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First off, they are assessments not tests. Any employer that used them to fire an employee would lose a lawsuit bigtime as the assessments are subjective in nature. I have never heard of them being used for that purpose.
Ideally, you use personality assessments at the START of the interview process (or in evaluating someone for a promotion)to make sure you hire the right personality for a certain position - they really don't evaluate skills. And you don't use them as the sole basis for hiring, (although I understand that the fast food and big box retailers may rely on them more than the face to face interview due to time constraints, but those are not higher level jobs).
If you see that a candidate wants to be a follower rather than a leader, or process oriented rather than creative, hot-tempered vs calm, needs or avoids attention, is trusting rather than non-trusting, orderly vs disorderly, accepts criticism or avoids it, etc. you can tailor your interview questions to bring those points out for discussion and see if they are a fit for a certain position. Skills can be tested or evaluted with other methods or by their past work experience.
Now if you want to be a stock broker and can't pass the industry required licensing exam, you might get fired for that, but that's a required objective test - do you or do you not understand the rules and regulations of your industry? Nothing to do with personality traits.
We frequently review the personality assessments after we have worked with our people for a year or so, and we find that the Winslow is a pretty accurate predictor of the individual's personality traits. What we learn by working with an employee usually matches the assessment results.
The goal of using these tools is to avoid putting a square peg in a round hole, both for the benefit of the employee and the company.
Not sure why you are so cynical on the assessments, entrance tests or employer's motives, but I can tell you that an assessment would probably pick that up. I would also say that any employer that spends the time and money to use them really cares about the employee that eventually gets the position. It costs money and time to hire and fire people, and a firing has profound effects on the employee - its best if you don't have to do it because you hired the wrong personality for the job.
Understanding how the hiring process works and working within it can only help your chances of success in any field. Assessments are a tool that can be used by both the employer and employee, like RT.
(FTR - not affiliated with Winslow other than as a paying client, and I have taken several of the various assessments over the years)
posted by 216.187....
, Fri, 15 May 2009 04:55:20
, Wed, 13 May 2009 21:10:19
, Wed, 13 May 2009 16:13:14
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