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Role of

Psychometric Assessments

in HR Strategy

By Sreenidhi SK & Tay Chinyi

Business advantage lies in the hands of people. People with KASH Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills and Habits will make that vital difference to the success and failure of organisations. To be successful, leaders know that they need to learn quickly how they can assign the right person for the right job without losing much time.

Starting from the Roots

Yes, everyone agrees that the first place to start is at the very beginning at the time of recruitment. We need to recruit and retain the right people. Immediately a question arises in many a leaders mind, as to what do we do with those who have already joined us and whose performance is not up to the mark? The question has the right answers in the books of Psychology and Sociology that deals with human behaviour. The science of psychometric analysis and interpretation has a rock solid foundation in the works of some eminent psychologists and management gurus like Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Douglas McGregor and Daniel Coleman among others. It is time for you now, to act, so that you get to the roots and gain a good understanding of the art and science of interpreting a variety of psychometric assessments that measure different attributes of a person.

The Science behind the Art of Human Resource Optimisation

Understanding the psychological makeup of human beings is of vital value across all fields today . It is a fact, especially in organisations, that it is wise to have an employee who may not be that skilled but is positively oriented, rather than one who is an expert with a poor attitude. How can one understand the psychological characteristics of employees? Are you getting the best out of your people?

The Full Power of Psychometrics

Bits & Pieces or limited view does not help in understanding the person whether you wish to recruit, retain, train, develop or promote. You always need the full power of psychometric analysis and interpretation to make vital decisions about people. There is an everincreasing demand for people who can read them all together like a doctor who reads different lab reports, X-rays, scans and so on to help in an accurate diagnosis. As a key resource you are called upon frequently to make decisions about people and their usefulness in various roles and responsibilities. At times you may have to hire them, promote them or deploy them on important assignments. You need to learn to gain from the holistic approach that the well-designed battery of psychometric assessments will render. Gone are the days when people used only one mode of psychometric assessment which gave just a partial view.
People and Management May-June 2012 29

Assessment Tools
The well-established science of psychometric analysis gives powerful assessment tools that are a great combination of hereditary & environmental influences which contribute to the making of an individuals personality and competency . These insights are helpful for a wide range of HR applications recruitment and selection, individual development programme, learning and development, competency mapping, promotions and appraisal processes, career planning, coaching and counselling, succession planning, benchmarking internal people and the industry assessing leadership skills, employee , engagement and the like as they give a holistic view of the innate strengths and powers of the person, so as to optimise their productivity and performance.

COGNITIVE ABILITY

Today, the world of psychometrics has opened up the new holistic dimension of understanding peoples attitude, beliefs, values, competency and personality . Based on the solid work of eminent scientists the world over, you are now on the verge of mastering the science of getting to know hidden strengths of your people. An increasing number of professionals have practically experienced the full power of these empirically tested methods. It is your turn now to learn and benefit.

So in order to gain a deeper insight into the innate strength and challenges of an individual you need to study the person in total. For a holistic view of the past, present and future behaviour of the person, it is a safe bet to count on science as a whole. You need to learn to develop a sense of completeness in understanding the behaviour of people before you decide to hire them, promote them or partner with them.

Battery of Assessments Psychometric Gems

The widely popular psychometric gems enables your growing belief in the most rational and logical system to date in self-awareness and harnesses ones true potential. This becomes your right start in measuring gaps between performance and potential, and you really are able to help empower peoples competency towards achievement and success. It also paves the way in selecting the right people for the right jobs as well as in choosing the right subjects/careers for the right start for adults and students alike. It enables you to map careers and map people into the right roles and careers. It is always recommended that for the total analysis of individual personality, one must not rely only on one assessment. The right person for the right job is an age old clich which today is better understood with Psychometric Assessments that provide you with a logical analysis of the past, present and the future behaviour. The power of the battery of assessments and subsequent interpretation and inferences drawn enable better development of leaders, teams and careers. It even enables students to choose the right subjects to build a strong career foundation. Everyone is concerned about the future and they are forced to make choices now. But you cannot make choices in darkness. The science of Psychometric Assessments enables you to move from darkness to light with respect to choosing the right person for the right situation at the right time. Your time is now. Learn the art and science of interpreting multiple assessment outcomes or results together for the person, about whom you need to take a decision. You will be glad to have discovered a new opportunity in understanding people and their potential for the future. This new awareness will add strength to your decision-making prowess for the right selection. They are also effective in training and coaching since the assessments help to zero in on the key issues for developing people and in bridging the gap between potential and performance. Get ready to open up the scientific methods in getting to know people and their hidden strengths now. You will equip yourself with the power of knowledge in terms of how you can play a decisive role in getting the best out of peoples potential, thus optimising human resource to the fullest. Learn the science and practice the art of HRO - Human Resource Optimisation. n

Testing by MAP
Hiring for attitude and training for knowledge & skills seems to be the real mantra. Right people in the wrong jobs or wrong people in the right jobs are both a problem since they rob you of your much-needed performance and productivity at all levels. MAP measuring attitudes and personality surely helps organisations save enormously by avoiding the wrong people. A psychometric battery of assessments is always preferred for their holistic approach as against just one test that limits you to an incomplete view. Peoples behaviour is driven largely by their attitudes and thought processes that in turn influence knowledge, skills and habits. Thats why its called the BAT behaviour, attitude and thinking. Behaviour is caught and never taught. A lot of what people learn is heavily influenced by their heredity, which includes their emotional response to their environment since childhood, their nurtured communication patterns, behavioural patterns to varying situations in the environment, competency developed over the years, multiple intelligence, learning styles and more. In a highly competitive marketplace, you cant afford to postpone good performance due to having the wrong people in the wrong place. Psychometric Gems amazingly give you the right insights to get the right people for the right job. So you automatically focus on performance-related issues and hence save funds. Psychometric Gems help to identify people with the right potential for the given assignment or task. Learn the art and put the right foot forward today and now.

Sreenidhi SK is the managing director and Tay Chinyi is the executive director at Oscar Murphy Life Strategists P Ltd.

30 People and Management May-June 2012