Behavioral Science and True Match

At one point, it was generally thought that intelligence was the king of traits when it came to finding the right person for almost any job. After all, an intelligent person would be able to solve problems, find solutions, and navigate tricky situations. Any problems that arose? Well, the employee in question clearly just weren’t smart enough to understand the logic behind the issue. Maybe the next guy will be smarter.

But of course, behavioral science marched on. The behavioral sciences, which encompass psychology, psychobiology, anthropology, and cognitive science, have exploded over the last several decades, providing numerous insights into why people behave the way they do.

And it has shown what most people knew intuitively anyhow: that most people aren’t rational beings that become more perfect as intelligence increase, but have a host of tendencies and traits that make them more likely to behave in one way or another, and to be successful in a specific environment.

Assessments

Coding tests, writing tests, 10 key tests … these are all excellent forms of assessment, and can help weed out applicants who are unqualified. But quality assessments can also be used to determine whether people will succeed in a given environment.

High-quality job suitability assessments can determine whether someone will function well in a relatively solitary, unsupervised environment, or if they’ll become unhappy unless they’re in a more collaborative space. They can see whether someone will rise to the occasion in a constantly-changing, high-volume position, or if routine is a bedrock of their work routine. With so many factors that make each job unique, assessments can be incredibly helpful in uncovering whether a given candidate is suitable.

Temperaments & Job Suitability

Our personalities develop over a lifetime in response to our environments. We evolve away from grade school potty jokes (or not) to a more sophisticated sense of humor, we form work or social habits adapted to our stage of life, and we reflect the cultural behaviors of others where we live. But anyone who has ever parented more than one child knows that some part of personality is innate; we just come out that way. This is temperament.

After looking at the behaviors of infants and children over the course of years, three basic temperaments were identified. There are the feisty children: those who literally attack their surroundings in their eagerness to get what they’re after. There are the flexible ones, who tend to embrace whatever comes their way with open arms. And there are fearful children, who prefer to look on cautiously before investigating further.

Each of these basic temperaments relates to how we interact with new and challenging situations (which, for a baby, is pretty much everything). And critically, none of these are “wrong.” You want your accountant to be cautious and double check everything three times before sending out a report. Your head of sales should absolutely jump on new opportunities and pursue them vigorously. And your administrative assistant no doubt needs to be able to go with the dozens of distractions that are thrown their way every day. Thinking about the ideal temperament for a particular position can help you find someone who will thrive in the role.

SelectOne's JobFIt

SelectOne’s job suitability testing covers over a hundred different variables and measures them against the needs of the job in question, providing you with areas to dig into more deeply when interviewing. We believe strongly that good fit is just as important as the right skills, and our data bears this out: 90-95% of our recommended hires are successful in their role.