Don’t Hire a Type, Hire Right!

The following post was published on 10/22/13 on Profiles International's Workplace 101 Blog.  This is a great summary of the value proposition that Parsley Performance Solutions and the entire Profiles International team of Business Partners can provide clients in any industry.
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I recently returned from exhibiting on behalf of Profiles at HR Technology Conference in Las Vegas. I was lucky to be chosen to attend, as this is the highest-attended conference of its kind. I love any opportunity to learn more about the industry I work in, latest trends, and of course, observing what our competitors, colleagues, and industry friends are doing to stay competitive in the market.
And boy, it did not disappoint! We spoke with CFOs, CEOs, hiring managers, vice-presidents, and a diverse range of job titles from some of the largest organizations in the business, as well as highly excited founders from brand new start-up businesses. Needless to say, after three days, I was almost talking about Profiles in my sleep. Exhibiting in a booth, I heard the typical… What do you do? You guys are the assessment people right? What are you selling? And the popular, what makes you different, better?

Here is snippet of what I told them- we don’t help you hire a personality type, we help you hire the right person.

When people think of Profiles, they think employee assessments, talent management, hiring and reducing turnover, among many other hot keywords. One imperative thing to know about our solutions is that we don’t help you hire a “type” of person or a “personality.” We help you identify how someone is wired to be successful, how they work most effectively based off their interests, thinking style, and abilities, and how suited they are to your particular business.

Think about it! There are many different personality types out there: the leader, the follower, the creative, the entertainer, introverts, and extroverts. These are all psychologically classified by different types of individuals; their personality traits, actions, and behaviors. Me, personally?
I can confidently say that I can be all those types in one specific week. So how can a business identify job fit to a position if I think I can be all those personality types?

So, what would happen if I took a “personality” style assessment on a day after I’ve had a terrible week? Say for example, my cat died, my car broke down, I lost my house keys, and had a fight with my significant other? I'm not going to portray a true and positive reflection of myself, and an assessment that is too general would not show my true colors, or how well I would suit a job.

That’s why we don’t measure “personality” types. We help organizations measure three things in job candidates: if a person CAN do a job, if they WILL do the job, and if they will BE SUCCESSFUL in that job. Just because you’re the top sales guy in a small start-up in California doesn’t mean you will be the best in a global firm working with over 500 employees.

Just as the industry and market changes constantly, so do people. Our validated assessment tools measure over 20 performance indicators to identify job match. Employee assessments like the ProfileXT® reveal insight into a candidate’s thinking and reasoning style, behaviors, and interests. Our clients create a performance model from successful candidates in their company and benchmark potential candidates from these models.

Haven’t you always wanted to clone your top performers? Well, we are not magicians, but we are scientists (at least the R&D team are), and while we won’t help you clone them, we will help you identify people just like them that are innately designed to be just as successful in your organization. A final noteworthy point: it is crucial to not just identify job match, but cultural job fit too. Organizations are as diverse as people, no two are alike.  Don’t hire a type, hire the right person!

Link to the original post on Workplace 101