Many readers of MPG articles and newsletters are also users of the eTest online testing platform. Having been incorporated in 1996, eTest was one of the first online pre-employment testing companies. It was created to offer affordable and valid assessments to augment the services of MPG. Over the years, it has grown by providing assessment reports developed by licensed organizational psychologists to clients and other consultants in a wide variety of organizations.
The eTest battery of psychometric instruments has been customized and validated in a broad range of jobs according to the professional, ethical and legal standards outlined by the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the American Psychological Association. eTest reports help clients make fast, effective, and accurate hiring decisions, and help them develop and coach their employees to reach their full potential. The standard eTest battery was developed from interview and testing data of more than 14,000 people over a ten-year period.
We are pleased to announce that a new eTest platform is now operational. The new website provides clients greater flexibility and streamlining, and expanded functionality. Brief descriptions of the standard reports are presented below, but there are also endless varieties of customized reports available for unique jobs or organizational requirements.
The Interview Guide is a tool primarily for selection. It provides an in-depth analysis of the candidate’s personality and aptitude characteristics as they relate to the workplace. It consists of a narrative description of the individual, a set of Targeted Interview Probes (TIPs) for the people charged with making selection decisions, and a profile of the candidate’s scores on the personality and job dimensions measured by the battery.
General personality characteristics can offer insights into how a person might thrive in a wide variety of jobs and company cultures. This report includes information on the “DNA of personality,” the factors that are consistent and stable over time and that affect our behavior in a wide range of situations. A broad professional consensus is that people can be described effectively using five major dimensions of personality (the Five Factor Theory, or Big Five):
- Extraversion (the orientation towards people) versus Introversion (lower social drive and greater internal focus)
- Emotional Reactivity (the tendency to be anxious, high strung or impatient) versus Stability (the inclination to be calm, patient and not easily upset)
- Behavioral Control (which includes discipline, conscientiousness and detail-orientation) versus Flexibility (the tendency to be independent, seat-of-the-pants and less disciplined)
- Agreeableness (the inclination to be affable, harmonious and cooperative) versus Driven (the tendency to be intense, task-focused and hard-edged)
- Complexity (the orientation towards the world of strategic, conceptual and complex ideas) versus Conventional (the orientation towards the tactical, operational and practical)
The Interview Guide includes the candidate’s profile on the Big Five personality factors described above and their sub-scores, job functional similarity (administrative, customer service, managerial, sales, technical, etc.); empirically-derived job-related scales (dependability, motivation, stress tolerance, etc.) and observations about the person’s problem-solving approach, interpersonal style and motivational makeup. Sample Customer Service Interview Guide Report
The Developmental Report provides helpful developmental feedback for the candidate. It consists of a narrative description of the person’s personality traits, pertinent developmental suggestions and a profile of scores. It is useful as a standalone tool for further self-reflection and personal/career development, or as part of a more comprehensive program for growth and development. It includes the Personality Profile information from the Hiring Manager’s Interview Guide report, a more developmentally-oriented version of the narrative description and several targeted developmental suggestions. Sample Developmental Report
The Leadership Report is designed for use as a developmental tool. It may also be used as another data point in selection, but should not be the sole criteria for a hiring or promotion decision. It is a narrative report providing a description of the person’s general style and likely behavior in a position of influence or leadership. It includes probable strengths and developmental suggestions to help address potential problems or gaps in leadership ability or style. Sample Leadership Report
The Sales Report is the result of research using real-world data from a wide variety of organizations and sales jobs. There is no one best sales profile for all jobs but there are certain traits and behaviors that increase the chances for success in most sales jobs. Our research indicates that sales people, and sales jobs themselves, can be effectively and usefully described using four major dimensions:
- General Sales Similarity (an overall scale indicating how similar the person is to people in a wide range of sales jobs)
- Account Acquisition (the traditional hunter-farmer factor)
- Strategic Selling (important in developing complex solutions for clients)
- Team Coordination (necessary for marshaling an array of resources for the client)
In combination with in-depth information about the Big Five personality factors and the empirically-derived scales mentioned in the Interview Guide, the Sales Report describes a candidate’s Interpersonal Style, Motivational Makeup, Problem-Solving Approach, Sales Leadership Style, Probable Assets, Potential Liabilities and Developmental Suggestions. Sample Sales Report
With the launch of the expanded platform, we are introducing the new Coaching Report, a tool for use by managers, coaches and mentors to help people reach their full potential. It is a practical guide for helping the person focus on his or her goals for growth, and for developing strategies to reach those goals by fully leveraging strengths and working around gaps or limitations. While it is focused primarily on job success, it can also provide insights and suggestions for the individual’s growth as a person. It provides strategies for coaching the person, probable assets and strengths, areas for development, general coaching guidelines and a template to help the person develop his or her developmental game plan. Sample Coaching Report
We can develop an almost unlimited number of Customized Reports from the eTest standard battery to measure and predict behavior related to success in specific jobs or organizational cultures. If you’d like a free introductory test drive of the system and/or get more information about customizing and validating online assessment tests for your organization, call Cheryl Zink at 800-700-1315 for details. Or email us with a brief description of your needs. One of our licensed psychologists will be in touch to further explore how we may be able to help.