OCTOBER 13, 2000
RECRUITING STRATEGIES
Do You Have a Personality for Success? | Some companies test job applicants to see if they have the traits to be a dream hire
| It's becoming another one of those subtle signs that you've finally arrived. First, the headhunter calls. Then come those exciting conversations about a challenging new role with a great company and perks like plentiful stock options and an executive health plan. You get down to the last few hurdles and -- whoa! -- encounter one you never expected: Your personality test.
Say what? You mean the sorts of exams they give airline pilots? The kind that ferret out antisocial or suicidal tendencies? C'mon now, really. What harm can one little exec cause, except for some cruel and unusual punishment now and then?
TAKE THE COUCH. That, it turns out, is exactly what companies such as SupplyPro are trying to discover with personality tests. Over the past two years, the maker of Net-based inventory-control systems has required four top execs it hired to complete a lengthy questionnaire designed to determine if they and the job are a good match.
Stephen B. Parker, the San Diego startup's human resources vice-president, believes that such screening has helped avoid costly hiring missteps. In one case, for example, it helped confirm Parker's sense that two candidates for a business-development job were too discreet for SupplyPro's culture, which is more straightforward. "An executive-level hire can make or break your company," he says. "So why wouldn't you use every tool out there?"
Whether Parker is defying a trend or riding a new one isn't entirely clear. An American Management Assn. survey earlier this year found that only 30% of some 2,100 human resource managers who responded said they use personality testing, down from 50% two years ago. At the same time, however, some executive recruiters say the focus of such testing could be shifting from the rank-and-file (who, after all, are still in short supply) toward the captains of industry.
AN EXEC PRIVILEGE. In fact, some experts estimate that about 25% of executive searches now incorporate personality testing, and a few expect that percentage to grow as investors become increasingly concerned about the quality of senior management. So among the things you might want to bone up on as you prepare for your interview is the answer to such true/false questions as: "To me, crossing the ocean in a sailboat would be a wonderful adventure."
That's one of the statements on the test SupplyPro gave to its executive candidates. If you answer along the lines of "very true" to this and other questions, it could mean that you relish taking risks. That's a valuable trait for an executive charged with turning around a company but a not-so-hot characteristic for a manager who needs diplomatic skills to build a coalition, says psychologist Richard A. Hagberg, CEO of Hagberg Consulting Group. The Foster City (Calif.) leadership-development company administers SupplyPro's test, and its clients include Hewlett-Packard. The technology giant used the test last year to screen chief-executive hopefuls. Ultimately, Carly Fiorina was selected to be CEO and president, adding chairman to her list of titles a year later.
Testing is just one step in Hagberg's procedure to help clients predict whether a candidate can fit into the corporate culture, carry out the job, and work well with his or her new boss. Job finalists take about two hours to complete Hagberg's Personality and Leadership Profile, online or on paper. It lists hundreds of statements, from the ocean-crossing one to "I find I can think better when I have the advice of others," to "people should be involved with their work." Candidates indicate where they stand on each statement on a scale ranging from "extremely characteristic" to "extremely uncharacteristic."
Hagberg's questionnaire, which is followed by a lengthy interview and in most cases also involves testing the candidate's would-be boss as well as an assessment of the workplace culture, costs about $4,000 per head. Its results are shared with the applicant.
"GLOBAL PERSONALITY INVENTORY." And it's just one of perhaps hundreds of personality-assessment tools now used to make hiring decisions. Minneapolis-based human resources consulting company Personnel Decisions International, for example, offers a "global personality inventory" designed for multinational companies. That test, which has been translated into 12 languages, seeks to eliminate cultural bias in assessing candidates. In addition, the company uses a simulation, in which the applicant works a day in a pretend office and is observed tackling tough assignments.
Advocates of personality profiling say it's a valuable reality check when viewed in the context of a candidate's references and interviews. Robert F. Silzer, author of Individual Psychological Assessment: Predicting Behaviors in Organizational Settings, says the tool is most commonly used in older, "mainline" companies for senior positions. However, high-tech startups are turning to it as well. Gregory L. Selker, managing director of the ventures and technology practice at Christian & Timbers, a Cleveland-based executive recruiter, predicts that more young companies will request applicant testing in the wake of the tech-stock plunge. "Venture firms are requiring companies to go through far greater due diligence than they did this time last year -- and I think you're going to find the same thing with CEO candidates," he says.
Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, says even some of his MBA students tell him that they're being asked to take these tests during job searches, something almost unheard of as recently as five years ago.
CRUDE AND INEFFECTIVE. As you might expect, many executive recruiters are skeptical of this tool, arguing that it's so crude a personality measure as to be ineffective. Kevin M. Rosenberg, managing director of BridgeGate, an Irvine (Calif.) executive-search company, says a minuscule proportion of his clients ask for testing. And he believes that careful reference checking and detailed conversations with people who have worked with an applicant provide a full picture. "These individuals have a track record," he says. "It's easily discovered."
Others believe that the tests can be outfoxed. And still others say they can be off-putting. Candidates "don't want employers to know that much about them," says Mark N. Strom, president of Search Advisors International, a Tampa (Fla.)-based executive-search outfit.
Some companies also shy away from tests out of fear of litigation, says Executive Recruiting News editor Joseph Daniel McCool. Just this summer, Plano (Tex.)-based Rent-A-Center agreed to pay about $2 million to settle a class action filed in California by job candidates and employees. The company will also stop using a test that asked, according to Jeffrey A. Ross, the employees' lawyer, for responses to such statements as "I believe in the second coming of Christ" and "many of my dreams are about sexual matters." The plaintiffs had alleged, among other things, that the test was an invasion of their privacy in violation of the California state constitution. The state is one of the few with a right of privacy embedded in its constitution, and courts there have extended the right from government entities to private workplaces, says Ross.
SCHIZOPHRENIC DESIGNER. Personality-profiling advocates counter that a good test focuses strictly on work-related matters. They assert that a test can be counterproductive if it wanders into personal territory and examines characteristics that have no bearing on how one performs at a job. "I might be schizophrenic but be a great designer," says Arthur Resnikoff, consulting psychologist with Hagberg.
In addition, Resnikoff says, the Hagberg tests use several means to get around candidates who think they can outwit the evaluation. For one , he says, it often isn't apparent what sorts of behavior a particular question is trying to pinpoint or what traits a company is seeking in a job candidate.
When Skip J. McDowell took the test 18 months ago for a SupplyPro position, he says he spent the first few minutes trying to figure out if there was "an agenda here or a pattern." Soon, however, he decided to go with the flow and respond with the first thought that came to mind. Something clicked. McDowell's soon-to-be colleague, Parker, says the test confirmed his impression that McDowell could inspire loyalty, a useful characteristic for someone charged with building and motivating a sales staff.
"IT WAS ME." McDowell snagged the position of the company's executive vice-president for sales. "The test," he says, "was spot on. It was me."
It all sounds absolutely wonderful. Assuming, of course, that you're one of the lucky applicants for whom the test helps to deliver that really great job.
By Pamela Mendels in New York
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Copyright 2000, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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