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Why Organizations Use Assessments

Why Organizations Use Assessments

Mark N. Johansson, PhD

During an annual physical a competent physician will get blood work, blood pressure, height, weight and other physical measurements.
These are integrated into the physicians own professional observations and interpretations, resulting in a medical report along with key recommendations for improved health such as medications, behavioral changes and preventative measures, diet modifications and on occasion specific surgeries.

There are three basic reasons why organizations need to assess perspective managers. The first reason is for the organization to get an objective collective understanding of skills, knowledge and abilities measured against managerial norms. This understanding is a key to a successful organization.

A second reason for an assessment is to equip the prospective manager with useful knowledge about his or her strengths as well as areas for growth and development. A competent manager is one who is continually learning, improving and growing in skills, knowledge and abilities. There really is no such thing as a competent static or “plateaued” manager. An assessment focuses and reinforces learning and developing as a normal part of a manager’s responsibilities.

The third reason is to maintain a competitive edge for the organization as whole as well as for the individual.  For an organization to stay competitive and to sustain business success it has to know the current talent level but also where the talent gaps will be as the technology, knowledge and industry improve.  This “skill and ability” gap will be most evident the senior care industry.  Over the next several years care-giving roles are going to significantly change requiring improvement in care-giving skills and abilities.  Organizations who do not have a way to objectively measure these skills and know how to close the abilities gap will have a difficult time competing.

Categories Uncategorized
Posted by: admin
November 28, 2011

Compatibility: A new degree of specificity

Compatibility: A new degree of specificity

CP Consulting & Research, LLC is excited to introduce Compatibility; a new degree of specificity in pre-employment testing!

What is it?

Perhaps the strongest predictor of job performance and job satisfaction is the degree to which an employee’s personality and work style characteristics meet the demand characteristics (i.e. job tasks, environment, level of supervision, etc.) of a specific job.

Compatibility is just that – a calculation of how well an applicant’s personality and work style characteristics meet the needs of a specific job. To be sure, Compatibility is calculated by comparing an applicant’s scale scores on the Care Profiler against what is required of specific healthcare jobs.

It’s important to point out that all caregiving and/or healthcare jobs do not have the same requirements. Certain jobs might require a higher degree of Attention to Detail, while others may require a higher level of Persistence or Hospitality. Each scale on the Care Profiler is important in terms of performance in healthcare jobs, however, to varying degrees. The Care Profiler’s Compatibility allows organizations to magnify to an extreme degree of specificity when screening and evaluating job applicants like never before.

 How does it work?

  • We’ll calculate applicants’ Compatibility with the positions you choose.
    • Compatibility will be calculated for up to four positions. Choose your positions from our comprehensive Positions Library, which was developed from the Occupational Network (http://www.onetonline.org/), a directory of the United States Department of Labor and/or create a custom Job Profile by rating tasks associated with caregiving jobs.
  • Compatibility will be reported in Care Profiler reports.
    • With a quick glance, you’ll be able to see which job(s) within your organization an applicant is most suited for, and which applicants are the best candidates to interview.

 

Compatibility calculations will be available in Care Profiler reports soon!

Also to appear soon in CP Reports: Behavioral Interview Questions tailored to the applicant’s CP scores and Onboarding Guidance based on the applicant’s CP scores to aid in training and management.

 

Contact us today with questions about Compatibility at info@careprofiler.com!

Categories Hiring
Posted by: admin
November 7, 2011

Best Practice: Test on the front-end

As the world continues to understand and embrace the value that the science of psychology adds to all sectors, we see more and more organizations utilizing personality testing, particularly in their hiring processes.  As with any sound science, in psychology we learn more everyday about human behavior.  In particular, we are able to further drill down on the intricacies of human behavior that can often cause us to scratch our heads in wonder.

An example: When using psychological testing, we now know that individuals who are applying for a job are in a very different state-of-mind than individuals who are already employed.  Thus, testing these two groups against the same norm group will produce unreliable and inaccurate results.  Using a test that is normed on the appropriate group is necessary for reliable and valid (i.e. accurate and useful) results.

Psychology has learned a great deal more about the subtleties of human behavior that contribute to the effectiveness of pre-employment personality testing.  Specifically, we can better answer the question: When and how should I use a personality test in my hiring process?

The answer:  Testing every applicant on the front-end and then selecting whom to interview from that pool yields the best results.

Here’s why:  It’s largely about state-of-mind – both of the applicant and the hiring manager.  The more removed each is from the other at the time of testing, the more valid and reliable the information.

The earlier an applicant completes a personality assessment in the hiring process, the more likely he/she is to provide an accurate representation of his/her self (i.e. produce a valid and interpretable profile).  As applicants progress through the hiring process (e.g. complete the application, go through a phone screen, get called in to interview, etc.), they begin to associate more and more with the organization they desire to work for.  The further they are down the process, the more likely they are to produce results that may not provide the organization with much information (i.e. invalid and uninterpretable results).  That is, they are more likely to try to tell you what they think you want to hear, and any sound psychological test will pick up on that – producing an invalid profile.

From the hiring manager’s perspective, his/her’s job is largely to hire people to fill vacant positions.  This can often be an arduous process.  Often, by the time a hiring manager has brought someone in to interview, he/she has a fairly positive impression of that individual, and without really knowing it, is crossing his/her fingers that “this will be the one I can hire!”

When testing after the interview, the results may not necessarily align with the the hiring manger’s impression of the candidate (research shows that our impressions of others, particularly during interviews, are generally not incredibly accurate).   This can result in the hiring manager discounting the results, claiming that the test is inaccurate and the cycle of questioning begins – essentially he/she feels like he/she doesn’t know anymore than when he/she started the process.

Thus, testing every applicant on the front-end (i.e. with the application) provides the organization with concrete information that can better aid in selecting who to interview and what areas to drill down on during the interview.

Standing on the shoulders of science, takes much of the guesswork out of the hiring process.

Categories Best Practice, Hiring
Posted by: admin
October 24, 2011

Core Focus: The Psychology of Care Delivery

As many of our CP Journal readers know, the Care Profiler is the only pre-employment assessment tool that measures Core Focus. Core Focus identifies a caregiver’s positive bias – or focus – on the caregiving relationship itself.  It is the caregiver’s expression of personality, interests, attitudes, history, and perceptions. This article further explains how a caregiver’s Core Focus impacts the quality and nature of the psychological care delivered.

Addressing the Psychological Health of Clients
Caring for the psychological well-being of care recipients has often been a difficult and nebulous endeavor, yet one that is widely recognized as highly important and necessary for high quality care delivery in a variety of care settings. The medical community offers cutting-edge physical care. The field of social work has identified excellent ways of providing resources to meet a care recipient’s social support needs.
What is lacking at this time in our society is the field of psychology’s contribution of best-practices for addressing the psychological challenges and issues related to aging and receiving care. We offer a model of psychological care that has proven both useful in the residential care setting as well as generalizable to other long-term care settings and facilities that serve other types of clients.

The Four Psychological Issues
There are Four Psychological Issues that care recipients face at different times and in unique and personal ways as they receive care. They are:

  • Loneliness - The loss of personal contact with others, of isolation, and drawing inward. As individuals lose physical capabilities – whether it is due to the natural aging process or otherwise – there is a psychological change that occurs. The psyche needs to be in relationship to maintain its health.  From therapy research we know that the most important factor for successful outcome is the therapist’s ability to enter into a relationship with the client. Similarly, as we care for individuals in need of physical care, it is the ability to enter into relationship with the client that determines the quality of the care.
  • Boredom - The loss of motivation, of activity, and of energy.  The psyche needs to be activated, energized, and inspired to maintain its health. Imagine living life without energy or inspiration; at times, we have all been bored. Addressing boredom is more than just getting someone physically moving. It is more about inspiring and engaging the mind of another.
  • Fear & Worry - With a decline or change in physical functioning comes increasing dependence upon another for safety.  Imagine not being able to walk or communicate when you feel you are in danger. What makes functioning adults worry can make care recipients terrified. The psyche needs to feel in control of its safety in order to maintain health.
  • Loss of Purpose – As individuals age or change, roles, identity, and understanding of purpose is a central issue. At the core of this is the care recipients need to be heard, understood, and seen as a person of worth. The psyche needs to be heard, seen, and understood in order to maintain health.  We do not give others purpose; as caregivers, we are in a unique position to be with, see, hear, listen to, and understand another person. In doing so, we can join with care recipients on their own unique journeys and discover with them their own purpose and identities.

Caregivers are Uniquely Suited to Addressing an Issue
Each caregiver’s unique experiences, interests, personality, styles, attitudes, and biases shape which psychological issues he/she is most naturally attuned to. Each Core Focus corresponds with one of the Four Issues:

  • Loneliness - A caregiver with a Socializing Core Focus is most naturally attuned to Loneliness and ready to provide a positive and kind relationship to care recipients.
  • Boredom - A caregiver with a Motivating Core Focus is most naturally attuned to Boredom and ready to provide inspiration and motivation to care recipients.
  • Fear & Worry – A caregiver with a Comforting Core Focus is most naturally attuned to Fear & Worry and ready to provide comfort and reassurance to care recipients.
  • Loss of Purpose – A caregiver with an Enriching Core Focus is most naturally attuned to Loss of Purpose and ready to acknowledge the unique personal identity of care recipients.

Improving Quality of Psychological Care
By assessing Core Focus, organizations can begin to understand the quality of their care delivery system in a new way. 

Organization’s can answer the following:
What issues are we addressing? What kinds of clients are we most suited to providing psychological support to? What psychological issues are we missing?
To learn how your organization can being to address the psychological well-being of your clients, please email us today!

Categories Core Focus
Posted by: admin
October 21, 2011
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