HR Professional - February/March 2009 - (Page 34) COVER STORY EMPLOYEE LIFE VALUE Maximize an employee’s productivity and their happiness? Sounds too good to be true but a long-used hiring tool— psychometrics—is now being used to do just that. BY MICHELLE MORRA sports teams use Caliper for their first-round draft picks. MOVING BEYOND SCREENING NAV Canada, a corporation that provides Canada’s air traffic control and other civil air navigation services, uses the services of Psychometrics Canada to develop teams and individuals. “If there’s a strong implementer and a strong conceptualizer [on staff] and I need a project done, I might put those two people together,” says Julie Alarie, NAV Canada’s manager of talent management. “That way I’ll have both the moving-forward type and the big-picture thinker.” At the Niagara Institute, leadership training is a comprehensive process that involves psychometric assessments and five intensive days of coaching, group discussions and workshops, with the ultimate goal of identifying major objectives for the employee’s development. Recently, a woman completed the Niagara program only to decide she was in the wrong line of work. Now she’s president—of another company. “I still think the company’s better off, and she’s better off,” says the Institute’s executive director John Rankin, adding the benefits to his clients far outweigh the risks. Alarie sees psychometrics as an “absolutely critical investment” but believes companies must do their research beforehand, and do coaching and follow-ups if they want return on their investment. BUILDING COLLABORATION Throughout an individual’s career, psychometrics can also help identify traits that can be built upon in the workplace. Alerie remembers HR P ROF ES SI O N AL P SYCHOMETRICS HAS EVOLVED FROM JUST A hiring measure to a development tool used for every career stage, from pre-screening to succession planning. Many employers now rely on these increasingly accurate assessments of employees’ knowledge, skills and abilities. Caliper, a company that offers statistically validated psychometric assessments, reports a success rate of more than 80 per cent for its corporate clients. Even NHL hockey and other pro 34 F e b r u a r y / M a r c h 2 0 0 9
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.