Paper: The Gazette
Headline:This is only a test/Checking workers' skills, personalities helps companies
Date: 07/10/00
Section: INSIDE BUSINESS
Page: IB10
Byline: Jane Turnis; The Gazette
Keys: COVER STORY
         
   Sam talks, and Roy looks at him as though he's an alien.
   Janice's attempts to motivate her staff have the 
opposite effect.
   John spends thousands of dollars interviewing, 
hiring and training an impressive candidate - only
to see her move on six months after getting the job.
   In today's tight labor market, frustrating staff 
issues such as these have put employers to the test.
In response, many employers put prospective and current
employees to the test.
   Pre-employment screenings, personality profiles 
and behavioral surveys are tools employers have used
for years to get a handle on why their teams don't
work, why good employees are becoming disenchanted,
or why their new hires don't stick.
   Organizational development professionals say, when 
used appropriately, the tests are helpful. In conjunction
with interviews and other tools, they can help measure
job-related factors such as level of commitment, self-awareness,
work ethic, problem-solving, communication and conflict-resolution
skills.
   "Profiles are excellent for determining those things 
because they're behaviorally based," said Sabrina
Hanan of Colorado Springs. Hanan has been a behavioral
scientist and organizational development consultant
for 11 years.
   "That can tell you, are they motivated to come 
to work on time? Those who are internally motivated
may work harder and stay longer; those who are externally
motivated are less likely to stay on."
   Those are important things to get a handle on, 
particularly in an era of high turnover.
   "It costs you six months of that person's salary 
every time you have a turnover," said Melissa Loucks
of Corporate Training Solutions in Colorado Springs.
Loucks is a lawyer who counsels and trains company
officials about employment-related liability issues.
   Tests used with care
   Though she advises her clients against making hiring, 
promotion, demotion or firing decisions based on a
test or profile, Loucks does think these tools can
improve communication and retention when used appropriately.
Retention can be boosted simply by making smarter hires.
   "Poor hiring is a major reason for turnover," Loucks said.
   For example, an insurance company suffered an 80 
percent to 90 percent turnover rate among workers
in the first six months of employment. Company officials
identified the traits a successful insurance agent
needed - such as self-motivation and the ability to
handle rejection - and developed a pre-employment
test to measure those traits.
   "They turned their situation around because they 
hired the right people," Loucks said.
   Hanan said many companies are turning to search 
firms - which use testing extensively - to do the weeding out.
   But tests, profiles and surveys have to be used 
carefully. Lawsuits abound about tests that were deemed
to discriminate. Last month, a federal judge ordered
shipping companies and a longshoreman's union in California
to pay $2.75 million in damages and hire hundreds
of minorities who failed a reading comprehension,
grammar and math test. Government officials said the
test was irrelevant to most longshore work and that
a disproportionate number of Latinos, Asians and African-Americans
flunked.
   Even if a test does not seem to discriminate against 
any group, the outcome can be affected by age or self-awareness
level, Hanan said.
   "Depending on the personal awareness of the person 
taking it, the results can be off," she said. "If
I have to profile someone in their 20s, the results
may be scattered. Whereas if I give it to someone
in their 40s, the results may be more on target because
that person may have spent more time examining and
thinking critically about who they are."
   Professional Dynametric Programs, a Woodland Park-based 
company that develops and sells behavior survey programs
internationally, tests and updates its survey to see
that it isn't affected by differences in race, gender,
culture, age or background.
   The company, founded in the late 1970s by Bruce 
Hubby, a Cripple Creek sales manager looking for ways
to motivate his sales force, was one of the first
to develop a behavioral assessment for business use.
Before that, most were designed for psychological
or medical use, and test-takers weren't allowed to
see their results.
   "This was something to help them make use of their 
strengths, where they could find their purpose," said
Bonnie Bass, PDP's vice president for research.
   Nevertheless, when legal issues first arose around 
employment testing, PDP's survey "was thrown out with
the bath water," Bass said.
   "We had a few really rough years because (human 
resources) was scared to death of us," she said.
   Firm researched objectivity
   PDP did years of research on working adults, checking 
to be sure its survey words don't get different results
from males, females, minorities, the disabled and other groups. 
   Equal Employment Opportunity Commission officials 
and attorneys have looked at the survey and told Bass
it passes the legal acid test because it's well tested,
administered fairly, and job-related.
   "The research must be done, and it must be administered 
so the people understand what the purpose is, and
it's job-related; you're measuring the things a job requires."
   Bass said an acute-care hospital staff fraught 
with fighting, bad feelings and poor working relationships
took the survey last year, and a year later "they've
turned it around, put the right people in the right
places ... and now they say the ER is working beautifully."
   PDP's surveys are now used by 5,000 companies worldwide 
to measure traits such as energy level, satisfaction
level, and stress level.
   The firm customizes its program for each company 
to help managers motivate their people, increase interaction,
reduce stress and boost productivity.
   Bass recounted recent work with an engineering 
firm, where workers suddenly understood each other.
   "They were saying, 'Oh, you're motivated by having 
a confirmation every day, and I'm best when I don't
have someone looking over my shoulder,'" Bass said.
   The program helps managers and business owners 
battle turnover by honing in on what they can do to
help an employee use his or her strengths, feel less
stressed, be more productive - and in turn, like the job more.
   Some managers use profiles to develop teams with 
the right mix of behaviors and strengths, she said. 
   One local bank has changed its business culture 
by hiring more people who are highly extroverted.
Some startup owners have learned they need a mix.
   "Typically, they hire people just like them to 
do the things they don't want to do," Bass said.
   "But guess what," said PDP President Brent Hubby, 
"they won't want to do those things, either."
   Times of growth, low morale, poor productivity, 
mergers and new management are especially good times
to get what Hubby calls "a snapshot" of staff members
so people know how to work together.
   Hubby said clients spend $5,000 to $50,000, depending 
on the extent of the program they purchase. 
   Ideally, companies should create a database and 
administer the surveys yearly, he said.
   - Jane Turnis may be reached at 636-0235 or turnis@gazette.com.
   Questions
   Some of the things employment tests and personality 
profiles ask:
   Rank from least to most, do you feel you are:
   Trustworthy? 
   Bold?
   Compelling?
   Fussy?
   Do you feel others expect you to be or act:
   Agreeable?
   Dependent?
   Fearless?
   Deliberate?
   "Ask" is the opposite of:
   entreat
   crave
   demand
   appeal
   deny
   Sand sells at 81/2 cents per pound. How much will 
you save by buying a 100-pound sack at $8.25?
   Select the words in each group that most and 
least describe you in your selected field or focus:
   MOST
   good mixer
   refined
   vigorous
   lenient
   LEAST
   competitive
   considerate
   joyful
   private
   Sources: PDP ProScan, Wonderlic Personnel Test, 
DiSC Personal Profile System
   Seminar
   Melissa Loucks, labor/employment attorney, will 
teach a seminar, "Human Resources and the Law," 5
p.m.-7 p.m. July 18 at the Greater Colorado Springs
Chamber of Commerce's Conference Room, 2 N. Cascade
Ave., Suite 110.
   The cost is $35 for chamber members, $45 for nonmembers. 
Call Angie, 575-4325, or e-mail angie@cscc.org for
registration and information. 
-CUTLINE- Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette - PDP Inc. executives, 
from left, Brent Hubby, president; Bonnie Bass, vice
president; and Bruce Hubby, chairman, appear at a
recent trade fair. The Woodland Park firm develops
behavior surveys.