Bad Attitude – Identify It Before You Hire It

Presented By: Rob McKay MA (Hons)

Organisational Psychologists

For: Chinese Delegation

The Challenge

Businesses have three opportunities to do something about the performance of their people…

•At the front door (Selection – Hire Tough, Manage Easy)•After hiring (Difficult & expensive to train your way out of a bad hiring decision)•Show them the back door (The most difficult solution expensive in time, moral, money)

Problems With Traditional Hiring

• Failure to define position (KSAME)

• We hire on emotional attraction

• Hire & promote on experience instead of ability

• One on one unstructured interviews are the norm

• Fail to train interviewers

• Don’t get indepth references – Look for positives

• Don’t measure ability/intelligence – under-water

• Panic – Hire best of bad bunch

• Is replacement needed – Change strategy

Personality At Work (KSAs)

• Knowledge• Skill• Experience

CAN they do it?

Observable, Trainable

Resume/Interview

• Attitude (personality)

• Abilities (Mental & Physical)

WILL/HOW they do it

Innate

Psychological Profiling

What Is Personality?

• The right personality fit is essential for success in any job role – Think about Sales or Customer Service• Lay people label personality as “social presence” – “John has a lot of personality”

As Psychologists we take a broader perspective…

That which permits a prediction of what a person will do in a given situation (Cattell 65)

The overall combination of characteristics that capture the unique nature

of a person as that person reacts & interacts with others (Wood 98)

The Theory Of Personality

• Hereditary or Environmental? (The nature/nurture debate)

• Is personality stable – Can you change? (Fold your arms)

• The Big 5 Taxonomy (OCEAN) • Personality is a good predictor of

“contextual” performance• Profiling for specific job personality traits

dramatically improves productivity and retention (intrinsic/extrinsic motivation)

Applicants Only Let You See What They Want You To See

What They Show You• Courtesy/Friendliness• Wonderful Resumes• Excellent References• Sparkling Interview

Technique

THE FRUITS OF THE TREE

What They Hide From U• Slow Learning Ability• Poor Focus/Concentration• Conflict Creaters• Wasteful Work Habits• Lack of Motivation• Bucker of

Rules/Guidelines• Inferior Communication

Skills

THE ROOTS OF THE TREE

Profiling Measures What You Can’t See At Interview?

•Personality – How will they do it?

•Mental Ability – How quick do they “get it”? (learning ability)

•Motivations & Values – Why will they do it?

•Attitudes – Counter-productive behaviours Profiling gives you an unbiased picture of HOW & WHY a person behaves in specific job situations

Relying on GUT FEEL is VERY DANGEROUS!

Most Managers Hire on Knowledge and Skill

BUT USUALLY

Terminate on Personality & Abilities (Mental/Physical)!

Adding Value By Profiling

• Research shows that personality & Abilities profiling & Abilities tests can improve the accuracy of selection decisions

• Personality is a good predictor of contextual performance (Go to extra mile!)

• Personality tests used in conjunction with a structured interview provide a base for a powerful selection system

Characteristics Of State Of The Art Employment Assessments:

• Designed for business use (In China)• Measure “Big 5” personality traits (Applicable to China) • Normative validation completed on Chinese (n=1056)• Built according to strict EEOC guidelines and industry

standards• Includes faking scales• “Combines” cognitive abilities and personality traits for more

complete picture of fit• Requires no experts to interpret results

To follow are “specific” details of our state of the art assessments and reporting - JobCLUES:

What do the Personality &

Cognitive Assessments Measure?

Behavioral “Personality” Traits Measured in approximately 10 minutes:

• Rules – consistency, ability to follow rules & policies• Extroversion – need to work with others, ability to talk or listen• Assertiveness – decision making, selling & closing abilities, ability

to handle confrontations, willing to take direction from others• Teaming – teamwork, collaboration, competitiveness• Stability – dealing with stress, handling of criticism & feedback• Organization – planning, spontaneity, time management, ability to

handle details• Social desirability – an internal validity scale to determine if

candidate is being frank with their answers

Cognitive Competency Measured in a 7-minute timed exercise:• Speed of learning and problem solving

Sample “partial” report showing Personality & Cognitive Scales “compared” to one of 100 generic job categories:

Summary

• Think of a tree - Interviews and Resumes will show U the fruits – Psych Profiling is the ONLY way to check out the roots - Attitudes, Mental Ability, Job Specific Personality Traits.

• Seek advice form a Registered Organisational Psychologist – Validity and Reliability are essential

when choosing a test. • Psych testing is part of the process, good at showing

the “Oops” not necessarily the stars

• Quest test! You only see candidates who meet the job benchmark!

www.assess.co.nz

Why teach a turkey to climb a tree –wouldn’t it be

easier to hire a squirrel?

We are on the web @ www. assess.co.nz

www.assess.co.nz