Is Twitter a Recruiting Tool?

Once depicted as a trendy social media experiment, Twitter has officially arrived. From cell phone integration to CNN broadcasts, we can no longer escape the fact that Twitter is not a passing fad. The site once criticized for a complete lack of utility has evolved into one of the most flexible tools available in the social media space. HR departments, Corporate Recruiters and Job Seekers have taken notice. Twitter has become an important tool in corporate recruiting.

In the current job market companies are clamoring to hang on to their talent. Blasting out new positions in real-time is an exciting strategy to target quality candidates. The fact of the matter is that there are more job seekers than jobs. This situation results in the limited number of prime candidates being scooped up with greater urgency. Despite the fact that there are less job openings, publicizing your new positions is critical to landing top talent.

Another interesting facet of Twitter's contribution to the recruiting field is an enhanced ability to find passionate candidates. Companies that actively rely on twitter to publicize new job openings create a channel for passionate supporters and potential future employees to track. For example, A software engineer who thoroughly enjoys the online music service Pandora.com will be more likely to respond to a new job opening if the candidate can track the available positions for Pandora in real-time.

Perhaps Twitter's most impressive function in the recruiting process is to establish a company's reputation for hiring quality, renowned talent. Spacex, the growing rocket company founded by Elon Musk, uses Twitter to announce talent acquisition. When Spacex hired former astronaut Ken Bowersox they tweeted out the news. This PR strategy serves to build a reputation around the human capital at a company. The more talented super stars that a candidate perceives to work for your company, the more likely that candidate will want to join your ranks. Ultimately companies want top candidates beating down the doors to get a chance to join the team. Twitter can help make this desire a reality.

A few smart software companies are working to seamlessly integrate Twitter and other social media sites into the recruiting process. These applicant tracking providers allow corporate recruiters to automatically post new positions to Twitter. Whenever a new job goes live the system will tweet out the new position. As more recruiting software packages leverage the Twitter API, Twitter will become more integral to the hiring process.

The recent Twitter revolution in the recruiting field is only a subset of how the social media site is affecting business across the board. With adoption rates soaring and users hunting out innovative applications for the service, Twitter's inherent flexibility may become its killer feature.(HR Rsource)

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Why Should You Use Psychometric Testing?

Testing provides more information about a candidate in an objective way than the CV or Resume can provide. You can therefore make a more informed decision than working with the skills the CV provides, and the impression your recruit makes during the interview. This is therefore the most important reason you should use psychometric testing; it leads to hiring decisions that are more valid than decisions made by any other means. It takes the guesswork and “feeling” out of the hiring process and allows you to work with fact and logic. This puts you in control.

Psychometric testing improves the effectiveness of the employment process by selecting the most suitable candidates first. This will help reduce the amount of money you spend on people who don’t fit into your organisation, either by having to rehire soon as someone who doesn’t fit into your organisation won’t stay long, or wasting money on them during the hiring process.

Speaking about money: Imagine the amount you need to spend to get the same information about a new recruit than a psychometric test gives you.

You can profile a job so that you can see the personality type that is required for it. Then you can choose the person that has the personality type for the job. This makes the hiring process quick, stress free and easy.

Interviewing alone places emphasis on skill. Psychometric testing tells more about the behaviour of the candidate. As people get hired on skill, but fired on behaviour it would make sense to test the behaviour.

Psychometric testing uses assessment tools that have been designed by skilled psychologists and tested in over 38 countries so that you have the peace of mind that your business will benefit from hiring the right recruit.

These tests are designed to use for employment and is targeted to your business needs. You can see whether the person you need fits into your organisation, as it measures what they will bring to the job, and match their strengths with your requirements.

You can see someone’s development needs and strengths at a glance in easily understandable language. No psychological jargon to confuse you.

You can measure the potential of the individual tested so that you can train that person and know how to motivate them to give their best.

You can test all your staff while you’re at it, and make sure they are where they should be to enable them to help your business grow. You can then make interdepartmental changes to put them where they will perform at their best and retrain where necessary. You will reap the results of this in the form of revenue. Your staff will thank you, because they will be where they are happiest, and your business will flourish.

an article by Hannah Du Plessis

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Pre-employment Tests & Other Ways to Stop Employee Theft

“Wall Street Journal” and Fox News reported (a) increases in employees stealing plus (b) employee theft’s financial drain on companies.

How financially draining is employee stealing and theft? (A) The value of stolen items rose one-third in just two years, according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers’s survey of 5,400 companies. (B) 20% of employers consider employee theft a moderate to very big problem, found Institute for Corporate Productivity research.

And how does employee theft impact your non-stealing employees? First, your honest employees feel dismayed when co-workers steal. It proves you hired lousy humans. Second, employees know anything reducing profits impacts job security. If a company loses too much to theft or stealing, eventually employees may get “de-employed” to decrease losses.

Fortunately, managers can use pre-employment tests and other methods to (a) avoid hiring job applicants who are thieves and (b) discover which employees steal.

1st WEAPON = PRE-EMPLOYMENT TESTS to HELP HIRE NON-THIEVES

Pre-employment tests that specifically predict or forecast dependability can help you hire Non-Thieves. After all, the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to avoid stealing by employees is obvious: Avoid hiring job applicants who will steal.

For example, in my pre-employment test research to create the Theft/Stealing prediction on the “Dependability Forecaster(tm) Test,” I used a two-step method to find out which test questions predict if someone may steal. First, two groups of people answered my extensive list of research questions: (1) One group was Thieves – hundreds of prisoners locked-up in jails for stealing and theft crimes. (2) The second group was hundreds of Non-Thieves. Then, I did statistics to find out which specific questions the Thieves answered significantly differently than the Non-Thieves.

Those questions became the pre-employment test’s section that helps predict if a job applicant may steal.

When applicants take the pre-employment test, companies immediately see if a job applicant scored like the Thieves or the Non-Thieves. Of course, managers prefer hiring applicants who get the test scores of the Non-Thieves.

2ND WEAPON = BACKGROUND CHECKS
In addition to pre-employment tests that help predict Theft/Stealing, a company also might conduct a criminal background check to see if the applicant was convicted of stealing crimes.

Problem: Unfortunately, a background check only will tell you if the applicant was convicted in the locale where you do the check, for example, your county. Warning: If an applicant was convicted in another locale, then you will not find out.

Solution: First, administer a pre-employment test to help predict Theft/Stealing – before you spend your time and budget on background checks. Then, if employment test scores show an applicant scored like Thieves, then you probably will not bother to waste budget doing a theft or criminal background check.

3RD WEAPON = ACT LIKE JAMES BOND

After you use pre-employment tests to hire the best, you still need to watch your employees to make sure they do not steal. It may not sound nice, but you need to “spy” on employees. You can install video cameras, tracking devices and other spying instruments that are allowed.

For example, an executive at one company called me for help to stop employee theft and stealing that harmed the company’s finances.

First, I helped the executive start using the pre-employment test that predicts possible Theft/Stealing concerns – so the company could avoid hiring thieves. Second, I recommended the company “spy” on current employees by installing location-tracking devices on its delivery trucks.

Results = The pre-employment test helped the company hire Non-Thieves. Among employees, the company discovered delivery drivers were (a) driving away from their most direct routes and then (b) selling company goods during their off-route driving. The company’s stealing by employees came to a screeching halt. And new employees were Non-Thieves.

Suggestion: Make 100% certain employees realize you watch them. Some may complain about “Big Brother” for awhile, but they will know your rules. Your rules include no stealing is tolerated. Plus, employees realize you use multiple tools to catch employees who steal. Also, point out that stealing by employees creates less job security for everyone. That will make them thank you for “spying.”

PRE-EMPLOYMENT TESTS, CRIMINAL CHECKS, & SPYING HELP YOU STOP EMPLOYEE STEALING

Employee stealing drains a company’s financial resources. It also creates a lousy workplace for employees. Research and news reports indicate employee stealing is a big, growing and expensive problem. So, managers need to take three steps to stop theft by employees.

First, give pre-employment tests to job applicants to help you avoid hiring possible Thieves or people who may steal. Second, conduct criminal background checks on job applicants who did well on the pre-employment test. Third, monitoring devices catch employees who try to steal your company’s possessions.

Pre-employment tests, criminal theft background checks and “spying” give you a fantastic 1-2-3 punch to knock-out employee stealing in your company.

COPYRIGHT 2009 MICHAEL MERCER
Michael Mercer, Ph.D., is America's Hire the Best Expert™. Many companies use pre-employment tests he created -- "Abilities & Behavior Forecaster™" Tests - and his "7-Step Method to Hire the Best"™. Dr. Mercer authored 5 books, including "Hire the Best -- & Avoid the Rest™" & "Turning Your Human Resources Department into a Profit Center™."

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The Benefits of NLP Coaching

A good NLP Coach will use a number of techniques on themselves and with their clients to get results fast. This article demonstrates the use of a great NLP coach and the techniques they use.

Perceptual Positions an NLP Technique

Perceptual positions is an NLP exercise geared to looking at a situation from multiple perspectives. Any given situation has several different perspectives and different information can be gain from each. The first is obviously your own, the second is the perspective from another person that is involved in the situation and the third is a neutral, unconnected perspective. Each of these positions would give you more information about the situation and the opportunity to influence what is happening. A fuller explanation of perceptual positions can be found on my website.

A Business Coaching Example of Using NLP Techniques

There are many NLP tools that a coach might use in the first instance, but for illustration purposes we will restrict this to just using perceptual positions.
The coach might use this technique for themselves initially to get a flavour of what their client is thinking and, if it is a business context how the business views the situation.
A typical business coaching situation might involve a client who has a new role that they have some doubts over. Perhaps they also don't know how to approach their new team and are unsure about what is expected of them.
You could use Perceptual Positions for every part of this situation.

Getting the client to look at the situation from the perspective of their new boss and doing a skills analysis from this perspective would give them confidence. They were employed for the role therefore someone has faith in them and seeing their skills from this perspective will help.
Seeing the role from the perspective of the job and the organisations might yield clues as to direction, goals expectations.
Looking at the new team's perspective and then getting the client to plan their approach from this and the organisation's perspective might give them a different view of how to meet, motivate set expectations with the new team.
Also, getting the client to imagine a future version of themselves that is happy, comfortable and settled in the role may help. But what if you took a neutral, observer perspective on the difference between the two and develop the action plan to take you from the current state to the future state?

Coaching using NLP Techniques

The illustration above was just to demonstrate how a foundation level NLP Tool could be used in multiple ways in a single coaching situation. The reality is that there are many powerful NLP Techniques a good coach will employ for you to get results.
As an example, whatever you happen to be doing there is an ideal frame of mind associated with it. Athletes recognise this as being in the zone or a flow state. Any good coach will have a coach state they have anchored and can fire off to be in the right frame of mind to assist you as a client. If appropriate they could be showing you how to do the same for your role.

The Real Power of NLP Coaching Techniques

Language (both verbal and non verbal) binds the relationship between coach and client. But language is just a filter on our thoughts and impacts how we represent the world to ourselves.
A good coach is trained to notice these filters in themselves and others and then can open or restrict them to provide a better frame on the situation. A good NLP Practitioner Course will show you how to do that and much more. This is why all good coaches study NLP.
My expectations of a good hypnotic NLP Business Coach to that coaching situation described above would be to linguistically given you change strategies, installed empowering beliefs and set preframes that eliminate self doubt before you have even started the session. All of a saddened you might find yourself filling in the detail and getting results within a framework of fun coaching session.
Anyone interested in getting great performance out of themselves should consider a coach…but if you are unreasonable, impatient and want those results faster then a NLP Coach is a serious consideration.***

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Criminal Background Check

Some people simply have cultivated a reserved personality since childhood, their trust hard to gain. Their instincts tell them to hold back and usually check on a person’s background before acknowledging that person worthy of a responsibility or acceptance. A positive outcome of this action is that they may gain few acquaintances and fewer friends but majority of which are true ones.

A detailed record is usually the most persuasive tool in proving ones worth. Internet may be one good source in acquiring much information. Among the records which have been used in years as a dependable reference of character is each individuals criminal record as this record gets regularly updated.
Background check helps prevent recurrence of violation from the same person. USA law enforcers gave their countrymen the privilege to probe into the criminal and court documents of the locations a suspicious individual stayed in.

Two kinds of criminal records accessible to the population of Canada and US States are On Premise County Courthouse and Database Criminal Search. The former can be relied upon for updates while the latter for the wide coverage for criminal record verification. On Premise County Courthouse records are acknowledged for their precision. The information accumulated from Database Criminal Search is a general knowledge or confirmed by majority of sources. 

If Traffic Offenses, Misdemeanors or Felonies is the particular subject of research, county courthouses could be the first place of inquiry. However, one must check first a states classification of crimes. Example in one state there may be a number of violations included under Misdemeanors that are disseminated to a different category on another state. In some states too Misdemeanors falls under a category, not a category itself.

Each particular search could be easier accomplished when one knows where to look. Popular group of source choices is from nationwide, statewide, federal and countywide criminal records.

For more information about this article and its author you can check out Criminal Background Check for more information

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Managing Behavioral Styles

How do you handle the differences in style among your employees? Do you wonder how to motivate someone who seems not to care? Are you dismayed when your management style seems to work with a few beautifully, but misses the mark with others?

To answer these questions Paula Switzer’s -a Certified DISC trainer- write an article about how we can manage employee’s behavioral styles.

First, you must come to grips with a rather tough realization: you really cannot motivate another person. Perhaps you can cause them to get motivated for the short term ("If you are late one more time, you are fired!"), but we all know the motivation for true, lasting behavior change must come from within.

Yet you can do much to create an environment where people will become self-motivated. Understanding different styles of behavior and what each style needs is the key. You also can begin to create a high performing team when you use these principles.

A behavioral-based model such as DISC can be helpful in learning about different styles. DISC is a model that has been used by more than 40 million people worldwide, and it has been translated into more than 17 languages.

In the DISC model, there are four main styles of behavior. Everyone has a bit of each behavior, and often a primary as well as a secondary style of behavior. The four primary styles are Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness.

Obviously, as human beings, we are much more complicated than the four styles of the DISC, but the instrument can be a start in helping us understand how to create an environment where others are self-motivated.

As the war for talent becomes more pronounced, you must do everything you can to build a loyal, engaged team. Understanding these style differences, and incorporating these strategies can help in hiring and retaining key employees.

As a manager or a small business owner, you may have limited financial resources or career options with which to reward an employee, but you can work hard at understanding what makes your employees tick. When you appreciate and capitalize on employees' strengths, you provide them with a sense of pride, involvement and contribution that increases job satisfaction and retention.

Here are five tips to get moving in the right direction regardless of individual styles:

* Be clear about expectations up front - Let people know what is important to you and what you expect from them. Share your own style and needs with your employees.
* Walk the talk and lead by example - Step in to support your employees at every opportunity. Maintain your own sense of personal integrity at all times.

* Get to know your people and what makes them tick - Be a student of understanding differences, and adapt your style to meet their needs. Provide opportunities for people to operate from their strengths.
* Provide honest feedback, and continuous coaching - Encourage an environment where team members can learn from one another, including from you, and you from them. Tell the truth.
* Encourage and reward accountability - Provide reinforcement when people take initiative. Be the poster child for personal accountability. Admit mistakes and learn from them.
___________
Source: BestManagementArticles

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Personality and Multiple Intelligences Test

This morning I visit Toshihiko Atsuyama’s blog and I found a nice widget about his personality type. (You have a good personality my friend… ha ha ha)

The widget coming from MyPersonality dot info and you can put it on your blog or website after taking a test.

About the test

Personality Type
Carl Jung's theory of psychological types explains that each person is "wired" with different tendencies and preferences. Some of us are extraverted while others are introverted, some are "thinkers" while others are "feelers".

Multiple Intelligences Test
I.Q. tests are limited. In addition to being logical and Number Smart a person can also be Word Smart, People Smart, Picture Smart and so on. Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences suggests that we excel in eight different categories of intelligence.

So, take the test to discover your personality type, identify your top strengths and share the results on your blog or website.
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Assessment and Certification for HR Professional

In the development and training of personnel practitioners, the assessment and certification of learning plays an important role in the recognition of the professional experience, skills and knowledge of individuals. Certification can form the criteria of association membership, and can demonstrate an individual’s adherence to standards and a commitment to staying abreast of new developments in the HR field. It is also a visual statement of professional status and as such is a useful tool in career advancement
In devising a scheme of certification it is important that the scheme allows individuals to demonstrate that their knowledge, skills and experience in a generalist or specialist role in HRM and/or HRD are sufficient to meet the criteria for professional competence. This can entail the demonstration of professional experience and/or the passing of a written comprehensive examination to meet pre-set requirements.

Mechanisms

As with training and development events, the majority of Associations runs its own certified courses of study or recognizes courses run by other institutions. Such courses are different to the training programs offered, as they often involve a number of modules, and have an assessment process that can result in the award of a certificate.

The various assessment mechanisms range from the practical to the more theoretical. For example, skills can be measured through a competency portfolio assessment, whereby an assessor is appointed to judge a person’s work. An alternative mechanism and one which is more widely used, is a written examination of knowledge which can take the form of multiple-choice or essay questions. These courses are assessed against standards at national or association level (Wiley 1999).

Case Example

In this section three examples of well-established systems of certification are presented, each one having been designed according to a different mechanism.

Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) - USA

In the USA, the HR credentialing body (HRCI) is separate from the HR association (the
Society for Human Resource Management - SHRM). This means that the HRCI runs a
voluntary programs, and is not accredited by anyone, nor does it accredit any programs that use its body of knowledge content outline. Equally there is no membership scheme and it does not run any courses: it purely assesses and certifies the knowledge of HR practitioners. This certification scheme has been in place since 1976.

Complementary to the work of the HRCI, SHRM provides certification preparation courses of study, and these have been running since 1988. These courses are available in different modes of study, primarily on a part-time or in-company basis.

The certification scheme is intended for those currently working in the HR field. There are two possible designations: Professional in HR and Senior Professional in HR. The assessment structure is based on having achieved the prerequisite HR experience (a minimum of two years in a position involving HR at least 51% of the time) and passing a written examination. This examination is based on the technical and operational aspects of HR at the Professional level, and on strategic and policy issues in HR at Senior Professional level. There is no prior requirement to have a university degree. The examinations themselves are based on 250 multiple-choice questions tested over a period of four hours. For the certificate to be awarded, candidates must agree to abide by the SHRM Code of Ethics and the HRCI Model of Professional Excellence. Re-certification is possible but not mandatory after one year, either through evidence of continuing education and experience or through retesting. Each year, around 7,500 individuals follow the certification preparation courses, with an average examination success rate of approximately 50%. Currently, some 33,000 individuals hold the HRCI certification, of which 17,000 are members of SHRM.

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) – UK

In the UK, the CIPD is the professional association as well as the certifying and awarding
body. It is accredited by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications and the Open
University. The CIPD has its own professional standards that have been developed through multiple stakeholders, and which have been mapped against the UK national standards. The certified courses of study run by the CIPD have been in place for 30 years.
Certification is awarded based on either experience and/or examination. The following list shows the different routes to CIPD certification:

Professional education
Approved centers offer a variety of courses including flexible learning courses and assessment via essay style examination, assignments and a management report.

Competence assessment against national standards
Individuals can gain both a National Vocational Qualification as well as the CIPD certification. This route is measured by the development of a professional portfolio that is assessed by a qualified assessor.

Professional assessment against CIPD standards
Again, this route is based on experience via portfolio development and assessment through an approved centre.

Assessment of prior certified learning
Relevant academic or professional qualifications previously gained are assessed against CIPD standards for certification to be awarded. These courses and assessment centers are either accredited centers which run internally assessed programs, or approved centers that prepare students for assessment by CIPD national examinations. Courses are run using a range of modes of study, with the part-time option being the most popular. Each year, around 12,000 individuals are successful in passing the certified courses of study, with approximately 76,000 individuals currently holding certification, but over 95,000 either certified or working towards certification. The average pass rate for the examinations is 55%. There is a requirement to be a member of the CIPD in order to sit the CIPD examinations. Agreement to comply with the standards of professional conduct is also required of CIPD members.

Each of the certification routes described above has a different certification level, which in turn results in a different grade of membership:

Certificate in Personnel Practice – Associate member
Certificate in Training Practice – Associate member
Professional Qualification Scheme – Licentiate member (after partial completion),
Graduate member (upon completion of the whole programs).

There is no re-certification requirement but Continuing Professional Development records are required for upgrading membership.

Interview Training Leads to More Profits

By Ira Wolfe

Interview training for managers pays more dividends than just better hiring. In a review of human resource practices at 50 large U.S. companies, Watson Wyatt found that 65 percent of companies with a highly engaged workforce provide interview training for managers, vs. 33 percent of companies with a less-engaged workforce.

Those with highly engaged workers also spend more time in preparing workers for their new jobs - 35 weeks to bring a new hire up to speed as opposed to only 15 weeks for those companies with low engagement.

Improvements in employee engagement also result from the simplest technique of explaining to a new employee why they were hired! Fifty-two percent of high financial performers said they were offered such an explanation. Less then 30 percent of low financial performers received the reason.

Behavioral interview questions improve the odds of hiring the right person by 50%. That must be why "interview questions" is such a popular search term on the Internet. The problem with this popularity is that most hiring managers and employers don't have the spare time to be searching for interview questions. That means jobseekers must be doing most of the searching. What can an employer do to get the advantage?

Behavioral Interviews

A behavioral interview is an employment interview during which a job applicant is asked to demonstrate competencies: knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Behavioral interviewing is a relatively new style of interviewing that was developed in the 1970's by industrial psychologists.

Katharine Hansen the editor of QuintZine told that employers such as AT&T and Accenture (the former Andersen Consulting) have been using behavioral interviewing for about 15 years now, and because increasing numbers of employers are using behavior-based methods to screen job candidates, understanding how to excel in this interview environment is becoming a crucial job-hunting skill.

Behavioral interviewing asserts that "the most accurate predictor of future performance is past performance in a similar situation.

Unlike traditional interviews, which include such questions as:tell me about yourself; what are your strengths and weaknesses?; why are you interested in working for us? The behavioral interview is designed to minimize personal impressions that can affect the hiring decision. By focusing on the applicant's actions and behaviors rather than subjective impressions that can sometimes be misleading, interviewers can make more accurate hiring decisions.

What Do Employers Evaluate in A Behavioral Interview?

Employers are looking for 3 types of skills: Content Skills, Functional - also called Transferable Skills, and Adaptive - also called Self Management Skills.

Content Skills: Knowledge that is work specific such as computer programming, accounting, welding, etc. expressed as nouns.
Functional or Transferable Skills: Used with people, information or things such as organizing, managing, developing, communicating, etc. expressed as verbs.
Adaptive or Self-Management Skills: Personal characteristics such as dependable, team player, self directed, punctual, etc. expressed as adjectives.

The Different of Behavioral Questions and other types of Interviewing Questions

There are 3 types of questions typically found in interviews:
Theoretical questions: Questions that place you in a hypothetical situation. These questions are more likely to test your skill at answering questions rather than in doing a good job.
Example: How would you organize your friends to help you move into a new apartment?

Leading questions: Questions that hint at the answer the interviewer is seeking by the way they are phrased.
Example: Working on your own doesn¹t bother you does it?

Behavioral questions: Questions that seek demonstrated examples of behavior from your past experience and concentrate on job related functions. They may include:
Open-ended questions -- these require more than a yes of no response. They often begin with "Tell me...", "Describe...", "When...".
Example: Describe a time you had to be flexible in planning a work load.

Close-ended questions: Used mostly to verify or confirm information.
Example: You have a degree in psychology, is that correct?

Why questions: Used to reveal rationale for decisions you have made or to determine your level of motivation.
Example: Why did you decide to major in this program at UWEC rather than at a small private college or larger university?

More about interviews and recruitment, jump here.

Designing of the 360 Feedback

For managers who would like to know more about item writing, scale construction, and survey length, and how these issues impact the feedback process, this is the basics of the design and administration of 360 surveys.

360 items are usually grouped into categories called competencies. Competencies are the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for success and are a useful way to communicate performance expectations.

Most 360 survey items are written in multiple choice format: Respondents choose one response for each item, such as Agree, Disagree, etc.

Survey designers follow several guiding principles when writing the items. Survey items should:
Be clearly and concisely written; Describe only one behavior or skill and not describe personal characteristics; Assess what they are intended to measure (items are generally piloted extensively and statistically analyzed.)

Many 360s include additional items written as open-ended questions. Raters like these types of questions because this format gives them an opportunity to provide feedback in areas not captured on the multiple-choice survey items; they like being able to illustrate or emphasize points in their own words.

360 participants also like open-ended questions because the responses provide rich supplemental feedback and frequently clarify ambiguities or inconsistencies revealed in the rating.

Rating Scales
Rating scales are used to capture raters’ perceptions about whether, or how well, the manager being rated demonstrates the surveyed behaviors and skills.
Most scales associate number with anchors (for example, 1 to 5, where 1=Strongly Disagree, 5=Strongly Agree); these are used to compute a numerical score. Some scale use only verbal descriptors, such as Strongly Disagree and do not associate the verbal rating with a numerical value; these descriptors are, however, later converted into numerical values for reporting purposes.

Scales can differ in the number op points and the number of choices that are included. Generally, scales range from three to 15 points. Most 360 designers use a five-point scale, or they use four or six points so that there is no middle point. By eliminating a middle point, survey designers overcome the problem of the raters’ propensity to overuse the safest choice on the scale, the middle or average rating.

It’s often debated whether to include a Not Applicable (NA) or Don’t Know (DK) rating choice. The rationale here is that raters need to be able to distinguish items that aren’t relevant or that they haven’t observed.

The advantage to including NA or DK as a rating choice is that these choices are not computed in the item’s average score. When there is no NA or DK raters often choose the middle point of the scale to express Not Applicable or Don’t Know; this can lead to confusion about what the middle point actually represents.

Survey Length
The length of a 360 survey affects the rater’s motivation to complete it, the time it actually takes the rater to complete it, and the rater’s overall impressions of the process.

Longer surveys, especially those with more than 100 items, can take up to an hour to complete. And the time it takes to complete 360 surveys can multiply very quickly for boss and peer raters, some of whom receive rating requests from more than ten individuals at one time. Because of this, many companies who use the 360 for all management employees opt for a shorter survey or exclude one rater category altogether, such as peers.

360 Survey Administration
The survey itself can be administered in a number of ways, including one or a combination of the following:Paper and pencil (mail or fax responses); Telephone
Disk-based; Intranet/Internet.

Raters are typically given two weeks to complete the survey. Once the established cutoff is reached, a feedback report is generated.

The DISC Behavioral Assessment

In the 1920’s, two world-renowned social scientists, Dr. Carl Jung and Dr. William Marston,developed the four-quadrant theory of behavior. Each scientist concentrated their work in different specialties. Dr. Jung studied dysfunctional personalities while Dr. Marston focused on the behavior of normal people. Born in Cliftondale, Massachusetts, in 1893, Dr. Marston received his PhD at Harvard University in 1921. In 1928 he published the book, "The Emotions of Normal People," a best-selling classic for many years in which he described the theory we use today. The DISC is based on Dr. Marston’s work and is the ideal tool to accelerate the process of individual growth, identify strengths and weaknesses, and rapidly develop improved communication strategies.

The DISC Report consists of just 24 questions and can graph over 19,000 individual responses, resulting in 384 different behavioral styles. the DISC Instrument accurately distributes them across the remaining 368 graphs. As a result, the DISC Instrument is far more sophisticated than instruments that only measure one factor against another in each question.

DISC is the leading behavioral assessment in the world, experienced by over four million people,and now more widely used than the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. One of the main reasons for this is that the DISC has been empirically validated at 91%, as high as any assessment in the world based on behavioral styles. In 1984 the DISC was computerized and today provides 40,000 behavioral characteristics.

Validity
Extensive research has been conducted on the reliability and validity of the DISC Instrument in the following areas:
Test-Retest Reliability - the stability of test scores over time
Construct Validity – the ability to measure a specific trait
Concurrent Validity – a relationship to other tests measuring similar constructs
Content Validity – the ability to measure what it is supposed to measure
Predictive Validity – the ability to predict performance on another activity

Test–Retest Reliability
Scores on the DISC Instrument exhibit very little change over time. Six-month test-retest correlations average in the .90 range. The DISC Instrument is a reliable instrument that consistently measures the same thing.

Construct and Concurrent Validity
Significant correlations have been found across all four DISC dimensions. This indicates that the DISC Instrument validly assesses constructs measured by other Four Factor assessment instruments.

Content Validity
The DISC dimensions can differentiate good performances from poor performances in studies of sales performance and managerial ability in a number of industries from truck drivers to Fortune 500 companies. The DISC Instrument successfully distinguishes varying levels of performance.

Predictive Validity
Outcome measures as diverse as sales performance, turnover rates, and job injuries have been predicted with a high degree of accuracy on the basis of DISC scores making the DISC Instrument a very valuable tool in selection and management.

The DISC Instrument is deceptively simple, asking respondents to choose what they are "most" and "least" like in 24 separate situations. Yet some 19,630 different 
graphs can be plotted from the 24 "most" responses; and 19,680 different graphs from the "least" responses. For practical evaluation purposes, these are condensed into one of 384 different graphs yielding a very high validity rate.

Reliability Estimates
The Spearman-Brown “split-halves reliability coefficient” indicates the degree of internal consistency of response to the DISC Instrument as a whole. The coefficients for each dimension are as follows:
Dominance – “D” r = .92
Influence – “I” r = .89
Steadiness – “S” r = .91
Compliance – “C” r = .90

Strength of the correlation is indicated by the size of the coefficient. The coefficient can vary from +1.00 through 0 to –1.00. A coefficient near 0 tells us there is no relationship between the variables. The closer a coefficient is to + or – 1.00, the stronger the relationship. The above reliability coefficients show an unusually high degree of internal consistency in response to the DISC Instrument as a whole and to each of the related dimensions.

Correlation Examples:
+/- 1.00 = Perfect correlation (extremely rare)
+/- .80 - .99 = Unusually high correlation
+/- .70 - .79 = Very high correlation
+/- .60 - .69 = High correlation
+/- .30 - .59 = Moderately high correlation
+/- .20 - .29 = Very low correlation
+/- .00 - .19 = No correlation

Graph I represents the “most like” behavior, displaying the intensity of the four factors which allows interpretation of the behavior an individual believes must be projected to achieve success in a given environment.
Graph II represents the “least like” behavior, demonstrating the real self, or the intensity of each factor, while the individual is under pressure and unable to mask behavior. The “least” graph is very important as it represents the real person, allowing conclusions to be drawn on how to best understand, manage and communicate with this person.

Based on the individual’s responses to the 24 “most” words, 19, 630 different graphs can be plotted and 19,680 different graphs can be plotted for the “least” responses. The magnitude of those numbers makes it impractical to write an evaluation of each potential graph so, for evaluation purposes, these possible graphs are condensed into one of 384 graphs. The computer-generated reports are based on evaluating the 384 graphs from both the “most” and the “least” responses.
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Source:
Wikipedia, The DISC Assessment
The History of DISC Assessmnet

How to introduce psychometric assessment to your organization?

Explain the advantages of psychometric assessment
• Tests set in realistic work contexts give applicants a useful foretaste of the job and indicate their motivation for the role, thereby reducing selection errors.
• Results can be validated in statistical terms against candidate's performance and behavior once in post, and can be used to predict the potential of future candidates.
• Psychometric assessment enables individuals to be compared in an objective and fair way.
• Most selection tests are of a pencil-and-paper variety, and therefore candidates can be tested in groups.
• Training needs are identified which have a positive impact on morale and staff turnover.
• Psychometric tests are inexpensive to use and many materials are reusable.

Clarify the restrictions involved in psychometric assessment
• As is the case for many selection techniques, psychometric tests should not be used in isolation as they cannot measure the entire candidate.
• Special training is required to administer and interpret psychometric tests.
• Equal opportunities, sex and disability legislation apply to the use of psychometric tests.

Carry out job analysis
In order to select appropriate psychometric tests, you need to identify the skills you are looking for in a particular role, and you do this by carrying out job analysis. There are a number of techniques for job analysis:
1. Self-description, diaries or logs
2. Critical Incident Technique
3. Hierarchical Task Analysis
4. Position Analysis Questionnaire
5. Repertory Grid Analysis

Know when to use psychometric assessment
Once you have identified from the job analysis process that it is appropriate to use one or more tests, you need to think about how these will fit into the overall procedure. Psychometric tests can be used in the initial screening, first interview and final interview stages, depending on your requirements.

At whatever stage you decide to use tests, you will need to bear in mind the practical considerations such as the time involved in administering, scoring and interpreting the tests, the cost of materials, and the provision of feedback to candidates.

Why use psychometric tests?

What is a 'psychometric test'?
A psychometric test is a series of written or practical tests which assess a clearly defined sample of human behavior.
A test which is psychometrically sound has five key characteristics. It is:
• Objective - the results obtained from it are not influenced by the administrator's personal preferences. The color of a test-taker's socks or the strength of their handshake should not influence the score the administrator assigns to them.
• Standardized - it is administered and scored according to standard procedures; people's scores on the test are compared to known standards.
• Reliable - it measures in a consistent way. The potential error is small and is quantifiable.
• Valid - it measures the characteristics which it sets out to measure. A test used for job selection should predict job performance. A test of verbal ability should predict this area and not some other skill.
• Discriminating - the test should be discriminating, showing clear differences between individuals on the behavior being tested. It should not be discriminatory - unfairly discriminating against minority groups on the basis of irrelevant characteristics.

There are many different types of psychometric tests, including measures of skill, ability, intelligence, personality, motivation and interests.

The advantages and disadvantages of psychometric tests?
Like most assessment tools, psychometric tests have both advantages and disadvantages in use.

The Advantages
*Standardized and objective; everyone is treated equally and therefore fairly
*Candidates who have good "interview technique" are not unduly advantaged
*Usually quick and easy to score
*Typically much more reliable, consistent and free from error than other assessment methods
*Statistical research suggests that many aspects of job performance can be predicted from test results. Indeed, tests seem to be much more effective in this regard than most other selection methods
*Per usage costs are low, sometimes as little as £5 per person. Because most tests can be administered in groups of up to 15, there are considerable savings of time and hence expense
*In general, tests measure the attributes they are designed to measure very effectively

The Disadvantages
*Internal candidates for jobs can sometimes feel disgruntled because they are being treated in the same way as external candidates
*Some candidates may be nervous about testing and will need to be put at their ease
*Some tests are more complex to score; training is required for administration and interpretation
*The initial set-up can be costly, including the initial purchase of re-usable materials and training of test administrators and interpreters
*There may be an initial resistance to using tests, often based on misconceptions, which needs to be overcome before they can be successfully introduced into an organization
*Tests may not be able to measure the 'whole candidate' and will typically be used in conjunction with other information

Psychometric tests can play a very useful role in both the assessment and the development of individuals. They can give objective evidence of the human attributes they measure, and have been shown to be one of the best predictors of job performance when used in selection. In practice, they will generally be used in conjunction with other methods such as interviews in order to give the 'whole picture'.