Increasing Profits by Assessing Employee Work Styles

William Shepherd

© 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ert.20048

One of the most consistent challenges fororganizations is hiring the right person

for the right job. For the last century, the fieldof industrial/organizational psychology hasstudied how organizations can improve theirsuccess rates in selecting and promotingworkers. For high-level management posi-tions, for example, organizations often employpsychologists to conduct advanced, in-depthassessments that involve a combination ofstandardized personality and cognitive-abilitytests, interviews, and work simulations.

The advent of Internet technologies hasallowed the field of industrial/organizationalpsychology to automate many of the data-collection and assimilation tasks traditionallydone by psychologists. Industrial/organiza-tional psychology consulting firms are begin-ning to develop sophisticated programs thatreplicate the logic, experience, and report-writing skills of seasoned coaches and psy-chologists. This article describes specificassessment tools that can not only help HRselect new candidates but also match currentemployees with the right positions within theorganization to help ensure success for bothemployees and their employers.

WORK SIMULATIONS TO MEASURE WORKSTYLES

Organizational psychologists agree work sim-ulations are an effective method to gather

data about employees’ work styles and theirlikelihood to successfully perform jobs. Awork simulation requires the job applicant torole-play the part of an employee. The jobapplicant is asked to complete various worktasks as part of the work simulation. Theapplicant is evaluated and scored by compar-ing his or her behaviors during the work sim-ulation with behaviors exhibited by high-performing job incumbents.

Psychologists use rigorous qualitative andstatistical methods to ensure that work simu-lations accurately reflect the true demands ofa job. They also ensure that the simulationscan be scored accurately and consistently.The simulations vary in terms of realismbecause of the complexity and cost of re-cre-ating work environments. For example, creat-ing a work simulation for the task of pilotinga submarine is more complex than creatingone for the task of giving a PowerPoint salespresentation.

Individual assessments in general, andwork simulations in particular, provide greatvalue to organizations by helping them selectbetter job candidates. However, they can becostly and time-consuming. The field of indus-trial/organizational psychology has consis-tently sought to develop more efficient meth-ods for understanding job applicants’ workstyles. Work styles can be measured accu-rately and efficiently by using a valid, reliableonline questionnaire. One example of such an

19

Employment Relations Today

online questionnaire is the PsyMax SolutionsWork Style Assessment (WSA) inventory. TheWSA inventory measures 15 distinct workstyles. It consists of 200 questions and takesapproximately 30 to 45 minutes to complete.Organizations can send job candidates andemployees an e-mail invitation to complete theWSA inventory. As soon as candidates com-plete the inventory, the organizations candownload customized selection, interviewing,development, coaching, and career reports touse as part of their human resource processes.

The WSA inventory is accessed by loggingon to the online PsyMax Solutions ProductSuite. The Product Suite is a Web site thatallows authorized individuals from an orga-nization to (1) invite job applicants oremployees to complete the WSA, (2) pur-chase reports, or (3) view reports. Eachclient organization has its own customizedversion of the Product Suite, which itaccesses by logging on to a unique URL

(e.g., http://samplecompany.psymaxsolutions.com). Typically, an HR professional is theoverall administrator of the site. The follow-ing is an example of how the Product Suitecould be used to its fullest advantage.

EXAMPLE

Lilly is a new sales manager at ABC, Inc. Shehad been the best salesperson in her regionfor five years. She was just promoted andneeds to hire her replacement. Unfortunately,Lilly has been given no training on how tocoach her employees or how to hire someone.

William Shepherd 20

Jake applies for Lilly’s old job. Harry, anABC HR manager, logs into the PsyMax Solu-tions Product Suite and sends Jake an invita-tion to take the WSA inventory. Harryreceives an e-mail notification immediatelyafter Jake completes the inventory. Harry logsinto the Product Suite and views Jake’sresults online. Harry then e-mails a copy ofthe hiring report and an interview guide toLilly.

Lilly reads Jake’s hiring report and learnsthat Jake has several areas of strength butalso a few developmental needs. The inter-view guide is customized based on Jake’sinventory results. Lilly uses the interviewguide to learn more about whether Jake willbe successful in the position. Based on thehiring report and the interview, Lilly decidesto hire Jake.

On Jake’s first day on the job, Lilly giveshim a work-style development report basedon his inventory results that she downloadedfrom the PsyMax Solutions Product Suite.The report contains specific on-the-job tips,developmental suggestions, and educationalresources. Lilly also downloads a work-stylecoaching report that contains specific infor-mation about Jake’s work-style assets and lia-bilities. The coaching report provides Lillywith guidance on how to optimally coachJake to achieve maximum results based onhis work styles.

The PsyMax Solutions Product Suite canalso be used for career exploration or transi-tion. Assume that Kimberly has been a busi-ness analyst for five years. She has been won-dering whether she should apply for a jobtransfer to a different department to broadenher skill set; however, she is not sure whattype of work would satisfy her. Her HR con-tact, Heather, could send her an invitation tocomplete the WSA inventory. Heather could

The WSA inventory measures 15 distinct work styles. Itconsists of 200 questions and takes approximately 30 to 45minutes to complete.

Spring 2005

then download a PsyMax Solutions careerreport based on Kimberly’s work-styleresults. The report would describe the typesof jobs that Kimberly would most likely enjoyand in which she would most likely succeed.

BUILDING A SUCCESS PROFILE

The WSA inventory measures 15 work styles.Different work styles are required to succeedin different jobs. In some jobs, employeesmust be exceptionally goal-oriented to suc-ceed. In other jobs, the incumbents may needto be especially creative to be successful.Federal and professional guidelines suggestthat organizations should carefully analyzewhich work styles are most important for ajob before using an assessment.

The job analysis should result in a successprofile. A success profile is the subset of the15 work styles that are most important to suc-cessfully performing the job. Organizationsshould include the most critical work styles intheir success profiles and pay most attentionto these work styles during hiring, interview-ing, development, and coaching. Industrial/organizational psychologists employ severalmethods to develop a success profile:

1. Facilitate a focus-group workshop withsubject-matter experts (SMEs) to deter-mine which work styles are most impor-tant for a given job.

2. Conduct a questionnaire-based job analy-sis. Multiple SMEs will complete a surveyregarding which work behaviors are mostcritical for performing the job.

3. Observe the job and make inferencesabout which work styles are most critical.

In practice, job applicants and employeeswill complete the entire WSA inventory, and

Increasing Profits by Assessing Employee Work Styles 21

their results on all 15 work styles will be dis-played. However, the subset of six to ninework styles that were identified as most criti-cal and included in the success profile shouldbe given extra consideration. The PsyMaxSolutions reports use a special target symbolto highlight which work styles have beenselected for the success profile.

Exhibit 1 provides examples of the workstyles that might be included in the successprofiles of three different job families. Thesuccess profiles could have been derivedusing any of the above job-analysis methods.

In the example, the success profiles indi-cate that sales employees need to be goal-oriented, engineers need to be analytical, andhuman resources personnel need to be sup-portive. The hiring managers and HR person-nel using the work-style reports should give

additional consideration to individuals’ scoreson success-profile work styles. This does notmean that work styles not included in thesuccess profile are not important. It justmeans that the work styles in the successprofile are most important.

The success profile for a job or job familymay be different from organization to organi-zation or even within an organization. Forexample, the success profile for a salespersonfor an emerging, technology-based telecom-munications company might be differentfrom the success profile for a salesperson in amature, manufacturing-based organization. Inaddition, organizations may seek to hire peo-ple with different work styles into the samejob. An organization may be seeking two new

The success profile for a job or job family may be differ-ent from organization to organization or even within anorganization.

Employment Relations Today

salespeople but have different requirementsfor each because the organization is seekingto diversify its sales approach. The organiza-tion may wish to hire a person with a verypersuasive work style for one vacancy andanother with a more collaborative work stylefor the other opening.

The PsyMax Solutions selection reportsalso include a “degree-of-fit” score. Thedegree-of-fit score is an indicator of how wellthe individual scored on the work stylesincluded in the success profile. The degree-of-fit score is the single-best number to repre-sent how likely the individual is to succeed ina job that requires the work styles includedin the success profile. The degree-of-fit scoreallows employers to rank-order candidates onthe basis of objective, job-relevant data.

CASE STUDY

Borders Group is an organization thatassesses work styles using the WSA. BordersGroup has over 32,000 employees and oper-ates over 12,000 Borders and Waldenbooks

William Shepherd 22

stores around the world. The organization,headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is apublicly held Fortune 500 company withannual sales of $3.7 billion.

Since 2002, Borders has used the WSAinventory as a predictive tool to assist in theselection of its store and district managers. Asa first step, Borders worked with psycholo-gists at PsyMax Solutions to develop a suc-cess profile of the most critical work stylesfor performing these jobs. They continue touse the WSA inventory work-style anddegree-of-fit scores as part of the hiring pro-cess.

A recent independent study published byCornell University documented that the WSAinventory has had a significant effect on storeprofits at Borders.1 The district managers’WSA inventory scores over the last two yearswere analyzed. There was a significant rela-tionship between district managers’ workstyles, as measured by the WSA inventory,and annual district profitability. District man-agers who scored better on the WSA hadincreased annual profits of $11 million.

Exhibit 1. Work Styles in Success Profiles of Three Job Families

Spring 2005

Dan Smith, senior vice president of humanresources at Borders, said, “Borders’ successis determined by the management team ateach location, and PsyMax helps us to iden-tify the candidates with the characteristicsthat we know drive sales most.” Borders con-cluded that using the assessment tools to helpselect managers is well worth the cost, and itwill continue utilizing them. Borders alsoplans to conduct training programs for storemanagers and district managers to help themdevelop the specific work styles that driveprofitability.

SUMMARY

Organizations have historically turned toexperienced psychologists to help them assess

Increasing Profits by Assessing Employee Work Styles 23

and develop higher-level job applicants andemployees. Now, advances in technology haveallowed organizations to use affordable Inter-net-based platforms that can produce high-quality assessment and development reports.The lower price point for these platformsmakes it feasible to use work-style assessmentfor jobs throughout an organization. Finally,the demonstrated link between work-styleassessment and corporate profitability makesthe decision even more powerful.

NOTE

1. Fields, G., & DeVares, J. (2004, March). One talent ormany? Million dollar variables and statistically insignifi-cant indexes. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, Departmentof Labor Economics.

William Shepherd, PhD, is an industrial/organizational psychologist and president andchief operating officer of PsyMax Solutions, a Cleveland-based HR assessment and devel-opment company. Dr. Shepherd’s previous posts include work in the Employee Capability& Competency Design group at GTE, and in the Global Selection Solutions Practice area ofPersonnel Decisions International. Most recently, Dr. Shepherd was the Director of Solu-tion Design for ePredix, providing human capital measurement tools that drive organiza-tional profitability. Dr. Shepherd has presented his research at academic conferences of theAmerican Psychological Association, the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology,and the Human Capital Metrics Consortium. In addition, he has published in PersonnelPsychology and the International Human Resources Information Management Journal.He is also a contributing author to the Successful Manager’s Handbook. His recent pre-sentations have focused on the emerging trends and implications of the Internet-basedassessment. He may be contacted via e-mail at wshepherd@psymaxsolutions.com.