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From the perspective of the interviewer,
there are dangers in taking the extremes of an overly logical approach, or to
act on pure gut instinct. In recent years, we have seen an increasing reliance
on a variety of psychometric tools and personality profiling. Many government
departments have taken an alternative 'logical approach' to fulfil equal
opportunities, where recruitment and promotion systems can rest on a pure
tick-box procedure. Within such systems, the candidate with the most ticks gets
the job, regardless of how their personality might compliment the team. Using
pure personality profiling may result in someone being overlooked whose
maturity or experience may bring valuable assets to the company outside of the
original job specification.
Our natural instinct when seeking to
recruit is to choose someone we like or someone in our own image. Adopting this
approach can often result in one of the following scenarios:
- A team that gets on very nicely together, with little
conflict, but which stagnates over time and doesn't move forward, because it
lacks anyone with innovativeness and real drive to move forward.
- A team full of extrovert go-getters, who all want to
do things their way, resulting in a lack of communication and an inability to
get things done because of disagreements about the method.
- A team of outgoing very friendly people, who get on
brilliantly with the customers, but who may lack follow-through and promise
anything to get a sale.
- A team of perfectionists who take so long to cross
every 't' and dot every 'i', that bureaucratic structures inhibit
progress.
As in many things the skilled
interviewer requires a balance. A good selection will assess:
- Qualifications
- Experience
- What the personality may bring to the team
- How the person will fit into the team
- The gut instinct (preferably of more than one
interviewer!) that you have found the right person
Tools such as tick-box questionnaires,
psychometric testing and personality profiling should be used as guides. They
should contribute part of the overall picture, and not be used as an absolute
measure for recruiting or rejecting a candidate. Used sensibly, together with
astute questioning the interviewer will arrive at a decision that reflects a
sensible and balanced choice.
There are many profiling systems
available. These include: Thomas DiSC, Myers Briggs, Savile & Holdsworth
and Belbin. Whichever system is employed, a short and convenient questionnaire
is all that is needed to produce a reflection of the candidate's behavioural
pattern. How accurate this is depends on the system that you choose, but the
harder it is for the candidate to skew it towards the type of 'superman' person
he or she thinks you are looking for, or that they wish they were, the better.
Some systems will also reject a questionnaire or query a questionnaire where
this appears to have happened.
Some questionnaires can now be completed
over the Internet, in advance of the interview, with results being available
within minutes. This allows the opportunity to assess and distribute the
results prior a candidate attending formal interview.
Most behavioural
assessment systems will allow for an 'ideal' profile to be formulated. The
first assessment would consider how closely the candidate matches the ideal. It
should be said that it is rare to find an exact match, let alone one who also
has the right qualifications and experience. With this in mind, the obvious
advantage is that the employer knows in advance where limitations and skill
gaps may exist. These 'gaps' can then be addressed by modifying the job
requirements or by teaming the new recruit with someone who will complement
their skills.
When considering a profile and deciding how best to use
it, it may be wise to ask a few questions to check the validity of the profile.
For example, if it shows the person should come up with creative solutions to
problems, then you can ask the interviewee to describe the most creative thing
they have done or pose them a job related challenge and ask how they might find
a solution. If the profile shows the person to be extrovert, friendly and a
good net worker - ask about their hobbies. The answer should include ones that
bring them into contact with many people and produces an enthusiastic response.
If they say reading and watching television, then you know that something is
wrong.
Some systems can highlight how stressed the person might be in
their lives. The interviewer would need to probe the causes of such stress and
consider its impact on the proposed job. Profile systems can show how a person
modifies their behaviour in a work situation and what happens if they are under
extreme pressure. Will this be acceptable within the proposed job?
Armed
with a picture of how a candidate might react in certain situations, the
profile can also be useful in testing the maturity of that candidate in terms
of understanding their own behavioural strengths and limitations. For example,
you are looking for someone combining the strengths of attention to detail,
follow-through and a natural team player, but the candidate who comes closest
with the right qualifications and experience doesn't seem to be a natural
teamplayer. Probing the candidate on this point should prompt him or her to
talk about the way they handle team situations, indicate whether or not they
recognise their own limitations and what strategy they use to minimise or
eliminate the effect.
A profile can be a very useful tool in determining
how suited behaviourally a candidate may be to undertaking a certain job and
whether any aspect of the job may need tweaking so that the recruit can work to
make the most of his or her strengths.
About the author
Sally
Fagan has over 20 years professional experience in Culture and Language, Export
Sales Management and Consultancy Training, and has trained executives in
Australasia, Europe and the USA. She now specialises in interpersonal skills
and is a certified user of personality profiling. Whilst living in Singapore,
Sally became a recognised consultant for the national People Developer Award
and back in the UK, has trained in the Investor in People scheme. Some of her
major clients are pharmaceutical companies. Sally is a fellow of the Institute
of Administrative Management and a founder member of the Institute of
Leadership. For further information
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