Walter Wriston, former Chairman and CEO of Citicorp, placed the highest importance on selecting personnel. He said, "My theory is if you have the right person in the right place, you don't have to do anything else. If you have the wrong person in the job, there's no management system known to man that can save you." This quote points to the importance of procedures designed to improve the match between people and jobs. Since getting the right person into the right job is not always easy, managers need to use every technique available to accomplish this successfully. Psychological assessment is one technique that may assist organizational decision-makers in this area and others.

     It is unfortunate that for some, psychological assessment conjures up an image of voodoo, or the mystical. In fact, used correctly, it is a powerful aid to organizations and individuals. The most obvious way in which psychological assessment can increase an organization's productivity is by improving the person/job/organization match.

     When there is a bad match between persons and jobs, low productivity or turnover is likely. The cost of turnover caused by bad hiring or promotional decisions has been conservatively estimated at two to three times the employee's annual salary. Consequently, improvements in the hiring process can amount to a substantial return on investment to the organization. In addition to the direct monetary consequences of bad hires, consider the indirect costs associated with reduced productivity and increased stress caused by a poor hire. By definition, performance and productivity will be lower when a candidate other than the one best suited for the job is hired.

     There are a number of reasons that the best person for a job may not be the one hired. First, the organization may not be sure who the ideal person should be; that is, what characteristics the ideal candidate would possess. Determining who among the applicants is qualified for the job assumes that the organization has clearly defined the job/job duties and identified the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) necessary for successful job performance. It further assumes that the organization can identify these KSAs, or the necessary credentials, in the applicants. If assistance is desired at this stage, psychological assessment can be used to objectively and accurately identify the KSAs possessed by job candidates.

     Let's assume, however, that the organization has determined who is (or appears to be) qualified for the job. At this point, subjective factors and guess work often enter the selection process involving the "warm feeling in the tummy criterion." Many times this process works out well. Other times it does not. In any case, let's again assume that a well-qualified, likable candidate is offered a job.

     Once a candidate is hired, though qualified for the job, many unforeseen factors affecting performance and productivity can surface. For example, it may become clear that the new incumbent really isn't interested in the realities of the job duties, or doesn't fit into the organizational or workgroup climate. His personal orientation may be a turn-off to customers, or perhaps she isn't a team player. The list could go on and on. In any of these cases, the individual may not be performing to satisfaction and is draining valuable resources. Turnover, voluntary or not, may be lurking around the corner and if not, individual or work group productivity is lower than it could be.

     In all cases of selection, the goal is to hire the best person for the job, or the person who is most suited to the job and all that it entails within the given organizational context. Psychological assessment can play a significant role in strengthening the fit between individuals, jobs and organizations. Not only can assessment determine if individuals do have the job-related skills their resumes tout, but it can assess other job-related factors, such as personal characteristics and aptitudes. "Personality testing, for jobs?" you ask. Yes, there are measurable traits, characteristics, skills and abilities that are known to be, or which can be determined to be, job-related and valued by the organization. In addition, psychological assessment can be used to develop employees, successors, managers and executives by identifying their strengths and weaknesses and developing programs designed to address their career plans and the organization's needs.

     Psychological assessment is not magical, but it can often work wonders in taking the guesswork, stress, and inefficiency out of hiring, promotion and successor development processes. If you wish to use psychological assessment for these purposes in your organization, we at Valutis Consulting would be happy to talk with you about the process and how it can be applied for your needs. Since there are important details requiring attention regarding the validity of test usage for different purposes, experts in psychological assessment with a background in business or industrial psychology can best determine which tests would be beneficial and valid for assessment purposes in different job and organizational contexts. Our PhD psychologists have business experience or backgrounds available to assist you in these endeavors. If you have any questions about the process of assessment, please call Valutis Consulting, Inc. and we will discuss this with you on the phone or in person.

Quotation taken from writings of Randall S. Schuler, New York University.

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