to make better shortlisting decisions and to conduct better interviews, you hire more effectively\u201d, Alan confirms. \u201cSuccess rates increase, you\u2019re getting a higher calibre of people through to interview and the interviewers themselves aren\u2019t missing the good ones or hiring the bad ones.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cUltimately, you should be doing less recruitment when you do it properly.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMany thanks to Alan for taking the time to chat to us, and for the great insights. If you\u2019re interested in a free personality test, visit our page<\/a> to find out more and get in touch on 01908 886 048.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gordon Ramsay in the kitchen. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and interior design. Serena Williams and tennis. Some people seem to be in the perfect job that matches their personality to a T. But most of us move around a bit before we settle into the role and company that\u2019s exactly right for us. That perfect recruitment match… Read More »Personality profiling in recruitment: Explaining the results<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversity-inclusion"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.identifiglobal.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.identifiglobal.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.identifiglobal.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.identifiglobal.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.identifiglobal.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.identifiglobal.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.identifiglobal.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/14284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.identifiglobal.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.identifiglobal.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.identifiglobal.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\tWhat the results can tell you about the candidates<\/h2>\n
\n\t“Profiling can tell you so much more than just a line on a CV.”<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n\tWhat the results can tell the candidates<\/h2>\n
\n\tHow the results can benefit your hiring process<\/h2>\n
\n\t“The tests aren\u2019t here to reduce your amount of decision-making ability, they\u2019re here to enhance it.\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n