Using personality assessments to help the cash registers ring

Michael Simonyi Davison

Most psychometric assessments today are done online, either by candidates at home, or at the office of the organisation administering them.

When I suggest to a small-business owner they use psychometric assessments when recruiting staff, I’m typically met with a blank stare.

If people have heard of it, it’s often seen as complex, theoretical and somewhat of a dark art, often as a result of professionals failing to communicate how valuable – and simple – it is to incorporate assessments into the recruiting process.

So let me make a case for why you should use this form of assessing candidates for jobs in your business, along with structured interviews and thorough reference checks.

What assessments measure

Let’s look at the traits employers typically look for when recruiting:

Competence – does someone have the underlying skills necessary to perform the role? This is usually measured with aptitude tests, which consists of questions or problems designed to assess raw reasoning power. The most common types measure verbal, numerical or logical thinking. They are a great complement to CVs, especially when candidates are too junior, too similar, or too different to be compared on experience.

Work ethic is sought after by all of us when we hire – we want staff who are ambitious, reliable, and trustworthy. These elements determine not only whether people will get things done, but whether they’ll fit in with the culture and collaborate well. Self-reporting questionnaires, such as personality tests, are used to evaluate these qualities by revealing typical behaviour traits.

Emotional intelligence has been a hot topic over the past 20 years, and rightly so. Many psychological studies demonstrate that EI is linked to overall job performance, entrepreneurial potential and leadership talent. Furthermore, its importance is not confined to specific roles.

So, how difficult is it to conduct psychometric assessments and what do they cost?

Most psychometric assessments today are done online, either by candidates at home, or at the office of the organisation administering them. While some assessments can take several hours to complete, many are able to be completed within 30 minutes, so asking a candidate to undertake assessment need not involve them making a big time commitment.

In terms of cost, unless you’re assessing a large number of people at once, or engaging a psychologist to provide a detailed debrief on the results, we’re talking hundreds, not thousands, of dollars.

But, do they work?

Well, Michael Hill Jewellers recently conducted a review of their assessments and how it impacted on the sales performance of new hires across the Australian, New Zealand and North American markets.

The review focussed on how testing could be used to increase sales performance when applied to recruiting ‘Managers in Training’, with a goal of unlocking the code for what behaviours and competencies were inherent in those who excelled. It involved over five years of assessment and sales data and the results from more than 600 staff across multiple stores.

The findings? The people who met the ideal assessment profile were likely to be up to 39% more effective in their sales performance than those that didn’t meet this benchmark. That 39% difference in performance translated to an average revenue difference of $62,400 per employee annually.

Food for thought, at least?

Michael Simonyi, Senior Consultant, Davidson Corporate