Personality tests help in hiring process
By Michael L. Diamond
Asbury Park (N.J.) Press
Susan Brown, general manager of Clark's Landing Marina in Point Pleasant, N.J., needs a bookkeeper who pays attention to detail. She needs a salesperson who is sociable and persuasive.
To find them, she looks at résumés, grills job candidates, checks references and relies on her instincts. But in the end, she said, there is always a risk that the candidate is a bad match, either for the job or the company.
"You never really know until someone has been in a job a few months," Brown said. "It's hard to tell when someone comes in for an interview if it will work out."
Companies are trying to reduce that uncertainty by giving some applicants personality tests to see if they have what it takes to fill a job.
The test, developed by Princeton, N.J.-based Caliper Corp., probes hard-to-measure values, and employers are using the information to cut down on turnover, improve productivity and motivate their workforce.
Turnover can cost a company as much as twice an employee's salary, from the cost of advertising an opening to the downtime co-workers face while their new colleague is getting up to speed, said Susan Seitel, president of Work & Family Connection, a human-resources consulting firm in Minnetonka, Minn.
"I would suggest finding a right fit is the single most important thing a recruiter is doing," said Brenda Wilson, a senior consultant with Mercer Human Resource Consulting in Philadelphia.
The idea is that previous work experience is less an indicator of success than understanding a worker's motivations, desires and values.
Caliper matches test results against a job description provided by the company. Few turn out to be perfect fits, said Caliper president Herbert Greenberg. The trick is finding workers with the core traits who can be trained.
"I can teach you enough about cars or insurance, but I can't teach you that hunger to sell," he said.
Greenberg guesses that as few as 20 percent of workers are in the right job. The rest trudge along, showing up for work simply to get a steady paycheck. The problem is that unmotivated workers slow a company, he said.
Take the road construction industry. Michael Earle, general superintendent of Earle Asphalt Co. in Farmingdale, N.J., said most road contractors operate similarly, except for the quality of their personnel.
Earle tests applicants for management jobs to find the ones who produce better in a structured environment and take personal satisfaction from their work.
