... OCCUPATIONAL QUESTIONNAIRES IN BUSINESS

We have had some interesting reactions to the mention of Occupational Questionnaires for assessing personality traits or skills and ability.  These people seem to have had a negative experience with what can only be explained by the questionnaires not having been administered properly, or the questionnaires that have been used have not been proven good and valid for use by the British Psychological Society.  Significant HR Solutions only uses questionnaires that have been proven to be good and valid and are administered by a person qualified to do so and is registered with the British Psychological Society.

Occupational Questionnaires are tools which have been developed from the field of Psychology.  These were originally developed to identify and diagnose any problems arising from illness or injury.  Their application has expanded to use within an occupational context in order to identify the suitability of a person to a particular role and/or potential for development.

Their advantage lies in their measures, which are objective and as accurate as possible having been developed by professional psychologists.  Their administration is relatively straightforward and the information gained invaluable because it enables decisions to be made that are based on good information. 

In terms of their benefit to a business, what should be considered is that a business is only as good as the sum of its people.  How do you get the employees you need? 

Many use traditional methods of recruitment, that is, advertise for a vacancy in the newspaper, interview and then make a decision.  It has been established that interviewing alone is the least likely method to enable you to find out about a person with any degree of accuracy, hence the chances of appointing successfully is low.  However, that does not mean that interviews should be abandoned.  They should be supplemented by the measure that an Occupational Questionnaire can provide.  It may be that the candidate is even more able than they think!

Occupational Questionnaires can also be used across the board within a business to identify skills levels.  This is crucial in the context of strategic planning for the whole business.  Objectives and targets can only be achieved if there is the skill within the business to deliver these.  The tests will identify both aptitude and potential for development, so even if some of the skills are not there yet, it may be that hidden talent will emerge that can be developed.  Training and Development plans can be identified and agreed upon and invested in to support the business strategy.

There will be an additional positive side-effect of using Occupational Questionnaires because their use in recruitment and employee development will demonstrate to both employees and potential employees that you take your business seriously.  The message given is that merit and potential is the key issue in recruiting and retaining talent.  In addition to this customers and potential customers will also be able to identify you as a business that means business!

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