Recruiting
Recruitment - Interpreting Mindfindr results for recruitment purposes
The Mindfindr service assesses participants’ personality, competencies, work and teamwork styles, and leadership.
When assessing individuals for different positions, some of the above areas may be emphasized more than others. If an organization wants to assess a larger group of applicants for a basic position, choosing the basic test options can provide a sufficient assessment of the applicants’ suitability, in addition to other methods utilized by the organization, such as interviews and work history reviews. On the other hand, when an organization is looking for a suitable candidate for a professionally more demanding position, the use of a broader test is justified. This is especially useful for individuals assessed for supervisory and managerial positions, special teams, or even the board. The broad test offers useful descriptions of the participants in all areas.
The occupational and task-specific suitability descriptions and predictions produced by Mindfindr are based on working life research and in particular on the International Classification of Occupations (ISCO), which defines an occupation as a group of job positions that are characterized by very similar work tasks and responsibilities. The skills required in the job are the capabilities required in each specific job to produce the work results expected in that job. In Mindfindr, the broader concept of competence describes the basic capabilities that support the development of individual skills. The skill level can vary depending on the training received by the individual in the skill area in question and on the other hand, the practical work experience acquired. Motivation and the application of the skill in typical practical circumstances also play a role in the individual’s work satisfaction and commitment, in addition to practical working conditions and the terms of the job. Therefore, information obtained about the personality and the competence potential enhancing the skill development of the participants is useful for assessing the compatibility of competence requirements and the participants’ capabilities.
Mindfindr combines information obtained from the participants’ personality and competence potential, describes success and enjoyment in different tasks, and coordinates and compares this information with information describing the skill requirements, working conditions and context of the positions.
These predictions provide an individual’s suitability prediction for different tasks. The user can also select a specific individual task to which the participants’ suitability is compared. In this case, the user will also receive a list of participants arranged according to the suitability prediction.
The different areas of the Mindfindr results include examples of useful interview questions to support discussions with participants about their strengths and development needs in different areas. Especially work style and team role preferences and strengths of the applicants may be readily approached using these questions presented in the on-line and print results reports.
Competencies behind skills and development potential
In the results produced by Mindfindr, the more general term competence is related to skills, but it describes more broadly the participant’s tendencies, motivation and practical capabilities to apply different skills and also to develop these skills. This means that, for example, a person with strong linguistic competence can succeed and find it motivating to work and develop in, for example, sales work, cultural tasks, as a copywriter or journalist. If linguistic competence is very low, it is unlikely that the person would enjoy, succeed or experience a particular motivation to develop in these tasks. On the other hand, a person with strong spatial perception (spatial competence) can succeed and find it rewarding to work and develop in, for example, the transport and construction sector, for example as an architect or crane driver, or to train as a commercial pilot or graphic designer. Usually, individuals are quite well aware of their relative strengths and are often willing to discuss them also on the basis of practical examples.
In practice, assessing skills and skill levels also requires taking into account and clarifying the quantity and quality of relevant education and work experience in the skill area in question when reviewing applications. Especially when talking about very specific skills or special expertise, it is also important to discuss the previous application of these skills in practice during the interview.
The impact of personality on success, satisfaction and commitment at work
In addition to skills, information obtained about the personality of the participants supports the identification of the compatibility of the requirements of the position to be filled and the capabilities of the people who applied for the position. Both the organization and the individual benefit from the optimal match between the task and the individual’s personal style, while competencies provide information about the applicant’s capabilities to further develop in different tasks.
The partially innate personality of individuals can significantly affect the type of tasks an individual enjoys and succeeds in. The personality trait of conscientiousness and planfulness is widely considered to be a generally important trait for success in many fields. On the other hand, extraversion and the related need to interact increase enjoyment and commitment in tasks that require a lot of social interaction. Very practical individuals, on the other hand, do not necessarily enjoy tasks that require only theoretical or otherwise abstract work, unless these tasks somehow enable practical application.
Choosing an occupation title for a test
When the organization and the Mindfindr user have defined which position or occupation the invited persons will be assessed for, the user can select the occupation from the list of occupations to be used as the basis for the test when preparing the test. Due to the diversity and change in the occupational nomenclature, the user can also choose the occupational title from the list that most closely corresponds to the task to be filled. Sometimes, due to the factors described above, it is not necessary to include any specific job title in the test. This procedure is also desirable when searching for people who may be suitable for various positions on a broader scale.
When interpreting the results, the written suitability descriptions provided by Mindfindr support the interpretation of the results of the participants. Mindfindr also ranks the applicants who have taken the same test based on the technical suitability assessment and also shows the user the percentage suitability prediction of the persons. This will not be visible in the report potentially given to participants, which contains a written suitability description for the occupation or profession selected for the test and a list of suitability for different occupations, if this section has been selected in the report content. This list does not present percentage suitability predictions. The user can choose which contents the report that the participants receive will cover.
Practical steps for preparing the test and inviting participants.