- Human Assessment Overview
- Human Assessment Tools
- Executive Assessment for
Succession Planning, Career Growth
and Professional Development - Executive Assessment and Selection
For Success for Internal Human
Resource Professionals - Executive Assessment and Selection
For Success for Retained Search
Executive Recruiters
Human Assessment Overview
Peak Performance Group, Inc. provides a variety of evaluations and assessments for our clients. Self-evaluation, team evaluation, peer feedback and interpretation of results by a qualified instructor, executive coach or consultant are critical components that raise the level of self-awareness and which lead to behaviorally specific and organizationally relevant team and personal growth and development. Our assessments are aimed at optimizing our clients' business by integrating human assessments with PPG's other practices to provide a total solution to their needs.
Unlike many other organizations, PPG staff includes PhDs certified in many assessment options to ensure that our clients are getting the most value from their investment. Instruments range from very pragmatic to clinically validated tools administered by certified PhDs in Psychology.
PPG supports our clients throughout the process, providing information that can be used
in a variety of ways to meet strategic long-term enterprise goals. The following are
among the many applications for PPG's human assessment services:
- Executive assessment for succession planning
- Executive assessment for coaching
- Executive assessment for transition coaching
- Executive assessment for growth and development
- Individual assessment for leadership development
- Individual competency assessment
- Functional competency assessments to create functional models
- Team assessments
- Promotional readiness assessments
- Individual and enterprise cultural assessments
- Assessments for acquisition and mergers
- Leadership and professional development focused assessments
- Group performance assessments
- Individual performance assessments
Human Assessment Tools
Download as .PDFSelf-evaluation, peer feedback and interpretation of results by a qualified instructor, executive coach or consultant are critical components that raise the level of self-awareness and lead to behaviorally specific and organizationally relevant personal growth and development. Peak Performance Group options include:
- A. Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
- A well-validated and researched personality styles self-assessment instrument based on the work of Carl Jung. The MBTI provides insight into preferred ways of information processing, energy orientation, decision-making as well as work and lifestyle patterns.
- B. NEO PI-R
- The NEO PI-R measures the Five-Factor Model of personality. One of the most respected psychological instruments, the NEO provides distinct insights into one's behaviors and innate capabilities in reference to the situations and environments in which the individual works and lives. The NEO provides a focus on leadership characteristics and can be employed as a group instrument measuring the dynamic of intact work teams. Additionally, a NEO peer feedback instrument is available to compare and contrast experiences and perceptions.
- C. EQI and ECI
- The EQI and ECI are instruments that measure an individual or group's Emotional Quotient. A peer feedback option is also available. Research over the last 20 years clearly suggests that a leader's emotional intelligence is more important than IQ.
- D. Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)
- Personality assessment is rapidly becoming a best practice for selecting and developing talented employees. The Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) is the industry standard for measuring normal personality; it has a 25-year history of successfully predicting employee performance and helping companies reduce turnover, absenteeism, shrinkage, and poor customer service. It was the first inventory of normal personality based on the Five-Factor Model and developed specifically for the business community. The Hogan Personality Inventory identifies the bright side of the personality - what we see when people are at their best.
- E. Hogan Development Survey (HDS)
- The Hogan Development Survey (HDS) assesses eleven behavioral tendencies that impede work relationships, hinder productivity, or limit overall career potential. These career derailers - deeply ingrained in personality traits - affect an individual's leadership style and actions. When under pressure, most people will display certain counterproductive tendencies or risk factors. Under normal circumstances these characteristics may actually be strengths. However, when an individual is tired, pressured, bored or otherwise distracted, these risk factors may impede effectiveness and erode the quality of relationships with customers and colleagues. The Hogan Development Survey identifies tendencies that are often referred to as the dark side of the personality - what we see when people are stressed. The Hogan Development Survey assessments provide valuable feedback for strategic self-awareness, which is the key to avoiding the negative consequences associated with these tendencies.
- F. Hogan Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI)
- The Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI) reveals a person's core values, goals and interests. This is invaluable information for determining the kinds of environments in which the person will perform best, and the kind of culture the person will create as a leader. Organizations can use this information to ensure that a new hire's values are consistent with those of the organization. The Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory can also help diagnose areas of compatibility and conflict among team members. These ten core values, goals, and activities are part of a person's identity. Consequently, they are a person's key drivers - they are what a person desires and strives to attain. People's values also influence their choice of jobs and careers. People like others who share their values and prefer to work in jobs that support their values. The Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory is an excellent tool to determine how well a person will fit with a job and with a team, department, or organization.
- G. Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory (HBRI)
- The Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory evaluates a person's ability to solve problems and make business-related decisions using textual, graphic, and quantitative data. Many psychologists believe that cognitive ability (intelligence) is the best single predictor of occupational performance and other important outcomes, including health, wealth, and life satisfaction. The Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory (HBRI) is a significant advance in this measurement tradition and should become the industry standard for assessing cognitive ability. It is the first measure of cognitive ability to be based on evolutionary psychology and designed exclusively to predict real-world performance.
- H. Strong Interest Inventory
- The Strong Interest Inventory is the most respected and widely used career planning instrument in the world. The report and coaching the individuals receive enables them to discover their natural interests and chart a plan of action for achieving the most satisfying career possible. The information can be employed to help employers optimize an individual's potential as well as support an individual's career development.
- I. Leadership Effectiveness and Adaptability Description (LEAD)
- Based on Situational Leadership theory, the LEAD is a self-assessment instrument that assesses two important dimensions of leadership behavior: task and relationship. Results are plotted on a 4-quadrant grid to show individual preferences toward task and relationship when leading a group or team effort. Analysis and interpretation looks at style range and adaptability as well as alignment with a team's needs depending on its stage of development.
- J. Conflict Management Styles Survey
- This self-assessment instrument identifies tendencies or styles when approaching interpersonal, group and inter-departmental conflicts. The assessment is interpreted using a situational approach with the goal of identifying ways of increasing personal flexibility by adapting one's approach to the situation at hand.
- K. 360° Behavioral-based Feedback
- One-on-one interviews are conducted with a pre-determined number of colleagues, supervisors, subordinates and key stakeholders to assess leadership behavior in the context of real-life situations. The feedback results are behaviorally specific and contextualized. Effective and ineffective behavior patterns are identified and used to create individual development plans.
- L. Leadership Versatility Index (LVI)
- This on-line 360 survey is based on a clarifying framework to account for the complexities of the manager's job. It covers the tensions and trade-offs, the balances to be struck on the interpersonal aspects of leading as well as the business side. The LVI pairs up the key opposing but complementary skills and behaviors of how you lead (forceful vs. enabling) and what you lead (strategic vs. operational). It picks up overkill as well as deficiencies and strengths. It is based on over 20 years of action-research and quality tested with statistical rigor.
- M. Leadership Capability Assessment
- Through focused, intensive interviews respondents analyze problems, create solutions and essentially demonstrate the manner in which they cognitively and intellectually assimilate and process information. The Leadership Capability Assessment (LCA) assesses the level of complexity an individual is capable of leading and managing. Additionally, executive job requirements and the enterprise are assessed for their complexity requirements then a comparative assessment measures the individual's effectiveness and ability to support the requirements of his or her position in the organization.
- N. Managing Change Assessment
- This assessment focuses on the areas of personal flexibility, implementing change and reinforcing change skill categories. Detailed feedback results identify strengths to build on, areas for development, and are used in developing a self-directed action plan.
- O. Leadership and Individual Contributor Competency Assessment
- Using behaviorally-based interviews, respondents are evaluated for their ability to perform against those specific competencies using a standardized six-point scale. Results are presented graphically to show gaps between desired and current competency levels. Also included is a narrative that helps formulate individual and team development goals. An up front assessment is also completed for the explicit purpose of identifying competencies and linking associated skills, knowledge and behaviors to current and future business strategy.
- P. Personal and Organizational Diversity Assessment
- This inventory provides insight into the ability of individuals and the work environment as a whole to motivate employees from diverse backgrounds. Assessment categories include accommodating employee differences, creating workplace choices, management flexibility, respect for competence and initiative and encouraging retention. Individual scores are compared and contrasted to that of the organization for the purpose of individual and organizational action planning.
- Q. Personal and Organizational Stress Assessment
- The Hanson Scale of Stress Resistance coupled with individual and organizational stress questionnaires distinguish physical, psychological and organizational symptoms associated with unhealthy levels of stress. Results focus on identifying stress promoters and specific forms of stress that negatively impact individual motivation and organizational effectiveness.
Executive Assessment for Succession Planning, Career Growth and Professional Development
Download as .PDFOverview
Peak Performance Group's Executive Assessment for Succession Planning, Career Growth and Professional Development options provide executives with a key tool to focus on their personal development, allowing them to optimize their global performance in their current position and preparing them for future growth and expanded responsibilities.
Growth-focused assessments provide the individual with insights on their current and future capability related to the executive's global leadership skills, motivation and personal drivers, organizational acumen, cultural and environmental effectiveness, management skills, strategic effectiveness, interpersonal and influence effectiveness, stress management, and success in adapting to changing market and global business conditions.
Why Take Advantage of an Executive Assessment as a Tool for Professional Growth and Succession Planning?
Developing future leaders is the single greatest challenge that all enterprises face today. Corporate research over the last 30 years proves that those companies that invest in the development of leaders and maintain a bench strength of talent have a significant competitive edge demonstrated in profitability, market adaptiveness and sustained and predictable results.
Executive assessments centered on the healthy focused development of an executive significantly increases the return-on-investment of both time and financial resources while decreasing the risk of poor performance due to inadequate leadership preparation. Successful developmental assessments deliver: a) an identification of utilized and underutilized potential; b) identification of areas for development key to a business leader's success; and c) developmental plans that could include training and education, on-the-job experience, and coaching.
Developmental-focused assessments are particularly valuable for high potential candidates, those executives in key succession plan positions and/or in identifying high potential candidates.
A series of recent corporate studies suggest that developing leadership talent, versus buying transient leaders, is the most efficient and effective means of strategic success. Notable among the findings:
- Long-term performance success led by a succession-based leader exceeds that of externally hired leaders.
- Executives report that leadership bench strength has significantly decreased due to economic challenges in recent years and have few strategies to reverse the trend.
- Organizational performance improves with regular internal leadership changes year-over-year.
- The second most important issue facing business reported by corporate directors is succession planning, second only to strategic planning.
- "...two out of five top leaders fail in the first eighteen months...inadequate attention to succession issues...corporations must build their pipelines to the top." (Wall Street Journal)
- More and more companies are reporting preferences for growing managers and future executives over "buying" leadership talent.
How Can Peak Performance Group, Inc. Help?
Executive leaders as well as Human Resource leaders must ensure that the candidates their company selects for current and future executive positions have the best potential for long-term success. Peak Performance Group, Inc. provides leadership assessment services that will:
- Increase the success of selection and promoting the right candidate through expert assessment of leadership capability, personality, acumen, cultural and psychological fit.
- Enhance the success of the company in analyzing and identifying those executives with the highest potential for success.
- Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the executive team in evaluating growth candidate's ability to be successful in their specific and unique business environment.
- Increase the predictability of where the succession or high potential candidates will be successful and areas where he or she will need support.
- Support the optimization of an executive's effectiveness through a successful transition to a new role in the company.
- Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the executive team's ability to determine internal candidate readiness to take on broader management responsibilities.
Key Elements of New Executive Assessment and Success
Three areas of assessment are necessary in providing an accurate and predictable evaluation of an executive. Often Human Resources owns the overall process to ensure the optimum fit. Human Resources, or Peak Performance Group in support of HR, work with the senior executive to evaluate the business skills and acumen. Peak Performance Group brings expertise in evaluating the additional areas:
- Business Skill and Acumen Evaluation: Human Resources supporting the senior executive often have the primary role to ensure full assessment of the candidate's job history, critical assignments, performance, education and technical skills compared to successful executives in their internal and external peer group.
- Personality Trait Assessment: Each enterprise has a unique combination of demands that senior leaders must successfully address. These demands may require innate strengths such as working well under stress, the ability to adapt to fast changing environments and the ability to influence others to act for the greater good of the company. Relevant personality traits are much more difficult but equally important and critical to assess.
- Organizational Alignment Analysis: Research in the causes of new hire executive failure suggest that most often they are due to organizational, cultural, and environmental misalignment in the form of skills, work styles, motivations and values.
The ultimate goals of conducting the three forms of assessment are to provide the client with:
- a) an accurate evaluation of the executive's capabilities,
- b) detailed plans for developing the executive to bring long-term success to the enterprise, and
-
c) tools to guide and evaluate the executive's development by his or her managers uniquely adapted to
client's business and operational environments.
Executive Assessment Deliverables
The following deliverables, in the form of tools and techniques, provide individual executives and client companies with an accurate and predictable assessment of key executives.
The three executive assessment options employ them to varying degrees.
- Professional Business and Personality Assessment Instruments: Scientifically valid, American Psychological Association certified and professional proven instruments that predict executive performance and identify potential problem areas are the foundation tools for assessing candidates.
- Leadership Capability Interviews: As an adjunct to the instrumentation, brief and efficient one-on-one interviews are used to hone in on areas of strength and weakness, providing HR and management with examples and frameworks to evaluate and predict success.
- Company Environment and Organizational Analysis: A brief and efficient organizational analysis is conducted for the more volatile client environments where executive success and the accuracy of selection rests more with leadership capability related to culture, values, complexity and the level of stress inherent in the operations of the client company. This organizational assessment creates an operational model in which to evaluate individual leadership capability.
- Detailed and Customized Individual Professional Development Plans: A detailed professional development plan is created that could include: training and education, on-the-job experiences, executive coaching and self-driven development.
- Recommendations to Support the Executive in Current or Future Positions: To increase the executive's long-term success recommendations are made that include such things as staff support, operational and process design development, professional development and considerations regarding the uniqueness of the company's culture, values and operational complexity are created.
Executive Assessment and Selection For Success for Internal Human Resource Professionals
Download as .PDFOverview
Peak Performance Group's Executive Assessment and Selection for Success options provide human resource professionals with an additional tool to ensure that the candidates chosen are best suited for their organization and will be successful meeting long term strategic goals.
Professional executive assessment provides decision makers with more complete information about a candidate's capabilities and fit with the organizational, cultural and environmental demands of a particular business or enterprise. It does not provide a guarantee of success, nor should it be used as a sole determinant to eliminate a candidate.
Why Assess Executive Candidates?
According to multiple studies, 40% to 50% of newly hired executives fail within the first 18 months of employment. The current research supports the notion that executive failure has more to do with the improper alignment between the executive's career motivation and cultural orientation with that of the client organization. Executive business skills or acumen deficiencies are rarely the cause.
Professional executive assessment reduces the risk and significantly improves the candidate selection process, ensuring a better match against the specific needs of the company. It is also a critical component of a comprehensive and meaningful talent management and succession planning program. Examples of the costs of hiring the wrong candidate are demonstrated by one study that found costs may be up to 24 times the salary of the executive and another that calculated actual dollar amounts ranging from $750,000 to $1,200,000 per hiring failure.
How Can Peak Performance Group, Inc. Help?
Human Resource leaders must ensure that the candidates their company selects for new hire or internal promotion have the best potential for long-term success. Peak Performance Group, Inc. provides candidate assessment services that will:
- Increase the success of hiring or promoting the right candidate through expert assessment of leadership capability, personality and psychological fit.
- Enhance the success of the company in analyzing and identifying the candidates with the highest potential for success.
- Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the executive team in evaluating the candidate's ability to be successful in their specific and unique business environment.
- Increase the predictability of where the newly hired or promoted executive will be successful and areas where he or she will need support.
- Support the optimization of the new executive's effectiveness through a successful transition to his or her new role and integration into the company for new hires.
- Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the executive team's ability to determine internal candidate readiness to take on broader management responsibilities.
Executive Candidate Assessment Deliverables
The following deliverables, in the form of tools and techniques, provide client companies with an accurate and predictable assessment of executive candidates.
The three executive assessment options employ them to varying degrees.
- Professional Business and Psychology Assessment Instruments: Scientifically valid, American Psychological Association certified and professional proven instruments that predict executive performance and identify potential problem areas are the foundation tools for assessing candidates.
- Leadership Capability Interviews: As an adjunct to the instrumentation, brief and efficient one-on-one interviews are used to hone in on areas of strength and weakness, providing HR and management with examples and frameworks to evaluate and predict success.
- Company Environment and Organizational Analysis: A brief and efficient organizational analysis is conducted for the more volatile client environments where executive success and the accuracy of selection rests more with leadership capability related to culture, values, complexity and the level of stress inherent in the operations of the client company.
- Focused Interview Plan and Interview Questions: Based on each of the assessments employed, a semi-structured interview plan with specific questions are provided that enable HR and management to focus specifically on the unique strengths and potential weaknesses of the candidate as they relate distinctly to the job. Efficiency of the interview increases dramatically with this tool.
- Recommendations to Support the Newly Hired or Promoted Executive: To increase the executive's transition and success during the critical first 18 months on the job, recommendations are made that include such things as staff support, operational and process design development, professional development and considerations regarding the uniqueness of the company's culture, values and operational complexity are created.
Executive Assessment and Selection For Success for Retained Search Executive Recruiters
Download as .PDFOverview
Peak Performance Group's Executive Assessment and Selection for Success options provide executive recruiters with an additional tool to ensure that the candidates chosen are best suited for their client's organization and will be successful meeting long term strategic goals.
Professional executive assessment provides decision makers with more complete information about a candidate's capabilities and fit with the organizational, cultural and environmental demands of a particular business or enterprise. It does not provide a guarantee of success, nor should it be used as a sole determinant to eliminate a candidate.
Why Assess Executive Candidates?
According to multiple studies, 40% to 50% of newly hired executives fail within the first 18 months of employment. The current research supports the notion that executive failure has more to do with the improper alignment between the executive's career motivation and cultural orientation with that of the client organization. Executive business skills or acumen deficiencies are rarely the cause.
Professional executive assessment reduces the risk and significantly improves the candidate selection process, ensuring a better match against the specific needs of the company. It is also a critical component of a comprehensive and meaningful internal talent management and succession planning program. Examples of the costs of hiring the wrong candidate are demonstrated by one study that found costs may be up to 24 times the salary of the executive and another that calculated actual dollar amounts ranging from $750,000 to $1,200,000 per hiring failure.
How Can Peak Performance Group, Inc. Help?
Peak Performance Group, Inc. provides candidate assessment services that will:
- Increase the success of hiring the right candidate through expert assessment of leadership capability, personality and psychological fit.
- Enhance the success of the company in analyzing and identifying the candidates with the highest potential for success.
- Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the firm's executive team in evaluating the candidate's ability to be successful in their specific and unique business environment.
- Increase the predictability of where the new executive will be successful and areas where he or she will need support.
- Support the optimization of the new executive's effectiveness through a successful transition and integration into his or her new company.
- Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the firm's executive team's ability to determine internal candidate readiness to take on broader management responsibilities.
Executive Candidate Assessment Deliverables
The following deliverables, in the form of tools and techniques, provide executive recruiters with an accurate and predictable assessment of executive candidates for their clients.
The three executive assessment options employ them to varying degrees.
- Professional Business and Psychology Assessment Instruments: Scientifically valid, American Psychological Association certified and professional proven instruments that predict executive performance and identify potential problem areas are the foundation tools for assessing candidates.
- Leadership Capability Interviews: As an adjunct to the instrumentation, brief and efficient one-on-one interviews are used to hone in on areas of strength and weakness, providing client interviewers with examples and frameworks to evaluate and predict success.
- Company Environment and Organizational Analysis: A brief and efficient organizational analysis is conducted for the more volatile client environments where executive success and the accuracy of selection rests more with leadership capability related to culture, values, complexity and the level of stress inherent in the operations of the client company.
- Recommendations to Support the Newly Hired Executive: To increase the executive's transition and success during the critical first 18 months on the job, recommendations are made that include such things as staff support, operational and process design development, professional development and considerations regarding the uniqueness of the company's culture, values and operational complexity are created.