This entry is a little more work-related than usual and
specifically related to my line of work. For those of you that don’t know, I
work within the HR space, and develop selection assessments for a variety of
clients and positions, but mostly within the hospitality/restaurant space.
Typically, the background required for this type of job is industrial
organizational psychology. That background isn’t the easiest to explain, so I usually
say it’s a “fancy HR with stats.” The reason that this entry is made is that I
wanted to clear up some of the negativity surrounding this arena. It isn’t
completely perfect; however, it is NOT mostly negative.
Many people really dislike my line of work as they don’t
believe assessments or personality assessments have any real merit on
predicting if an individual will be a good fit for the job. I’m one of those
people that will not get upset if your opinion differs from mine, but I feel as
if I should shed some light on this area of HR and why I think it DOES work.
I think many people operate under the misconception that
psychologists and psychologically based tests are there to judge individuals as
being “good” or “bad.” They imagine a psychologist in a white coat with crazy
hair overanalyzing every little detail and judging certain things as “abnormal.”
Just as an FYI, people aren’t ever seen as abnormal and psychologists are
hardly normal. The only edge I really get from being privy to the information
from personality tests, etc. is that I
know a lot about myself and what my tendencies are. I’m hardly normal and
hardly perfect. What people don’t understand (and how could they, unless they
work in the industry), is that in my position, we are trying to balance giving
a job to a deserving person, and selecting the best candidate from the perspective
of the client/organization.
Honestly, from my perspective, I WANT you to get the job! I
do, however, need to recommend the candidates that I think will be the best fit
for my client. By fit, I mean, has a personality that will thrive in that work
environment, be able to do the job minimally and that in turn will result in
outcomes such as retention and job satisfaction. Have you ever been in a job
where you hate your coworkers, are forced to work in conditions that aren’t
ideal for your productivity and have trouble really believing and acting in
accordance with the company mission? I definitely have and it’s HORRIBLE. While
I may have very much needed a job and income, I was miserable and that was
resulting in adverse effects; effects on the organization and on me as the
individual. Miserable employees do not represent the organization well, in any
situation, and having a miserable job really does affect a lot of facets of one’s
life.
Assessments as well as other NEEDED aspects of the selection
process (interviews, realistic job previews, etc.) can and do regularly predict
success within a job and an organization. These types of things aren’t (or at
least should not be) pulled at random and developed “willy-nilly.” There is
quite a bit of scientific and statistical rigor that goes into these types of
things (I won’t bore you with details). The basics of it are that these types
of things are developed having actual indicators of good performance,
retention, job satisfaction, etc. in hand and are linked to them statistically to
best predict those outcomes.
I got into this field because I wanted to help people. I
think we spend a lot of our time and energy at work, and while it can’t be fun
all the time, it does not have to be miserable.
I also want it to be clear that these tests are not the be-all-end-all of
the selection process. They are one component of it. In stats, we are taught
that the more data points you can get on something, the more accurate the
overall picture is. So, the more times that we can measure something from a
job-seeker, the more likely our view will be an accurate, overall picture.
FYI this is a pic of my work team who do the same thing I do. And yes, we are playing Whirlyball!!
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