Assessment FAQs

Have you ever been faced with a recruiting, employee relations, or employee/team development situation with the following challenges:

1. How do I identify top performers before I hire them?
2. When doing succession planning, who are the best candidates for promotion?
3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of any given work team and how can I maximize their performance?
4. How can I hire in a way that will reduce turnover?

Assessments can aid in all of the above. Primary reasons for using assessments are:

1. Assessments are objective.
2. Assessments help measure knowledge, skills, abilities, attitudes and/or personality traits that may be hard to assess through an interview.

Think of assessments as the third leg of a three-legged stool. All three legs combined - behavioral interviewing, assessments, and reference checking - make for stronger selection decisions.

Selection Tools

1. The ProfileXT
   Assesses the individual's thinking and reasoning, occupational interests, and behavioral traits relative to a particular position...the Total Person.
2. Profiles Sales Indicator
   Measures five key qualities (competitiveness, persistence, self-reliance, energy, sales drive) of successful salespeople and predicts performance in seven critical sales behaviors.
3. Profiles Customer Service Perspective (CSP)
   This assessment is customized to mesh with the company's specific policies and is helpful in identifying individuals who will be successful in fulfilling the service needs of customers. The CSP measures eight behavioral characteristics (trust, tact, empathy, conscientiousness, conformity, focus, courtesy, flexibility), two proficiencies (vocabulary and numerical), job match, and alignment to the company's service perspective.
4. Profiles Call Center Survey
   Measures suitability for call center work - both inbound and outbound. Similar to the CS survey but with sales practices measure added.
5. Step One Survey
   This is an employment-screening tool to assess the job candidate's attitudes towards integrity, substance abuse, reliability, and work ethic.

Employee Development
(for performance coaching and as a training needs analysis)

1. Profiles Performance Indicator
   Measures five key personality factors (productivity, quality of work, initiative, teamwork, and problem solving) and their impact on seven critically important aspects of success in business. This report helps you understand how an individual is effectively understood, motivated, and managed.
2. The ProfileXT
   Assesses the individual's thinking and reasoning, occupational interests, and behavioral traits relative to a particular position . . . the Total Person.
3. Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI)
   This personality assessment provides the individual with personal insights into his/her own style and behaviors. It offers information to help the individual gain an understanding of his/her preferences with respect to:
1. How the individual is energized (extrovert/introvert)
2. What the individual attends to (facts/intuition)
3. How the individual makes decisions (think/feel)
4. The "lifestyle" the individual adopts (judgment/perception)

4. CheckPoint 360
   This is a 360° or multi-rater assessment to help managers become more effective. Managers receive feedback from the full circle of people with whom they interact. Results explain how to improve training, management techniques, and communication for greater success. It describes the manager's skills in eight major skill groups and in 18 Universal Management Competencies. It also includes a Personal Development Section that coaches the manager on ways to improve job performance.
5. Profiles Career Coach
   Provides an analysis of the individual's thinking style, occupational interests, and job-related behavior traits and provides a Job Match Percentage that shows how the individual's traits match the requirements of various occupations. One possible application for this assessment is in outplacement situations.
6. DiSC Profile
   The DiSC Profile is a development tool that provides insights into individual behavioral and personality styles. The DiSC Profile helps individuals to understand the strength of their preferences against four dimensions. The dimensions are dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness. A detailed confidential report outlines characteristics and personal tendencies, preferred work environments, and effective strategies for each dimension. The report will also provide the individual Classical Profile Pattern. The Pattern increases self awareness and lays the groundwork for preparing a development plan for increasing personal effectiveness.

Team Development/Team Building
(for performance coaching and as a training needs analysis)

1. Profiles Team Analysis
   This assessment reports the attributes of each team member and shows the team's strengths and alerts the team leader of potential problem areas. This assessment assesses the following team factors: Control, Social, Patience, Precision, Ambition, Positive Expectancy, Composure, Analytical, Results Orientation, Emotions, Team Player, and Quality Orientation.
2. CheckPoint 360
   See above.
3. Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI)
   See above. The results of the MBTI can be used to heighten understanding and appreciation for individual differences and to facilitate discussion in team building workshops.
4. DiSC Profile
   See above.

Member companies are invited to call Pat Windle 262.696.3542 directly or e-mail their request to patricia@mranet.org. Pat will serve in a consultative role helping to identify your needs, objectives and how an assessment tool may help. Once a decision has been made, Pat will manage the details.

The Profiles products are set up on a de-escalating fee arrangement. High volume use decreases the price per unit. An additional mark-up will be applied to non-member companies. Large volume users may choose to host their own site allowing them immediate access to the assessment products. The fee associated with this option will reflect the Web site setup and maintenance of the site and the assessments. Inquiries requesting specific price information should be directed to Pat Butler.

Assessment completed using MRA's Assessment Central will be available almost immediately. If the assessment is taken in the "paper and pencil" version, the paperwork has to arrive and be manually entered. At that point the results are immediately available. (Note: The non-Profiles assessments offered through MRA take anywhere from 1 day to 1 week or more to get results.)

All assessments offered through MRA yield written reports. The Profiles product assessments have the added benefit of providing additional reports at no extra charge. For example, The Profile offers the following reports: Individual Report, Placement Report, Multi-Job Match Report, Coaching Report, Job Profile Summary Report, Summary Reports, and Graph Report. The Profile Performance Indicator offers an Individual Report and a Manager Report.

Below are the validation dates for the Profiles assessments:

1. The Profile (1999, 2000, 2001)
   In addition, to develop a customized benchmark the member company may complete a Job Profile Survey and/or do a concurrent validity study (test best performers).
2. Profiles Sales Indicator (2000, 2001)
3. Profiles Customer Service Survey (Annually, 1987 through 1996)
4. Profiles Call Center Survey (Annually, 1991- through 1998)
5. Profiles Team Analysis (1998, 2001)
6. Step One Survey (1996)
7. Profiles Performance Indicator (1998, 2001)
8. Profiles CheckPoint 360 (1992 through 1996)
9. Profiles Career Coach (1999, 2000, 2001)

The other products used by MRA are also validated.