The Significance of Personality and Behavioural Assessments in Today’s Workforce

A recent survey found that India figures in the top four countries of the world in making wrong hires! It costs Indian companies heavily (upto INR 20 Lakh in IT industry) for each bad hire that they make even at the lower levels of the organizational hierarchy.

Another survey found that 46% attrited within 18 months of their hire. Attitudinal reasons amounted to 89% of such failures and only 11% was due to lack of skill (which is anyway assessed in the regular abilities and skill assessments). The attitudinal deficits included lack of coachability, low levels of emotional intelligence, motivation and temperament. A bad hire wastes his/her as well as the company’s time and resources. Such a candidate also causes an impact on the team’s morale and achievements. More importantly it negatively influences the business in terms of revenue and productivity. Brand value of the organization for probable aspirants also diminishes.

To tackle such issues the organizations are beginning to use psychometric assessments of behaviour and personality to facilitate better hires. Psychometric assessments can be used in their hiring process as a measure to get the best – fit for their work culture and organization. Whether it is the position of an entry level position or senior management, various types of scientific assessments are available to find the best fit for the organization and its culture. In addition, for top management roles competency – based interviews measuring individual, managerial, interpersonal and motivational competencies provide tangibility to insights acquired by interviewers. Assessments also addresses the issue of attrition by identifying employees with low risk taking Behavior, high commitment to organization and perceived job fit to help reduce attrition.

Further, occupational psychology also extends itself to the management of the life cycle of an employee at an organization. It helps not only the recruitment process but can also influence promotion and career enhancement.
Behavioral assessments relevant to work place can be used to effectively make informed decisions rather than promoting personnel based on previous work performance and supervisor feedback alone. There is no guarantee that an employee performing well in a particular role can transition to the next role equally well (eg: individual contributor to a team management role OR internal team handling to contract team handling). A rating scale constructed on the job performance dimensions based on job analysis gives a clear and structured approach to evaluate performances. The results obtained can be further used for tracking performance, training purposes or for mere documentation.

Psychometric Assessments plays a vital role in identifying employees who are dis-satisfied with their job roles, are a misfit in the organization and also identify the employees who seek stability and have a tendency to be low on risk taking Behavior. Personality development programs aimed at enhancing a host of workplace competencies and tech-enabled training in workplace help employees achieve higher performance, groom high-potential employees and enhance team effectiveness.

Such high potential employees are the future leaders at the organizations. There is a marked difference between management and leadership. Management involves administrative tasks and organizing work environments dealing with complexity, planning, budgeting, staffing, controlling and problem solving while a leader typically inspires followers and works towards shared organizational culture and values dealing with initiating and adapting to change, setting direction/ vision, communicating, motivating and aligning people to shared goals. Psychometric assessments are once again effective in identifying these potential and effective leaders by measuring specific traits such as high intelligence, high self – motivation, high dominance, compassion, influential and persuasion skills.

Measuring thinking styles – critical, creative, collaborative and a few others at the entry level would provide predictive data about future leaders, innovators and managers thereby making Behavioural assessments a vital part of recruitment process.

Organizational psychology has evolved to imbibe the current trends in the market to encompass emerging new concepts – globalization, virtual work, and technology-enabled platforms that drive recruitment, selection, and training. Employee development, happiness, health, and work–life balance now receive serious attention along with a marked emphasis on employee productivity. The emergence of the concept of “work-life merge” conceptualized and coined by Emily White (Facebook), which speaks about a life where work and personal life are so intertwined that it is difficult to differentiate / compartmentalize each of them separately, has raised the need to assess employees on how virtual workplace impacts social relationships, whether employees feel the same level of commitment in such environments and their effects on organizational culture and communication. Adopting psychology as part of everyday work life is now much needed.

To know more about Behavioral assessments and it’s impact on Recruitment, Employee Retention, Workforce development and more. Please write us info@merittrac.com