Profiling Solutions Blog

When interviewing your next prospective employee are you at risk of falling into the trap of confirming what you have already learnt from your applicants resume?

Let me introduce you to Confirmation Bias though a story that has been around for a long time in various adaptations and a puzzle for those that way inclined. The story………..

Judging the cover by the book

A man is in the final stages of getting things ready for his wedding. Everything’s going well except for the one small matter of his bride-to-be’s extremely hot younger sister. One afternoon, a week before the big day, he finds himself alone with her in the house. She sidles up to him and suggests they go upstairs – before he finally settles down to a life of wedded bliss. The man begins to panic. Running through his options, he charges out of the house – only there, in the front garden, to discover the rest of the girl’s family all waiting for him. As soon as he emerges, they give him a big round of applause.

‘Congratulations,’ says the future father-in-law. ‘You’ve passed the test. You have proved yourself a man of honour and integrity, and I’m delighted to give you my daughter’s hand in marriage’.

The fiancé can’t believe it, and breathes a huge sigh of relief. His wife-to-be gives him a big kiss on the cheek.

Moral of the story? Always leave your condoms in the car or good blokes always do the right thing?

Relative to the above story the later moral is called confirmation bias from the future father-in-law's point of view. This is a tendency we all have to seek out evidence that confirms rather than disproves our beliefs about a person or situation regardless of whether the information is true.

Are you at risk of confirmation bias when interpreting workplace behaviour when you do not know the beliefs and behavioural preferences of the individuals concerned?

The puzzle.........

Here is another example of confirmation bias – the Wason four card selection puzzle.

Each card has a number on one side and a colour on the other. The diagram above represents the VISIBLE card face. Imagine being able to turn these cards over.

QUESTION: Which card(s) would you turn over to test the truth of the proposition that
“If a card shows an even number on one side then the opposite face shows red”?

Which card(s) would you pick? …………………………………Think about if before viewing the answer below.

If like most people you went for the three and/or the red, you have tried to confirm what we already know.

By choosing the eight and/or the brown and endeavouring to prove the statement false you are looking for options that don’t comply with the question and you achieve a satisfactory result.

(For further explanation on this subject please click this link Wason four card selection task.)

I would love to hear about your employment challenges and whether you perceive that profiling may have been of some benefit in those circumstances. I invite you to either comment on the blog or email me at mark@profilingsolutions.com.au

Until next time,

Cheers

Mark Bell

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THE ANSWERS:

• The right people for your business in their best suited job role.

• Improved employment outcomes through employees that are better suited to your job role and business culture resulting in reduced people management issues, increased staff stability and morale.

• Understanding the potential risk v’s reward of employing an individual for a specific job role or where to start with an employee who is causing you and/or your fellow team members’ grief.

• The profiling process also challenges you as the Business Owner or Manager to stop and seriously consider what you really want from a specific job role rather than just fill a void in your existing structure.

Before we begin it is interesting to note that our profiling solution is job and workplace culture related rather than the traditional personality profile that categorizes individuals into boxes with common characteristics that you are left to interpret. The profiling covers personality, interests, task preferences, environmental preferences in the workplace and interpersonal preferences.

Have you ever had another Business Owner or Manager ring you to be a referee for one of your ex employees? What do you tell them? Are you worried about your reference doing the full circle and coming back to haunt you? Well you are not alone so when you get a reference its not what they do tell you - it’s what they don’t that’s important. When you read resume after resume they all become a blur and everyone sounds good but when you have to separate them out profiling helps and provides meaning and validates referee comments.

Here are some examples – have you experienced any of these traits in your workplace?

• Your applicant is identified by the referee as a non finisher of work and profiling supports the referee’s comment showing that they have a high score for experimenting and a low score for persistence.

• Does the applicant know everything already or is their receives correction score high enough that they will accept your guidance to improve their performance?

• A person that overestimates their contribution to your workplace and wants to be paid more than the value contributed will probably have a high wants high pay score combined with a low self motivation score. This trait when combined with others such as frankness will show behaviours like being unrealistically demanding.

• An individual with a high wants recognition score combined with a low self acceptance score is a nightmare to manage as they are very self critical and rely on others for praise. The twist is they are unlikely to believe the praise or accept recognition so it creates a painful personal pattern that the individual is never happy or fulfilled.

• Would it be useful to know if an individual avoids communication or decision making?

• Would it be useful to know if someone was fast but imprecise- ie being productive although paying insufficient attention to detail before you experience it first hand?

• Most job ads list these traits, takes initiative, wants challenge, enthusiastic, relaxed, manages stress well, optimistic, self accepting & keen on self improvement. How do you really get to quantify those things at interview other than a feeling for the individual based on the time you have just spent with them?

Now that you have finished taking in some of our examples if you have answered yes, yes, yes I can relate to these examples above then we may have a solution for you.

The answers to these dilemmas and much more are available using our profiling solutions. Solutions are available from as little as $154.00 per person for a personality profile based on 12 workplace areas such as interpersonal skills, leadership and achievement.

Or once you have established a Job Success Formula (JSF) for your specific job role at a one off cost of $297.00 (which can be used at no further cost on an ongoing basis), individuals can be screened (job matched for suitability) against this JSF for $88.00 per person.

Like to hear more from our existing clients? Check out our testimonials at the link below;

http://www.profilingsolutions.com.au/testimonials

I would love to hear about your employment challenges and whether you perceive that profiling may have been of some benefit in those circumstances. I invite you to either comment on the blog or email me at mark@profilingsolutions.com.au

Until next time,

Cheers

Mark Bell

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