Managing: Mind Over Matter

Indian companies are big on psycho-profiling tests right now, so the next time you appear for an interview be prepared to decipher some ink blots.

Had patrick bateman, the investment-banker protagonist of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho-he goes around killing winos and the like out of sheer boredom, and if you haven't read the book, do so now-encountered someone like K. Pandiarajan in the course of his selection process, chances are, he would never have landed a job on the Street. Pandiarajan, who is based a world away from Bateman's New York, in Chennai, heads a head-hunting firm called Ma Foi (that's French for 'take my word') and is a firm believer in psycho-profiling tests. These are things like Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and 16pf that help recruiters gauge whether a candidate possesses the right psychological profile for a position.

Pandiarajan recounts an anecdote involving the Indian arm of a European company that retained his services merely to vet their hiring of a hr Head. The man had already been interviewed by the CEO who liked him; all Pandiarajan was expected to do was spend a few minutes with him, and reassure the chief executive that he had indeed made the right choice. Instead, Pandiarajan gave the candidate a psychological profiling test, and armed with the results, went back to the CEO to tell him he'd made a mistake.

COMMON PERSONALITY TESTS

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): It is one of the oldest and the most widely used personality tests. It is a self-report questionnaire and the results identify personality differences between individuals. MBTI identifies the preferences individuals have for gathering information and making decisions. The test is commonly used to identify team players.
16 Personality Factor Tests: The test classifies individuals into 16 broad personality types and draws up a predictive profile of the person. It gives the employer an idea of whether the candidate's attitude is suited for the job and what role he, or she, could best play.
DISC test: A 24-question multiple choice, self-descriptive test that has to be finished in 10 minutes, it measures the Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance (hence the name) of the person. Tailor-made to pick out people who have a natural aptitude for sales.
Predictive Index: It identifies the workplace-related strengths and weaknesses of an individual. It is a set of 170-odd adjectives. The software gives instantaneous results specifically identifying the roles where the individual would do well and where he or she needs to improve. Besides recruitment, the PI helps in career development efforts.
Sales Aptitude test: The test specifically identifies what the person can sell best: heavy capital goods or detergent soap, or advertising space. The aptitude of a team of say 20-30 members can also be tested.
Belbin's Self-Perception Inventory: The test identifies the type of role an individual can play in a team. It shows whether the person is suited for action-oriented roles like project implementation, people-oriented roles like interpersonal coordination, or cerebral roles like monitoring and evaluation.

Yes, he agreed, there was no denying the fact that the candidate had several things going for him: a diploma in hr from the country's best school, glowing references from his previous companies, and a great track-record. But psychological profiling indicated that the man would be submissive to his superiors and draconian while dealing with his subordinates, not the most preferred qualities when the post in question is that of hr director. The chief executive was not convinced, so Pandiarajan came up with an alternative. What if the CEO interviewed the man again, taking him through several decision-making situations? The chief executive did so, and it became evident that the candidate did have a problem.

The practice of putting candidates through some kind of attitude or psychological test isn't new. Only, in the past, this usually took the form of simple multiple choice tests which people could fudge. Things are different now: aspirants for senior management positions are put through elaborate psychological tests before being interviewed; and the career path of existing employees is often charted after their psychological profiles have been mapped. Transnational glass major St. Gobain, for instance, chose its top management team of nine, from 56 shortlisted candidates after putting them through a psychological profiling exercise. The result? The company was able to pick a team that would work well together.

It would be foolish, of course, to depend purely on a test: the better recruiters use it merely as a mechanism that throws up issues that can be fleshed out during the course of an interview. ''Such tests are essentially to find out whether the person fits into the values the organisation espouses,'' says Shekhar Sahay, hr Specialist, Nokia. There are different tests for different situations. Some companies swear by old favourite, the multiple choice psychology test. Others get candidates to read tarot cards; and still others get them to participate in involved role-playing exercises.

Nokia's test, for instance, is made up of 90 paired statements (it is designed to catch you out if you lie). Glaxo SmithKline's test is a little less exacting: it comprises a mere 22 questions, looks for desirable personality traits like a sense of humour, street-smartness, judgement, high energy levels, and compassion, and is administered only to entry- and junior-level candidates. ''At senior positions,'' says P. Dwarakanath, the head of hr at the company, ''people can be questioned on their past performance.'' But some other companies believe such tests work across management levels, with minor modifications for each level.

Thanks to the renewed interest in psychological-profiling and personality-testing, companies like Praendex and Achieveglobal have come up with ready-to-use, packaged, electronic test packages. Praendex, for instance, has created a measure called the Predictive Index (pi) built around workplace-related strengths and the personality profile of the subject. Says V.P. Sinha, the head of hr at the Delhi-based Escorts Group: ''pi not only helps us recruit the right people, it helps us identify leaders within the organisation.'' And Achieveglobal provides a package that helps its customers find out whether people have the psychological attributes required to excel in the sales function.

Companies using such tests, however, would do well not to be too dependent on them. Ideally, they should form a part of a larger recruitment or appraisal process, not constitute all of it. They would also do well to share the findings of psychological profiling tests with the candidates themselves or the concerned authorities. Surely, identifying potential psychopaths falls well within the corporate definition of social responsibility.