PeopleClues® is a set of leading edge, validated behavioural assessments that measure cognitive ability, personality traits and attitudes. The system was created using the most modern protocols for validation and is designed to be used throughout the employment lifecycle from recruitment to selection, career development and workforce planning.

PeopleClues® assessments help to measure people for their unique personality characteristics, cognitive abilities and attitudes. These measurements are then available from screening to hiring and on-boarding, lateral moves and promotions, training and coaching, and leadership identification and development.

The selection of new employees is the ‘entry point’ of the employment lifecycle and the point at which the assessment of the core behavioural traits, cognitive abilities and attitudes of each applicant is vital. However, it then provides the employer with a database for ‘talent management’ and enables that data to be used for on-going coaching, training, succession planning, etc. throughout the lifecycle of the employee.

PeopleClues® assessments are a suite of products that allow employers to access standard core measurements of potential employee suitability. However, the system also contains industry specific job profiles such as:

HealthClues™ - e.g. home care worker, emergency medical technician, etc.

PropertyClues™ - e.g. facilities manager, property maintenance supervisor, etc.

HospitalityClues™ - e.g. bar tender, restaurant manager, etc.

AutoClues™ - e.g. sales manager, service manager, technician, etc.

These products allow employers to compare the core measurements of potential employees with those specific job roles and assess the job fit accurately – and therefore increase the likelihood of a successful hiring.

Finding the right people to hire or promote is often difficult. Our aging, culturally diverse, and heterogeneous work force increases that challenge, and our globally competitive economy makes searching for competent workers an even more formidable task. The rise of the Internet and the virtual avalanche of applicant CVs that are received in response to each job posting make the task of finding suitable candidates yet more laborious.

Hiring the wrong people poses serious risk to both the small and large businesses. Indeed, the costs of a hiring mistake are variously estimated to be from one-half to twice an individual’s annual salary! Therefore, the expense of a hiring mistake is one that must be controlled – and by using a systematic and consistent screening approach that risk can be reduced considerably.

Hiring a competent and suitable individual to fill a position is a true win-win proposition, a win for both the new employee and the employer. Recruiting competent people for positions in which they can succeed, feel good about what they are doing and experience the positive regard of their co-workers is highly reinforcing to everybody.  For the employer, hiring such people is equally important since it saves money by raising productivity, reduces staff turnover and improves workplace harmony.

But, traditional assessment systems can cost money and be time-consuming for all concerned – however…..

PeopleClues® is designed for online volume use early in the recruitment process with virtually all applicants as opposed to the more extensive and detailed assessments that are used much later on the candidate short-list. It is therefore priced to provide value for multiple usage and is usually sold on an unlimited-use annual contract or per-vacancy basis.

The PeopleClues® online system provides three assessment tools that assess applicant:

• Cognition

• Personality

• Attitudes

Cognition

There is little question among personnel psychologists that cognitive ability—the ability to process and retain information quickly—is a necessary skill that transcends most jobs. For most jobs there is a range of cognitive ability associated with on-the-job success; a higher level of cognitive ability is not necessarily associated with job success. What matters is the mental fit with the job requirements. The Cognitive Assessment measures problem solving and learning speed by assessing verbal, numerical and spatial reasoning – then combining these to create one overall cognitive ability score. This core cognitive ability is measured with a 30-item assessment that is computer timed for 7 minutes.

Personality

The Personality Assessment is built upon the well-accepted “Big 5” concept of core personality traits and also includes a “Teamwork” scale as well as a “Good Impression” scale. These core personality traits are measured with a 70-item assessment that takes approximately 10 minutes to complete. The system also includes a library of benchmarked ‘generic’ job roles against which the individual profile may be compared and a ‘job-fit’ percentage calculated – taking the guesswork out of role assignment. The system also produces a series of behavioural questions linked to each for the core traits to help validate the applicant’s profile at interview.

Attitudes

The Attitude Assessment assesses a candidate’s ‘fit’ with the organisation and culture by measuring areas of potentially counterproductive work-related behaviours by a self-descriptive inventory that taps six substantive areas of concern as well a Good Impression (validity) scale.

The Attitude assessment is modular with four “core” scales and then three additional scales that can be added if required.

The “core” assessment is 80 true/false questions and if the extra scales are added, the assessment is 140 questions ranging from a time frame of 8 minutes to 15 minutes if all the scales are used.

The scales measured are:

• Conscientious (Dependability): Describes the degree to which the individual lacks persistence, work motivation and organisation – ranging from being lackadaisical and careless to being highly disciplined and dependable.

• Hostility (Aggression): Describes the degree to which the person is not able to suppress angry feeling but rather expresses anger physically or verbally to co-workers and thus poses a real risk in the workplace.

• Integrity (Honesty): Involves the degree to which the person is likely to engage in pilferage, short-changing customers, falsifying expense accounts, lying to protect him/herself, exaggerating job qualifications and other acts of dishonesty.

• Good Impression: A validity scale that measures the degree to which the person has responded truthfully to the test items or is responding in such a way as to make a good impression.

• Additional/Optional Scales:

• Substance Abuse: Describes the possibility that this person might use illegal drugs or alcohol while at work, might show up for work either drunk, high or badly “hung over,” and thus pose a safety risk because of impaired perception or judgment.

• Sexual Harassment: Involves the likelihood that this person will ask co-workers for sexual favours, make personal remarks that upset colleagues, tell “dirty jokes,” or otherwise behave inappropriately at work.

• Computer Misuse: Described the possibility that this person might abuse the organization’s computers to send and/or receive personal e-mails, “surf the Web,” transact personal business online, or otherwise violate company computer-use policies.