Psychometric assessments enhance system implementation

Meyer Pretorius

Pushed by the need to ensure profitability, constantly manage change, monitor continuous innovation, to say nothing of the above challenges, today's organisations must be adaptive, innovative, and flexible. This requires essential strategy and policy realignments, which culminates in the implementation of improved systems and software.

Unsurprisingly, psychometric assessments have proven to play a fundamental role in the successful implementation of the systems required to streamline and transform an organisation for the better. This is because the success of these systems and overall strategy is dependent on how individuals manage change and how human talent is discovered, developed, deployed, motivated, and energised in relation to this change.

Designed by psychologists, psychometric assessments measure cognitive, behavioural, and personality constructs of an individual. The broad reference to 'constructs' means that someone's abilities, personality, values, motivations and their interests or preferences are assessed. These assessments allow organisations to select the most competent person for a position, identify leadership potential and perform talent pipelining proactively, spot potential, provide a base for career guidance, and build and develop teams.

In addition to these, there are clear advantages of using psychometric assessments, which include:

• Objectivity, which dramatically reduces bias and personal perspective;
  
• Clarity, which provides a robust framework and structure;
  
• Equality and fairness for all individuals through standardised tests;
  
• Increases the likelihood of predicting future job performance;
  
• Identifies training needs; and
  
• Encourages employers to do thorough job analysis to identify appropriate skills and abilities, which helps ensure that candidates are assessed on skills relevant to the job only.

One of the strongest resources at our disposal is the Profile XT, an approved psychological assessment tool, which differs from other traditional tools in that it can be used for recruitment and selection, developing effective work teams, facilitating training, development and succession plans, and improving supervision. Significantly, it is also blind to age, gender, and ethnicity.

This tool allows us to determine:

• Thinking and reasoning style (Can the person do the job?);
  
• Relevant behavioural traits (How will the person do the job?);
  
• Occupational interest (Will the person want to do the job?); and
  
• Matching to specific jobs (Is the person suitable for the job?)

There are several key advantages which show the true value of psychometric assessments when related to successful system implementation, which are discussed below with particular reference to the PTX tool.

Redefining roles

It is important to review organisational roles as they will most likely change as a result of the system implementation. Some roles might not be affected too intensely but, overall, role profiles will include new system responsibilities, as defined by business processes and the impact of the system.

Correct and updated role profiles are extremely important, as they form the basis for assessments.

Effectively, you can assess employees or prospective employees against the requirements stipulated in the revised role profile, as well as a performance model or benchmark developed from the revised role profiles. The PXT tool can also be used to populate the newly formed shared services.

Identifying the good

Through the use of psychometric assessments you are afforded the unique advantage of essential access to an objective view of your employees' competencies.

With this feedback you can cherry pick the most competent individuals to champion central points of the system implementation, identify leadership potential, and spot potential. You are also in a position to create and facilitate development plans, and ensure succession planning and developmental initiatives at business unit and group levels.

Identifying the challenges

Not only will you be able to measure and assess the positive potential in your workforce and their ability to take on board the new system, but you will also become aware of skills gaps, areas in need of training and development, and a multitude of additional challenges that could impede the overall success of the system implementation.

Undoubtedly, an organisation is more than its systems, product offerings, and strategy. It is made up of the individuals who champion, manage, and perform at each point of the business. For this reason, any tool that taps into the human element of an organisation is essential to the overall success that the organisation is driving towards. This succinctly highlights the need for the use of the appropriate psychometric assessment tools to ensure the successful implementation of systems and software.