(Article in CBIZ.CN)

Shanghai - A few multinationals already use personality tests for their future employees, but most companies do not. According to Gabor Nagy, managing director of Shanghai HRO Consulting with 12 years China experience, there are various reasons for the underdevelopment of the use of such tests.

"Using personality tests requires both talent, training and experience. Especially in the beginning, an HR manager needs to invest time and energy in it, and not all can do so," says Nagy. "Also, there is the intellectual property problem. Test development is very expensive and most big foreign test publishers are afraid that their products - once they invest into localization - will be copied. That's why there is a lack of good products in China."

Cultural issues, however, might be the most important factor. "Chinese traditions ascribe high importance to age, sex, experience, credentials and guanxi instead of talent and job match," Nagy continues. "However, management thinking is changing very fast. There is a new generation of Chinese managers who read the latest books and apply advanced methods. It's amazing what you can find in the bookstores, a lot of the latest management Gurus books are there and sell well."

Nagy finds there is a great interest in the Chinese personality test - Fit In™ - his company launched recently after 1,5 year of development and testing. The test measures all kinds of personality traits that are the base for competencies and job performance in many managerial and knowledge worker positions.

"It's a made in China for China test, though the underlying principles and basic research come from abroad," Nagy says. "In companies where we tested people and have given feedback, people often talk about the experience. Some people were quite touched with the results. There is a man who keeps his profiles on his desk all the time."

He expects more and more companies will realize that personality is an important factor in job matching, which will improve the current situation. "Finding the right career is not easy for the individual, and finding the right person is not easy for the company either. Currently these decisions are made intuitively most of the time, and there is a high risk of disappointment on both sides. To have a good view of one's personality, to know what is in an employee's power and what goes beyond it, can save a lot of trouble."

By Babs Verblackt

Originally published at: www.cbiz.cn, China Business Infocenter