China-based HR practitioners are seemingly forever walking a thin line. On the demand side, they must continuously tackle a national shortage of highly experienced and capable employees at senior and technical levels, and rising salaries. On the supply side, practitioners must contend with ever-increasing numbers of applicants for entry level/graduate positions.

Undoubtedly, the advent of web- or computer-based selection tools has greatly increased the efficient handling of mass (entry level) applications. While the efficacy of these vary from system to system, it is a day far into the future -if it all- that they will replace essential face-to-face interviews, and the raison d’etre of many HR practitioners.

Yet when faced with a choice of one or more strong candidates at the mid-to-senior levels for a position which has a greater impact on the organisation - and hence a greater ‘risk’ - practitioners often confront the questions of how to ensure a good fit between the applicant, the organisation and the job? How to minimise the risk of turnover? Or another way, how to increase the predictive relationship between selection and job suitability.

Practitioners are armed with a broad range of selection tools comprising the selection “system”. Among these, psychometric tests measuring cognitive ability, work sample tests, interviews (structured and unstructured) figure prominently. While psychological research shows that work sample tests and cognitive ability measures by themselves are good predictors of job performance, implicit is the assumption of the effect of the candidate’s personality. And the use of psychometric tests to determine the relationship between personality and job performance had for many years been fraught with difficulty, proving tenuous at best.

‘Big Five’ –What is it?

More recently, US psychological researchers have developed just such a personality test.

Nick-named the ‘Big Five’, it meets many of the stringent scientific requirements before a test can be used by practitioners within an organisational or other applied setting. Based on adjectives found within the English dictionary and the natural language that describe character, the Big 5 (B5) provide a taxonomy or classification ‘groupings’ of personality traits –no genetic basis is assumed. A trait is a consistent pattern of thoughts, feelings or actions that distinguish one person from another and that generally remain stable over the course of one’s life.

Chiefly, the B5 draws five essential characteristics which represent the range of core personality traits. These are: Extroversion; Conscientiousness; Emotional Stability; Agreeableness; Openness to Experience. These are explained in the table below.

From Kierstead,J. Personality and Job Performance

Both research psychologists and practitioners have conducted evaluations throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Israel, New Zealand, Japan, the Philippines and South Korea. The good news is that general agreement has been found between these studies. Broadly speaking, this indicates that these five major traits are utilised throughout the world to describe personality. In organisational settings, the B5 test has been used on NZ police, blue collar workers, sales managers. For both police and sales managers, extraversion was a good predictor of proficiency, while conscientiousness and agreeableness show a positive relationship to fit for blue collar workers.

Usage

Tests to determine the fit between personality and job suitability are often used by companies. For example, the UK Business Test Publishers Association’s (BPTA) 2003 survey of 206 employers indicated that 56 percent use some form of personality test in their selection procedure. Likewise, the American Management Association’s (AMA) 2001 survey of 1,627 large corporation employers found that 69 percent of respondents used some form of testing, and that 29 percent used psychological measures for both applicants and employees.

More recently, cbiz.cn (‘Personality testing gaining ground’ 23-10-03) cited very strong interest within China among MNCs in utilising the B5 test, as the traditional Chinese HR practitioner selection methods are being challenged by changing work practices and exposure to new HR/management ideas.

So, when faced with a difficult decision concerning recruitment and selection, clients might consider the use of the highly reputable B5 test, and only with those trained and qualified to administer and assess test results. J.M. Gemini utilises the services of HR Objective, the only China-based, internationally recognized and fully licensed developer, supplier and assessor of the B5 Chinese-language version or ‘Fit In’ test. The test is also available in English.

As always, to derive maximum benefit, the B5 should be utilised in conjunction with other selection tools such as job analysis, assessment centres and cognitive ability measures. Practitioners and researchers alike do not recommend the B5 be used as the sole selection method. Research indicates that cognitive ability tests, work sample tests and structured interviews by themselves are better than 50 percent effective. When selection methods are used in combination, selection effectiveness can reportedly be increased by up to as much as 75 percent.

By Elius Levin.

Elius is a Shanghai-based Australian editor and writer with experience over the past 20+ years, and an internationally published HR specialist and business writer. View further work and contact him via www.eliuslevin.com

REFERENCES

American Management Association. (2001). Workplace Testing: Basic Skills, Job Skills and Psychological Measurement.

Bobrow, W. (2002) Personnel Selection and Assessment. APA

Hughes, K. (2002).True or False. www.hughesdirect.com

Kierstead, J (1998). Personality and Job Performance: A Research Overview. Public Service Commission of Canada.

Lucius, R.H (2002). History of the Five Factor Model.

McCrae, R.R. (2002). Cross cultural research on the five-factor model. In W.J. Lonner et al (Eds).Online Readings in Psychology and Culture. www.wwu.edu/~culture

Schmidt, F.L and Hunter, J.E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 262-274.

Wigham, R. Employers opt for personality tests to attract top talent. 29-1-04. www.personneltoday.com