Do you sense frustration within your team over different work styles? Perhaps it’s time to take a closer look at their personality profiles, thinking preferences or both.
Personality profiling is a type of psychometric assessment designed to identify characteristics, preferences and tendencies that determine the way in which people relate to others or respond in various situations. Used in the workplace, it can be extremely effective in improving communication, relationships and teamwork. By providing an understanding of how they and others ‘tick’, profiling enables managers and co-workers to interact with others in a way that is compatible with their needs, and match people to tasks and teams effectively. This creates a more harmonious working environment that encourages people to perform at their best – ultimately improving productivity.
Ability tests are another type of psychometric assessment. They look at abilities such as numeracy and cognitive skills, ability to understand written information and abstract concepts, as well as problem-solving skills, and are useful for ensuring that candidates are a good fit for a role.
Two reliable tools that we use and recommend are DISC behavioural profiling and the HBDI (Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument). They should not be seen as tests for judging or ranking people, but rather as tools for fostering understanding, collaboration and productivity and building strong and balanced teams.
DISC behavioural profiling
DISC is a behavioural profiling tool that uses four main behavioural styles to describe how people approach their work and relationships:
- Dominance (D)
- Influence (I)
- Steadiness (S)
- Conscientiousness (C)
A DISC assessment identifies an individual’s DISC style – or, since most people display characteristics from more than one style, the strength of their inclination towards a particular style. This can be used to predict how they interact with others, how they respond to challenges, stress and rules, and the pace at which they prefer to work.
DISC assessments provide management with the opportunity to manipulate environmental factors, such as management style, to allow people to perform at their best and allows co-workers to modify their behaviour in order to improve collaboration and thus productivity.
HBDI – modes of thinking
The HBDI (Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument) identifies an individual’s inclination towards one of four different modes of thinking:
- Analytical thinking
- Sequential thinking
- Interpersonal thinking
- Imaginative thinking
An HBDI assessment is a powerful tool for understanding an individual’s thinking preferences, cognitive abilities and innovative thought processes, all of which influence how they communicate, learn, make decisions and solve problems. HBDI profiling is useful for placing employees in areas where they are best suited and for creating well-balanced teams in which all members can contribute to the outcome in their own way. This promotes a sense of self-worth and pride, enhanced efficiency and increased morale. Like DISC profiling, HBDI assessments have enormous potential for improving productivity.
The Proven Group
Our specialist team is skilled in using psychometric assessment to match candidates to specific jobs, creating immediate productivity gains by reducing training requirements and quickly allowing new employees to feel part of the team.
Some organisations carry out their own assessments but often fail to apply the results effectively. The Proven Group offers half-day and full-day team-building sessions that help you interpret and make the best use of this valuable information to improve relationships and productivity in your business.
Our sessions cover the following topics:
- Why DISC in team-building?
- The Johari Window (a technique that helps people better understand their relationship with themselves and others)
- Recognising and managing DISC characteristics in the workplace
- Matching people with jobs
- Strategies for blending and capitalising behaviour
The Proven Group is a recruitment agency that helps employers in Melbourne, Geelong and Ballarat use psychometric assessment to improve teamwork and productivity. We can also assist with all other aspects of recruitment, including shortlisting, interviewing and reference checking. If you’d like help with any part of the recruitment process, feel free to get in touch for a confidential and no-obligation discussion.
