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For your organisation, appraisals are a useful way to obtain an independent view on how you are likely to fit into a particular role. Also, the appraisal can help to identify other skills or abilities you may have that the organisation may be unaware of and give pointers on how best to develop these. For you, an appraisal is an opportunity to obtain information that may be useful in longer term career planning or in guiding personal development. What does psychological appraisal consist of ?There are two parts to the process we use: assessment and interview. The assessment typically involves completing a general reasoning inventory followed by three temperament inventories. The inventories used are not designed to give a ‘clinical’ assessment but rather an indication of the style you normally use in the workplace. Why use psychological tests ?Testing speeds up the appraisal process by obtaining a wide range of information quickly and it allows a comparison against New Zealand averages. It is possible to carry out an assessment without the use of tests but the interview has to be extended significantly to obtain an equivalent amount of information. How long does it take ?The duration of the full assessment tends to vary depending on the nature of the appointment, but the average is three to four hours. This is made up of: Written assessment: Two to two and a half hours. This covers one hour for the reasoning inventory and twenty to thirty minutes each for the temperament inventories. (Only the reasoning inventory is timed, not the temperament inventories.) Interview: This can vary from forty-five minutes to two hours. Again, the nature of the position will influence the depth of assessment. How accurate are the tests ?All psychological tests have a margin of error and can never cover the full range of human behaviours. For this reason we never use tests on their own in a selection assessment; they are always supported by an in-depth interview. The tests we use have been in use for many years and are subject to regular validation and cross-checking. What do the results tell us ?Psychological appraisals are not designed to assess whether or not a person can do a specific job - the only way that can be assessed for certain is to put the person in the job and see how they go. Because this is seldom practical, we use the appraisal to help make a prediction of the style the person will bring to the job; how they will interact with others, what parts of the job they will focus on, etc. Because we are focusing on job style, there are no ‘pass’ marks or ‘ideal’ profiles. We are really just trying to get to know you better to ensure that both you and the organisation are satisfied. We also recognise that people can change depending on the situation, so we attempt to determine what behaviours are likely to occur most often. What feedback can I receive ?We provide a written report to the person who referred you for the appraisal. This report is an interpretation of the test and interview results; raw test scores or profiles are not released. Once a decision on the appointment has been made and announced, you are welcome to contact us to obtain feedback on your results. Please note, however, that we leave it up to you to approach us for feedback; sometimes people are not interested in their results. In giving feedback we provide an in-depth review of the actual test scores and interview results, and explain how we arrived at our conclusions. In giving feedback, we try to help you to get the most out of the appraisal in terms of further development or career planning ideas. On many occasions unsuccessful candidates have used the feedback session to gain coaching on how to overcome any weaknesses identified. Who will see the results ?The Privacy Act 1993 places very clear limitations on the use of test results. Some of the key points are that the results and report cannot, without the candidate’s consent, be used for any purpose other than that for which the assessment was conducted, nor can they be released to a third party. The report must not be kept for longer than required, it must be stored in a secure manner and, unless there are legally defensible reasons to the contrary, the candidate should have access to the contents. Will it count against me if I am nervous ?No. It is normal to be nervous when attending a psychological appraisal but this is seldom an issue because when we carry out appraisals we are focusing on how you normally behave in the job, not how you behave in appraisals. In practice, most people find they quickly relax once the process gets underway. You can take a break at any time after the first test is finished and, if the testing runs over the lunch hour, you will be welcome to take a lunch break. How are the results used ?The results of your appraisal are only one part of the selection process. We always recommend that they are used in conjunction with a separate interview and reference checking by the organisation to give a good overview of a candidate’s skills and experience. |
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