Use the Five Dimensions of Human Behavior to Guide Your HR Decisions

By [http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Fay_F_Niewiadomski/1166902]Fay F Niewiadomski

Stop trying to fit "square pegs into round holes"! Use the Five Dimensions of Human Behavior to Guide your HR Decisions Would you be willing to trust your health and your life to doctors who relied on trial and error to carry out their diagnoses? If those doctors also told you that they did not believe in tests such as echo graphs, laboratory analyses, MRIs, X-rays and the huge battery of other tests available to aid in medical diagnoses, how confident would you be in their work? Although most people would not be willing to place their lives in the hands of doctors such as those just described, they often manage the Human Resources function of their business in just such a manner. They hire managers based upon very subjective criteria: looks, family connections, 'university of origin', current need, friend of a friend. Let us look at what it costs a company when poor hiring leads to repeated short- term staff 'hiring and firings', i.e. high turnover. To hire a person for a position in your company, you usually need, in addition to putting the word out among friends and relatives, to place advertisements in relevant newspapers and magazines or secure the services of an employment agency. The costs of these activities constitute a set of discrete, direct payments. This part is the least expensive, but what about the less apparent expenses? These less apparent expenses include: 3 months of relatively low productivity on the part of the new recruit, the time of another employee who is providing some kind of guidance and support to the new employee, the time of the Human Resources department as they follow the progress of the new employee. The greatest loss of all is when between three months and one year you and the employee discover that this is not the right-place for them and you start again from point 'zero'. Even greater losses occur when you keep the wrong person for the job in the position long term. It is in such circumstances that the impact affects other employees, the quality of work and the level of productivity. In fact, it has been estimated that it costs a company between USD10,000 and USD15, 000 each time a poor hiring decision leads to defection, and many times more when it leads to loss of productivity. So, why do so many people still hire unprofessionally and subjectively? Many think they are 'experts' and can 'sniff out' the best candidate by using some of their own unscientific methods. What these people forget is that by following a professional procedure they are increasing their chances of making an appropriate decision by not leaving any aspect of the evaluation to pure chance. So, what are some of the solutions? First, recognize that there are several levels of evaluation necessary for any position: knowledge and qualifications; skills and experience; personality; motivation (energy level). You cannot even begin to evaluate these without first defining very clearly what the requirements for the job are. Without this it is like trying to find the missing piece of a puzzle you have never seen. I will now examine each of these aspects and how they should be viewed in the hiring process: Knowledge and Qualifications First distinguish between knowledge and qualifications. Knowledge represents the specific facts and concepts needed for the job. This can be tested through well conceived 'pen and paper tests'. Qualifications represent formal degrees, certificates and diplomas. These only mean that the individual who holds them completed the college or university requirements necessary for the faculty to issue the document he or she holds. Degrees do not indicate that individual can perform on the job. Skills and Experience Here we are looking at the application of knowledge in specific areas and the nature of the circumstances in which the individual acquired the ability to use his or her knowledge. For example, holding a doctoral degree in Spanish Literature is no guarantee that this person can produce effective commercial correspondence. Similarly, a degree in Economics is no guarantee that the individual is competent to establish effective financial policies for a business enterprise. These abilities need to be evaluated through interviews and simulations as well as project work, depending on the complexity of what is expected. PERSONALITY (the first 4 dimensions of behavior) People can learn what they don't know or acquire skills they don't have, but it is very difficult, if not impossible, to change an individual's personality. So what is to be done here? This is where the use of credible and reliably researched psychometric tools are necessary in order to objectively assess the implications of the individual's behavior across the first 4 dimensions of personality in a managerial context. These dimensions are: 1) how the individual manages relationships, 2) processes information, 3) takes decisions and 4) handles organization of self and others. The detailed analysis relating to each of these areas of personal behavior provides insight into the kind of job function most suitable for a particular individual. Moreover, there are several valid and reliable instruments for matching the person to the job in order to get the best job fit. Whereas there is no 100% guarantee in any of these instruments, they do reduce the percentage of risk in hiring the wrong person. A suite of 4 solidly researched psychometric instruments have been developed and implemented on all 5 continents of the world by Drs. Charles Margerison and Dick McCann since the mid-eighties. Human Resource practitioners are therefore now able to draw on a multicultural database including over half a million profiles. Motivation (the 5th dimension of behavior) The nature and degree of motivation is of great importance in determining how suitable an individual's disposition is to a particular type of work. Dr.Dick McCann recently (1999) developed psychometric tool that enables Human Resource specialists to measure the individual's QO2 (Opportunities / Obstacles Quotient or energy level) across 5 facets of motivational behavior: MTG energy, Multi-Pathways, Optimism, Fault-Finding and Time Focus. These are expressed as individual scores and synthesized into a consolidated score known as the 'Hope Index'. This information is, for example, of great value in selecting members of the sales force who need to have high energy levels or the risk analysts who need to have high scores in 'Fault-Finding'. CONCLUSION Since all this is available, why do we still insist on groping in the dark when it comes to staffing? Is it easier and in the very short run apparently cheaper? We are in the 21st Century and should have realized by now that we have learned very little from the mistakes of others, since we keep on repeating them. Maybe the risk of poor staffing can be lessened if we go back to the original question: would you trust you life to a doctor who prefers to use intuition alone to determine the best treatment for a serious condition? Fay Niewiadomski founded ICTN (International Consulting & Training Network) in 1993. ICTN provides complete management services to its clients who are among the leading regional and multinational players. Furthermore, she has worked with CEOs, Board Members, Presidents and Ministers of Government and other Leaders to help them meet the challenges of change within their organizations through creative problem solving, management interventions and powerful communication strategies. Prior to founding ICTN, she researched the subject of "Managing Change through Needs-Based Assessment' in large Lebanese Organizations" for her doctoral work at the University of East Anglia in the UK. Additionally, she also held various university positions as a professor at AUB and LAU and as Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at NDU.

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