Why Personality Profiles Should Supplement Your Hiring Process

Hiring new team members. Love it or hate it, it’s something every business needs to do if it’s not a one-person show. When you think about hiring, what would you say is your process? Do you have a process? Do you hire those you like? Those like you? Those who can compliment your strengths and/or supplement your weaknesses? When you look at starting the recruitment and hiring process, do you know beforehand what your team needs?

There is a tool that can help you with this. It will help you, your team members, and candidates discover (and affirm) how they are uniquely and beautifully wired, why they do things the way they do, and how everyone perceives and reacts to each other. It’s called Everything DiSC Workplace®, and it is chock-full of valuable insights and learnings into yourself and others.

Here is how an Everything DiSC Workplace® Assessment can complement your hiring process:

1. Knowing your team’s natural tendencies and preferences matters. Workplace reveals your natural preferences and tendencies. These are the areas where you naturally spend your energy, without even thinking about it. Think of this as your comfort zone. There are 8 different preferences/tendencies measured in Workplace (as you can see on the map to the left). Someone can have 3, 4, or even 5 priorities. By knowing where your team members focus their energy, and seeing this on a single map can reveal trends, gaps, or potential drawbacks that your team may face. A balance is a good thing—what would happen if everyone focused on enthusiasm and collaboration? Or, what if we all took a very long time to make decisions because we were so caught up in the details and suffered from analysis paralysis? See what I mean? Balance is important. Consider hiring where there are gaps within your team’s preferences.

2. Everything DiSC Workplace® gives insight into a candidate's likely motivators and stressors. Wouldn’t it be helpful to know that someone works best with short-term projects because they tend to get bored with long-term assignments? Or knowing if someone shuts down during conflict; or, on the flipside, gets energized by productive conflict because they love resolving problems? Would you find it helpful to know that Team Member Bob craves public recognition for a job well done, while Team Member Sally questions the sincerity of such praise? Workplace will give you amazing insight into one’s probable motivators and stressors--it’s like getting insider information!

3. Knowing your DiSC style, and that of your current and potential team members, provides you with an understanding of how you all perceive each other and how to work more effectively.

We all perceive the various DiSC styles differently. This is completely normal and to be expected. But, what if Workplace could help you understand why you perceive someone a certain way, whether it be positive or negative? What if you could understand what drives and motivates your team or a potential candidate? Would you be able to manage them more effectively? Would they be able to work together more productively? How could that benefit your team (and your bottom line)?

So...how can you make this happen? You can put this into motion in 3 easy steps:

Step 1: Have you and your team each take the Everything DiSC Workplace® Assessment. These assessments are very affordable and only take about 20 minutes per person to take.

Step 2: Learn what your profile says about you. This can be most effectively and efficiently done via a team workshop--in 2 hours you and your team will learn about yourselves, each other, and how you can work together and communicate more effectively!

Why a Team Workshop is a Good Choice:

• 100% Virtual--a workshop can be done from literally anywhere these days! Your entire team doesn't even need to be together in the office.

• Low Cost--by having a streamlined process and not having to worry about travel costs, a workshop is extremely cost-effective!

• Customized--we will talk together beforehand to find your needs and desired outcomes. I then take that information, along with your team's DiSC Assessments and tailor the workshop for your unique team.

Step 3: Use the Workplace assessment to supplement your hiring process. It is very important to know that Workplace should not replace the infinitely-valuable hiring steps (such as interviewing and other screenings). However, if you have a candidate that you are feeling pretty good about, and you want to see how they will fit in with your team, then Workplace will serve this purpose quite nicely. And, you can order future assessments just as you need them, without having to commit to a certain number or pre-paying!

There you have it. An easy and cost-effective tool you can use to increase the efficiency and success of your hiring process. Not hiring right now? That’s okay--tuck this in your back pocket for the future (because you will need to hire eventually), but go ahead and do Steps 1 and 2 above--it’ll make your team work better together!

NOTE: Lisa Strei is a Workplace Coach and Authorized Partner of Everything DiSC® and The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team™. She is also a Certified Facilitator for Everything DiSC Workplace®. For more information on Everything DiSC or to request a free consultation, please visit https://www.lisastrei.com/everything-disc.