Most people who fill out a job application don’t come with billboard signs, banners or instructions. They are also not 100% sure of what they want in a job. So how can you tell if someone is suitable for a particular position?
Suitability/behavioral factors are more difficult to assess because, unlike eligibility factors, there is no objective and verifiable information that is readily available. In addition, suitability factors are much more interrelated, and subtle balances between factors have significant implications for behavior.
Many people use simple personality tests that measure only four to ten factors, thinking that they are easy to use. However, these tests are actually very difficult to use because they don’t provide reports related to specific jobs with an overall score. Consequently, there is no way to effectively interpret the results. Such tests are extremely unlikely to predict job success because they don’t measure enough factors.
Harrison Assessments International’s research indicates that there are at least thirty behavioral factors that impact success for any one job and only a small portion of behavioral factors that are measured actually relate to success for a specific job. HAI measures a total of 175 traits which are all job related out of which 25% to 30% at most of these traits will relate to job success/performance for a given job. Further to this, traits are categorized into Essential (must haves) , Desirable (Nice to have) and Derailers (negative traits to avoid)
This can be confirmed by your own experience. For example, you probably do about five to ten different types of main tasks related to your job-which you either like or dislike-such as initiating projects, organizing information, doing precision-type tasks, teaching others, presenting to groups, etc.
In addition, there are probably about five to ten different organization criteria related to your job preferences such as the desire for autonomy, the desire for authority, the tendency to be innovative, the willingness to lead others and the motivation related to challenges.
There are also likely to be at least five to ten areas of interpersonal skills that are required for your job.
For example, you may need to effectively enforce rules, deal with conflicts, receive corrective feedback, communicate directly and respectfully, be warm and empathetic, be outgoing or be cheerful.
If you lacked any of these things, it could easily affect your performance. If you lacked certain interests related to your job, such as an interest in people, computers, or science, it is unlikely that you will be fully engaged with your work.
If you had a strong aversion to any one of numerous different things in your work environment such as excessive noise, working closely in teams or sitting for long periods, your performance could be affected.
Consider also, these issues are different for different jobs.
It should be pretty obvious from this reflection that behavioral assessments need to measure many different factors and the results need to be job-specific. There are at least thirty different factors related to success for each job and each job type has a different set of factors.
How can we imagine that only a few personality factors can predict behavior of a wide range of jobs? To measure behavior related to a wide variety of jobs, you need to measure at least one hundred factors and preferably one hundred fifty. From this base, the thirty+/- job-specific factors can be tabulated to effectively predict success and offer optimum growth and coaching opportunities.
In order to be effective, personality tests should not repeatedly duplicate the same traits or factors across various jobs. Essentially it fails to differentiates one job to another by doing so.
By now you might be thinking this is pretty complicated. You are right! It is too complicated to effectively do without a comprehensive and strategic behavioral assessment. Fortunately, the Harrison Assessment has done performance research and formulated sets of factors for specific jobs. You only need to review the suggested factors for your job to confirm that it fits the job requirements.
In addition, if you have thirty or more people in the same job, you can even request the test developer to research the key factors for your specific job. Computer technology makes this straightforward. You will need to provide performance ratings for your existing employees in order for the test developer to determine the factors that relate to job success.
The Harrison Job Suitability Assessment takes all of these factors and much more into consideration when helping you find the right candidate for the position.
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