Workplace Assessment Summary - Running With Scissors...

Posted on October 18, 2016 by Mark Myette, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.

Welcome to part 3 of my blog series on assessments…the previous 2 blogs:

Why Workplace Assessments Fall Short…
How to Ensure Workplace Assessments DON’T Fall Short…

In this blog I will provide a summary of the off-the-shelf assessments you can select from for implementation with your current workforce. This has been an interesting exercise putting this blog together since there’s not a central repository for well, “assessing assessments”. As a result, this blog has taken hours to put together…I hope you find it helpful. So, here we go!

If you, your team, company have determined an “off-the-shelf” assessment is the route you want to take, then be prepared to have “moments of clarity” and perhaps more “moments of ambiguity” until you arrive at the best assessment to achieve your objectives.

​This NOT a test!

Assessment or Test? Let’s be clear – if you go implement an assessment you need to be clear as the noon-day sun to those involved and those who will be asked to complete an assessment about: the objective; purpose; and outcomes. In other words, THE word ‘test’ should be AVOIDED as it implies those doing the assessment are being tested, i.e. that there are right and wrong answers. It will also send a message that “gaming” the assessment should not be the objective.

Mirror mirror on the wall…

An assessment is only giving a person a REFLECTION of the INFERENCES made based on the behavior observed and/or the preferences indicated (i.e. how they answered questions). It has been said to think of the ideal assessment as a mirror. “The mirror does not test your looks, it simply reflects back what you put into it.”

Be careful! Don’t run with scissors!

It’s recommended that the results be delivered by a professional coach or someone certified in the assessment utilized. Otherwise, you’ll run the risk of “running with scissors.” A coach should understand the limitations of the assessment used and help you and your organization interpret the results / outputs to begin the conversation that will lead to a better understanding of the assessment takers’ actual preferences or indicators.

1 + 1 = 3!

Last point (really!), based on what you’re hoping to accomplish, there might be more than one assessment you may decide to use consider. Afterall, one assessment cannot achieve all things but when used in conjunction with another assessment it provides a great combination of indicators.

For example, when I work with someone who might be discerning whether business ownership makes sense for them, I use a combination of StrengthsFinder2.0 and Entrepreneur Profile 10 (EP10). It allows my client to NAME, CLAIM, & AIM their gifts (StrengthsFinder2.0) and understand how they can align them their business-building talents (EP10).

​The language of assessments…

To help cut through the clutter, you should be up on the assessment world and the concepts of “Reliability” and “Validity”! Keep reading to level-set around assessment concepts, words / references you will be exposed…

Assessment Grouping

What Does it Measure? Examples…

​Behavioral – ​Behavior. Examples: how well someone manages herself; deals with change and priorities; and how well she “plays in the sandbox.” These assessments include personality and integrity assessments and structured interviews.

Competence – Assess experience, knowledge, skills, and cognitive abilities. Examples – memory recall and high-level thinking skills. These assessments include cognitive assessments for mental abilities and job-knowledge tests.

Cognitive – Mental abilities like verbal, math, reasoning, and reading comprehension.

Personality – ​Traits related to behavior at work, interpersonal interactions, and satisfaction with different aspects of work.

Psychological – ​Processes that use a combination of techniques to help reveal a person’s behavior, personality, and capabilities.

Psychometric – Skills and knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits.

Qualitative – Data that does not lend itself to quantitative methods but rather to interpretive criteria. It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. Qualitative data collection methods vary using unstructured or semi-structured techniques. Some common methods include focus groups (group discussions), individual interviews, and participant/observations.

Quantitative – Data used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into useable statistics. Examples include: attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and other defined variables – and generalize results from a larger sample population.

As noted, the most typical off-the-shelf assessments used in and around the work space for the CURRENT workforce will be focused on behavioral, competence, and personality.

Jargon

Reliability – the assessment would produce the same results if the person were to take the assessment again. Think of it as a scale. If you put a 5 lb weight on the scale you want it read “5” consistently. The higher the score, the more “reliable” the assessment will be.

Nerd alert! Excuse me as I go deep…the reliability of an assessment is indicated by the reliability coefficient. It is denoted by the letter “r,” and is expressed as a number ranging between 0 and 1.00, with r = 0 indicating no reliability, and r = 1.00 indicating perfect reliability. Do not expect to find an assessment with perfect reliability.

Generally, you will see the reliability of an assessment as a decimal, for example, r = .80 or r = .93. The larger the reliability coefficient, the more repeatable or reliable the assessment score.

The table below serves as a general guideline for interpreting assessment reliability. However, do not select or reject an assessment solely based on the size of its reliability coefficient. To evaluate an assessment’s reliability, you should consider the type of assessment, the type of reliability estimate reported, and the context in which the assessment will be used.

Reliability | Coefficient Value ​Interpretation
.90 and up | Excellent
.80 – .89 | Good
.70 – .79 | ​Adequate
Below .70 | May have limited applicability.

Validity – is the extent to which the assessment accurately measures what it is intended to measure. In other words, validity will tell you how good an assessment is for a particular situation. You cannot draw valid conclusions from an assessment unless you are confident that the assessment is reliable. Even when an assessment is reliable, it may not be valid. You should be careful that any assessment you select is BOTH reliable and valid for your situation.

Going deep again…the validity of an assessment is measured by the validity coefficient. It is reported as a number between 0 and 1.00 that indicates the magnitude of the relationship, “r,” between the assessment and a measure of job performance (criterion).

The larger the validity coefficient, the more confidence you can have in predictions made from the assessment results. Understand, a single assessment can never fully predict job performance because success on the job depends on so many varied factors. Therefore, validity coefficients, unlike reliability coefficients, rarely exceed r = .40.

Validity | Coefficient Value Interpretation
Above .35 | Very beneficial
.21 – .35 | Likely to be useful
.11 – .20 | Depends on circumstances
Below .11 | Unlikely to be useful

​Which brings us to the heart of the blog – the assessment snapshot. No doubt, this list ​will continue to evolve based on feedback / banter of results and introductions of emerging assessments. With that said here is a summary of some of the more popular off-the-shelf workplace assessments:

BestWork
Big Five (AKA Five Factor Model)
DISC/DiSC Behavior Inventory
Enneagram
Entrepreneur Profile 10 (EP10)
Emotional Quotient Inventory 2.0
Harrison Assessment
Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI)
Hogan Personality Inventory
Keirsey Temperament Sorter
Kolbe Index
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Pearman
People Map
Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator (PMAI)
Saville Consulting’s Psychometric Assessments
Situational Judgment Tests
Standout
StrengthsFinder2.0
The Birkman Method

In our next blog, I will provide a detailed summary of EACH!

That’s it (for now)! I’d welcome your thoughts. Till then,

My best in your quest!

Mark
I believe each of us is a gift. I create trusted relationships where individuals, teams and leaders NAME, CLAIM and AIM their gifts to achieve optimum performance.