In pursuit of 'the' personality

Its ability to help companies in selecting right candidates by assessing their psychological facets has popularised the concept of psychometric testing in the corporate world. In light of the various advantages offered by psychometric analysis, can the whole process of recruitment and employee development be seen in a new light? Sonal Shukla explores

In an age of high attrition rate, it has become crucial for companies to recruit candidates with the right technical skills. They should also possess a behavioural pattern and attitude, which fits best into the company culture. A popular trend of psychometric testing helps to analyse and probe areas of human behaviour in an individual that are important for a particular function or work.

The pharma industry today, is following the footsteps of its IT counterpart and familiarising itself to the concept of using psychometric instruments in hiring the right candidates. While Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Nicholas Piramal, Eli Lilly, Lupin, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Sun Pharma are few of the Indian companies already utilising psychometric tests, others are still lagging behind.

Selection process

Each company has its own way of handling psychometric tests. However, most do it as a part of an overall recruitment process, while some do it for training their existing employees. Like in the case of Nicholas Piramal, importance is given to individual selection process (a panel interview) and the selected candidate's behaviour is mapped to the required criteria, based on the psychometric analysis. Ramesh Balgi, Vice President, Field HR, Nicholas Piramal explains, "Psychometric test of Thomas Profiling has helped the company immensely, in terms of giving developmental inputs for customising training programs for the field force".

Sanjay Joshi, Manager, HR, Eli Lilly, where majority of the recruitments are for the sales department, opines that in the entry level positions, psychometric analysis can not be viewed in isolation, but as a part and parcel of the entire selection process to make it very successful. "When conducting an interview process or group discussion round, one has to keep in mind some notings, and if these go in alignment with your psychometric analysis then definitely you have to take them seriously," Joshi opines.

In Eli Lilly, this kind of testing is done purposefully, as a part of the recruitment process. Another notable feature of psychometric analysis is that for each position, a Human Job Analysis (HJA) can be developed on the parameters like dominance, influence, steadiness and compliance. Candidates, when analysed on HJA can be examined on the basis of a graph that is generated. This can later be matched with an ideal graph developed for a particular position. This will reveal a lot about the individual's strengths and weaknesses. An organisation can thus, also use psychometric testing to understand the learning needs of an individual employee and develop training modules to suit them.

Not only this, the HR can use the results of these tests to provide promotions and career growth opportunities, based on the employee's personality. At Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, these tests were predominantly deployed for recruitment purposes. Lately, the company is using a few of them to take decisions with respect to promotions and career progression.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories has been using the Thomas Profiling and proscan extensively in their recruitment process. "It helps us have a more comprehensive evaluation to ask more appropriate and relevant questions as a part of our selection process. Therefore, it helps us get a more correct choice of selection," says Prabir Jha, Vice President, HR, Dr Reddy's Laboratories.

Personality fitment

The selection process for different kinds of candidates (fresher or experienced, junior, middle and senior management levels) often varies and so do the tests. For instance, one primarily uses aptitude tests and a simple personality test or a job (or subject) specific test for freshers. The results of an aptitude test and DISC profiling or a PDP used at this stage can be mapped with respect to an organisational standard and a decision can be made accordingly. This is because, at the fresher level, the emphasis is on matching the job requirements or the optimal personality with the probable candidates to select the right one. At the middle and senior levels, these tests vary. However, they all are bent towards the psychological aspect of a personality more than the aptitude part. For instance, a OPQ 32 i, can be used for senior level hiring.

Reaching for the stars

Another plus point of this type of testing is that it can help in understanding the training needs of employees, thereby, helping in managing star performers, as well as laggards. A psychometric test indicates an employee's strengths, as well as weaknesses. However, this entire process can still not be seen in isolation. This is because the intervention and communication done by the superior also plays a crucial role to improve the employee effectiveness. "A person can be counselled on the basis of psychometric testing, which can give a lot of motivation to work up on his limitations", says A H Khan, Senior General Manager, Human Resources , Sun Pharma.

K P Ragina, Vice President, Training and Development, Nicholas Piramal, explains that one can identify potential stars from psychometric testing even though final measurement of performance evaluation would be in terms of sales performance. Robert Menzes, Manager, Human Resources, Lupin believes that psychometric tests may not give the actual reason for performance or non performance. However, it indicates a pattern of behaviour, which is common in all star performers.

Career growth decisions

Psychometric testing can also prove beneficial for taking decisions related to promotions. When a person is going for the next level of promotion, a psychometric tool can evaluate his or her readiness for the next level. The skill gaps can consequently be identified and worked up on to make him a complete person in the organisation. A promotion is again in principle, a new job and not an extension of the previous job. "Therefore, tests can be used in exactly a pre-recruitment manner along with the individual's performance data", opines Alind Sharma, Senior Vice President, HR, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals.

Additionally, these tests will also tell, where an employee stands. Thus, individuals themselves can interpret what they will have to do, in order to reach where they want to. "A test is therefore, just a mirror and not a development tool. It just shows what you are as of now. Knowing this itself can help productivity, by harnessing one's innate strengths and reducing the effects of internal weaknesses", opines Sharma.

Analysing cultural fit

In addition to the above, psychometric tests also prove helpful in solving the cultural problems of an organisation. Each organisation has its own unique culture and the HR wants to make sure that only those people are hired, who can adjust well in the existing system. Psychometric tests are a useful tool in determining the cultural fit of a candidate. It can prevent disruptions in the near future as far as team work and productivity is concerned.

Type of tests

Today, there are a variety of tests that are available and each caters to a certain need. The most common are aptitude tests that are used to check an individual's intelligence quotient or verbal, numerical, spatial and cognitive abilities. These are basically used as entry level tests, so that a level of aptitude is maintained in the organisation in all its entry level hiring. Other questionnaires that are used are personality questionnaires or personality tests, which help match the person's personality or a specific trait of personality to that of the job.

Indian pharmaceutical industry, like the global counterpart, is a knowledge driven one. Though many of the Indian players are aiming to be world leaders, this will be a little difficult with the problems posed by high attrition rates, job poaching and job switching. Psychometric tests will go a long way in selecting the right person for the right job. This will in turn help to reduce the magnitude of all the associated problems, thereby, providing the companies with stable employees to achieve their global ambitions.

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