unlock Employee Motivation through Personality Testing

Unlock Employee Motivation through Personality Testing
SATYA SIDHARTHA PANDA (Ph.D.)
Remember that really smart co-worker, the one who had so many
answers he could run the company, but who put in minimal effort
and seemed unconcerned with promotions? Or your boss who had
brilliant ideas for product improvements, but couldn't motivate
direct reports to get anything done? Personality testing might have
unearthed the key to unlock their motivation and prompt the
performance you knew they were capable of. We have all seen people
who know could be wildly successful, if they ju st tried harder or
were better fit for their roles. Or people whose inability to maintain
positive working relationships unde rmined their other contributions.
What explains these strange gaps in performance? Can we know in
advance who will best "fit" the job at hand and what motivates them
to succeed?
Actually, yes. Decades of research shows a lot of what motivates
people is inside them. While money, opportunities for growth and
good leadership all matter for employee motivation, a big pi ece of
motivation is based on a person's character or personality. For better
or for worse, we are who we are, and our person ality tends to be
stable over time and across situations. This consistency in people
creates an opportunity for organizations . By assessing personality
characteristics in job candidates, employers can predict their
motivation and make better informed hiring decisions.
Sounds good in theory, but does it really work? PreVisor's 2007
Business Outcomes Report indicates pre-employment personality
tests, when implemented and used effectively, predict key
performance outcomes and improve organiz ational effectiveness.
For example, when Starwood Hotels redesigned its hiring solution to
include personality testing for th e right attitude, it saw a two and a
half times increase in performance for one customer facing role. A
nationwide auto-parts distributor showed retention improved more
than 80 percent for high-scoring candidates. Among warehouse
associates taking a customized job-fit test, 43 percent of those who
scored high remained on the job after 90 days, whereas only 23
percent of th ose who scored low on the assessment were retained.
Higher retention leads to reduced costs, higher productivity and
better o rganizational performance.
What is Motivation, Anyway?
We hear about motivation all of the time - in school, at wor k, in
sports, in the context of motivational speaking. However, it is
curiously difficult to pin down exactly what motivation is and how it
works. While it has many definitions among scientists, motivation
boils down to wanting something to be differ ent.
Motivation is an energizing, mobilizing force related to striving
toward goals and satisfying needs - everything from food to sex to
self-esteem. From an employee perspective, this means work is the
environment where they strive toward an d achieve many of life's
goals. Motivation can lead people to work hard and manage their
interactions with others. On the oth er hand, a lack of motivation can
lead to carelessness and callousness at work. A recent CareerBuilder
survey found 32 percen t of workers called in sick with fake excuses
in the past 12 months, which is hardly a ringing endorsement of
strong work eth ic or job satisfaction.
From the employer's perspective, employee motivation impacts
performance. Scientists describe performance as a function of a
person's ability and motivation:
a) Ability or "can-do" is based largely on general cog nitive ability
or intelligence. Cognitive ability contributes to acquisition of
job skills and knowledge through experience. Tests of these
areas predict job performance.
b) b) Motivation or "will-do" is driven mainly by personality.
Personality describes a person's disposition, interests and
recurring behavior patterns.
Both ability and motivation are necessary for successful
performance. By testing for personality, we can measure an
important determinant of talent and success, one t hat is often
overlooked in hiring processes that emphasize only technical
skills, learning ability or past achievements.
The Maze of Employment Testing
Employment testing combines the power of science and
technology to help organizations make better informed hiring
decisions. Professionally developed tests are routinely used
during the hiring process to measure candidates' job skills, te
chnical knowledge, learning ability and motivation. The value
proposition underlying scientific hiring practices is: Individu al
performance drives organizational performance.
"It is important to remember that job success almost always
depends on several different kinds of performance," said Dr.
Charles Handler, founder and president of Rocket-Hire, a
consultancy spe cializing in online screening and assessments.
"For example, an employee who is very good at customer service
will be of litt le value if her or she frequently misses work. You can
measure these traits by combining assessment tools that predict
differ ent types of job performance. For instance, combining a
personality test with an ability test can increase the overall predic
tive ability of your selection system by a significant amount."
Personality Testing: Science or Alchemy?
Personalit y testing is a decades-old application of behavioral
science undergoing a renaissance among both employers and
researchers du e to improvements in technology and a deeper
understanding of its potential value. At its best, personality testing
reliably predicts on-the-job performance. At its worst, companies
may use poorly researched but well-marketed personality testing
tool s or use good tools (e.g., designed for team building) for the
wrong thing (e.g., hiring). Only by carefully aligning testing
programs with hiring needs will employers maximize prediction
andROI.
Scientists have known or suspected for some 30 years there are
just five major dimensions of personality, called the Big 5 factors
of personality.
a) Openness: Appr eciation for creativity, adventure, unusual
ideas and variety of experience.
b) Conscientiousness: A tendency to plan rather than be
spontaneous, to show self- discipline, caution and to seek
achievement.
c) Extraversion: The tendency t o seek stimulation and the
company of others, energy, positive emotions.
d) Agreeableness: A tendency to be pleasant a nd accommodating
in social situations.
e) Neuroticism: The ongoing tendency to experience negative
emotional states.
Within these broad factors, additional characteristics can be
tested, such as dependability, a part of conscientiousnes s, and
stress tolerance, a part of neuroticism.
The effective use of personality testing in the hiring process can
lea d to a workforce that is more motivated, more disciplined
and better with customers.