Human Resource Measurement
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Educating Management about Human Resource Assessments

President Reagan was in office when Performance Programs started to offer surveys, tests, and assessments for human resource applications in 1987. In those days, discussions about HR measurement were often pretty basic.

Now, 20 years later, the discussion is more often about which type of assessment to use and why and how often and for how much. But even now, many of our customers and associates often turn to us to help educating management. Over the years, we developed a presentation that many have found helpful. For the first time, we are offering it online in a Flash format:

Understanding Human Resource Assessments

The presentation takes only about five minutes and will help you introduce others to five types of survey instruments and where they fit, including cognitive, motivational, personality, behavioral, and organizational assessments. We hope you find it useful. Please feel free to give us feedback.

In addition to this presentation, here are some tip sheets to help you make the case for tests, surveys, and assessments:

1. Five Ways to Answer the Question: Why Do We Need Assessments? This short paper summarizes five reasons why organizations benefit from assessments.

2. Seven Qualities of Effective Human Resource Measurement Tools Once you've agreed that assessments would be helpful, how do you evaluate them? Here are seven principles.

3. Why is Personality Testing Important to Recruitment? Robert Hogan and Joyce Hogan created this ten-point Q-and-A sheet to answer some of the most frequent questions about personality testing and recruitment.

Reference Guide Enables Interpretation of Hogan Personality Tests

The Hogan Guide by Robert Hogan, Joyce Hogan, and Rodney Warrenfelz

This 334-page guide provides an in-depth look into Hogan’s comprehensive suite of personality assessments which help companies select employees, develop leaders, and identify talent. New users of Hogan assessments will find this a valuable reference to the core concepts for each of the inventories—Hogan Personality Inventory, Hogan Development Survey, and Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory. Advanced users will also appreciate its breadth, as every conceivable aspect of the tools is covered in one concise document. Learn more about contents .

Global Assessment Inventory Free while Study Continues

The Global Assessment Inventory (GAI) is a new survey from Prudential Relocation's Intercultural Group, publishers of the 30-year-old Overseas Assignment Inventory. The GAI is designed for business travelers, employees in multicultural teams, executives who manage individuals from multiple cultures, candidates for international work assignments, college students considering a study year abroad, and human resource managers who want to promote cross-cultural effectiveness through assessment and training. GAI measures eight distinct individual attributes crucial for successful adaptation to doing business across cultures: change tolerance, initiative, respect for beliefs, patience, risk taking, sociability, openness, global sensitivity, travel flexibility, and travel expectations.

We are currently collecting data to create norms. Please contact us for further information on how you can obtain your free trial of the Global Assessment Inventory. See a sample report. (If you are a registered member of the PPI shopping cart, simply log in and use the Free Resources link at the top.)

Your 17-page report is free of charge while ournorm study continues. Take advantage of this $55 value now before the study is complete. Simply complete the regular check-out process. No charges will occur.

Update on Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory

HBRI is an online cognitive ability test designed for the workplace. Originally published two years ago, it is has now been updated based on user feedback with a new report format and guidelines for administration. When used in a business setting, it must be administered in a "lightly proctored setting" on the employer's premises.

The Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory is distinguished from other cognitive ability measures by these features and benefits:

The new report offers four categories of thinkers, based on their style of problem-solving. Please let us know if you would like to know more about the HBRI. See a sample HBRI report . See an HBRI brochure.

Book Reviews: "The Power of Story" by Dr. Jim Loehr

In 2003, performance psychologist Jim Loehr coauthored the bestselling "Power of Full Engagement." The book continues to be popular for its unique statement that we get the most out of life when we manage our energies, not our time. Performance Programs has offered several full engagement assessments to accompany that book; more than 120,000 individuals have responded to them.

In September 2007, Dr. Loehr's new book, "The Power of Story," took the full engagement concept to the next step. He explores the importance of the "private voice" in augmenting, depleting, and deploying our energies.

Loehr writes for a business audience and the Human Performance Institute, where he is CEO, serves organizational clientele with training in the science of personal energy management. Learn more about "The Power of Story."

Book Reviews: "Positive Psychological Assessment"

In the last edition of this newsletter, we wrote about positive psychology. Among the many books mentioned was one of particular interest to us: "Positive Psychological Assessment: A Handbook of Models and Measures" by Shane J. Lopez and C.R. Snyder (American Psychological Association, 2003).

We give both thumbs up to this comprehensive book that’s designed to help practitioners measure human strengths, healthy processes and fulfillment. The authors say their book was written to provide a positive alternative to descriptions of psychosocial and environmental disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual—widely known as DSM-IV. While not directly a work on industrial psychology, Positive Psychological Assessment has much to offer assessment professionals whose work is carried out in organizations. Some of the articles directly address career and workplace issues, such as “Measuring Career Self-Efficacy: Promoting Confidence and Happiness at Work” and “Vocational Psychology Assessment: Positive Human Characteristics Leading to Positive Work Outcomes.” In a broader sense, it brings together massive amounts of research on the problems and possibilities of assessing what can go right with people and within organizations.

We highly recommend this as scholarly reference material.

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