Saturday 4 April 2015

Why are HR's using these Profiling Tests when there are still variances?

Hi,

TLMM recently attended a great event organised by Emergenetics Malaysia to know 'What is the uniqueness of Emergenetics profiling tests compared to others' & to learn the benefits of profiling for organisations and talent,  Here are our points of learning from emergenetic profiling tool:

- This profiling tool helps to hire for competencies
-This profiling tool can identify a teams competencies
-They run this profiling tool through a workshop series
-They benchmark their profiles against global norm profiles


We definelty wanted to know more hence we write to you for your further learning growth:

-So after sitting through this even for half a day listening to panel discussions and the founders promoting their profiling tool, we realised that there will never be a 100% accurate profile tests, and there may be no studies that has conclusively proved that company using tests had more competent managers than those who do not.  Hence we wanted to research more on this topic, and we found out from our research online that : 


The Myers Briggs Foundation discourages the use of the test for hiring and firing, seeing it primarily as a means of getting employees to think about how they interact with colleagues and work as a team.

"We don't like its use for selection because it's not an assessment of skills and abilities," says Jeff Hayes from the San Francisco-based Myers-Briggs publishing company, CPP.
"But we can't police that in every circumstance because it is used all over the world."


So, why are HR professionals using these tests? 
  • Are they substitute for good old personal interview technique? 
  • Or is it strong marketing by vendors owning these tests, who somehow managed to convince HR professionals that these tests can detect something, you will normally miss in interviews? 
  • Or is there a commercial interest in promoting these tests? 
  • Most of them insist on certification, then force you to give their on line tests and send their report. 
  • What is HR’s role in this? – Some-how force fit candidate in one of the 15 or 16 categories.


If purpose of test is to find staff strengths then why is it used to eliminate the candidates? May times candidate is forced to imagine situations to respond, which goes against testing of competencies, competencies can be evaluated based on what happened in past, hypothetical situations have no meaning while testing competency.

How can entire population of 7 billion humans be pigeon holed in 15 or 16 boxes?

MBTI has its origin in theory  of Carl Jung, which later was developed administered as test by mother-daughter duo- Briggs and Myers, to help women workforce to find suitable job in World War II era. While DISC has its origin in William Marston’s- Emotions of Normal People. Marston himself is known more for comic strip –Wonder Woman than DISC In-depth interview can reveal what these tests can. 

We feel HR professionals should go back to good old in-depth interview technique or Behavioral events interviews to get right candidates.

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