A Girl, a Horse and Behavioural Profiling
I am blessed to have three fantastic daughters and even more blessed that only one of them got interested in horses!
I watched her admiringly the other day as she put him through his paces. Through careful management, dedication and hard work the two of them have formed a real partnership and work so well together. We were lucky. Some friends went through exactly the same selection process and through no fault of their own the same bond was not formed and the whole expensive process had to start again!
Strangely, this reminded me so much of recruiting the right person into the right job.
Why, you may think?
When we first viewed my daughter’s horse he looked great, so first impressions were good. We checked his history and in equine terms he had a good CV. From this point on we got lucky as we had no idea what his real temperament was like and whether we would actually get on with him i.e. was he right for what we had planned for him?
This is no different to going through the recruitment process, though in the human world we have the benefits of carrying out a detailed behavioural profile using Psychometrics. It can be broke down into three distinct phases:
Level 1
- First impressions: Takes about 1.6 seconds to form an opinion
- Appearance: Manner in which they express themselves whether face-to-face or on the phone
Level 2
- The CV
- Knowledge
- Skills
- Experience
Level 3
- Temperament
- Aptitude
- Ability to learn
- The things that don’t appear in Levels 1 and 2 and all too often cause us to part company with the individual because they don’t ‘fit in’
We would always recommend you look at the Three Levels of Assessment.
Through a detailed behavioural profile you can find out so much about the individual and considerably improve the odds of getting the right person in the right job.
The McQuaig Psychometric System does just that. It helps you identify the key behaviours you require for the role and will provide you with interview questions to check that your other requirements are met.
About the Author: Richard Yelland is an Associate of the McQuaig Psychometric System (brought to you by Holst). To find out more or contact Richard, email him at richardyelland@mcquaig.co.uk or call 0203 111 9292.