Competency in an area is the result of many factors working together, which include innate characteristics (natural ability, personality) and learned characteristics (knowledge, experience and skills) as is presented in the following chart. People who have the right competencies or who have a good potential for developing these competencies will be able to do the right things (behaviors) to produce the desired results (effective outcomes).

The following report provides detailed results and judgments about how these innate characteristics may facilitate or hinder the display or development of the desired competencies and, ultimately, job effectiveness. Also provided is a competency-oriented interview protocol to use to evaluate the skills, knowledge and other learned characteristics important to this job, as well as a general model for making a good decision from all sources of information.

The following results are based on your performance on standardized ability tests. They are presented as percentile comparisons to professional norms (people who, for the most part, have an education at or beyond the college undergraduate level) and to general population norms (people who, for the most part, have a high school education).

• The Thurstone Test of Mental Alertness is a measure of her language skills and her quantitative skills. It also provides an indication of her ability to shift quickly back and forth from one problem type to another.

• The Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal is a measure of her ability to analyze complex, multifaceted written information and to draw accurate conclusions. This capacity includes the ability to evaluate information and to recognize assumptions, facts, and situations where there is not enough information to arrive at a valid conclusion.

• The Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (Abstract Reasoning) is a measure of her ability to reason through complex, abstract, nonverbal information and to grasp new ideas. This capacity includes the ability to solve problems in new situations where one has little experience upon which to draw.

General Population Norms:   0%   100% Mental Alertness       Critical Thinking       Abstract Reasoning        Professional Norms:         Mental Alertness       Critical Thinking       Abstract Reasoning

 

Her critical thinking abilities appear to be as good as the typical professional and better than the average person. She should be able to understand most complex written problems, evaluate the relative merits of various interpretations of the information presented, and come to sound conclusions.

She should have little difficulty solving problems that involve complex, abstract information. She should also be quick to grasp new ideas and solve problems that are outside her usual experience.

Decisive Judgment Making good decisions in a timely and confident manner. Adapting To Change Adapting to changing situations and restructuring tasks and priorities as changes occur within the business and organization. Planning And Organizing Effectively organizing and planning work according to organizational needs by defining objectives and anticipating needs and priorities. Driving For Results Challenging, pushing the organization and themselves to excel and achieve. Managing Others Directing and leading others to accomplish organizational goals and objectives. Coaching And Developing Others Advising, assisting, mentoring and providing feedback to others to encourage and inspire the development of work-related competencies and long-term career growth. Motivating Others Inspiring others to perform well by actively conveying enthusiasm and a passion for doing a good job. Functional Acumen* Having the skills, knowledge and abilities necessary to be effective in the specific functional content of a job. Integrity* Upholding a high standard of fairness and ethics in everyday words and actions.

• For each personality characteristic, a distribution of possible scores (from less to more) is displayed in deciles (1-10% = 1st decile, 11-20% = 2nd decile, etc.) using ten graph blocks.

• This distribution is based on a professional norm group of approximately 40,000 respondents.

• The candidate's score on each personality characteristic is represented by the graphic character .

• Overlaid on the normative distribution, the colors and shading on the graph represent desirable and undesirable ranges on each characteristic for a particular competency.

• Ranges in which a characteristic may hinder are marked with least shading ( ).

• Ranges in which a characteristic may be a potential concern are marked in intermediate shading ( ).

• Ranges in which a characteristic may help are marked with most shading ( ).

• You will notice from the pattern of shadings that low scores are not necessarily bad and high scores are not necessarily good.

• Also notice that the Helps and Hinders ranges for a characteristic may differ by competency. For example, a higher level of assertiveness may be more desirable for one competency than another.

Making good decisions in a timely and confident manner.

Adapting to changing situations and restructuring tasks and priorities as changes occur within the business and organization.

Effectively organizing and planning work according to organizational needs by defining objectives and anticipating needs and priorities.

Challenging, pushing the organization and themselves to excel and achieve.

Directing and leading others to accomplish organizational goals and objectives.

Advising, assisting, mentoring and providing feedback to others to encourage and inspire the development of work-related competencies and long-term career growth.

Inspiring others to perform well by actively conveying enthusiasm and a passion for doing a good job.

For additional, more detailed information on conducting good behavior-based interviews, please visit the ASSESS managers resource website at https://www.bigby.com/systems/assessv2/System/Reports/www.bigby.com/systems/assessv2/resources/manager.

Interview Date: __________

Before the Interview

Review the Competency Model definitions and representative behaviors.

Review the candidate's resume and be familiar with his/her background and experience.

Review the candidate's ASSESS results.

Review the interview questions and additional personality probes.

During the interview, remember to:

• Use open-ended questions
• Ask probing follow-up questions
• Focus on specific examples and behaviors
• Postpone judgment: don't rely on your first impression

  
   

Start the interview by discussing the details of the candidate's educational and work history.

Walk me through your educational background.

Listen and probe for accomplishments, grades, how he/she chose college/major, classes he/she liked or disliked, involvement in outside activities, work experience during school, etc., and probe for how they relate to the job.

Walk me through your work history.

Listen and probe for milestones, accomplishments, relationships with co-workers and supervisors, tasks he/she liked or disliked, work environments he/she liked or disliked, reasons for leaving each job, etc. and probe for how prior experience has prepared him/her for this job.

NOTES:

Decisive Judgment:  Making good decisions in a timely and confident manner.

• Describe some of the decisions you have made recently that had important effects on your business or the people involved. How did you make your decisions? How did you balance the pressures of timeliness and making the right decision? Did you change your decision after making it? Why or why not?

Additional special probes based on ASSESS results:

• Tell me about a time when you decided to use an existing solution when a new or different approach would have been better? Why did this happen? (Is there an overreliance on past solutions?)

• Tell me about a time when you made a decision quickly, and it did not go the way you expected. What factors did you miss? (Is there too much emphasis on responsiveness at the expense of a quality decision?)

NOTES:  (details of the situation, actions by the candidate, and the resulting outcomes)

Adapting To Change:  Adapting to changing situations and restructuring tasks and priorities as changes occur within the business and organization.

• In your current and previous jobs, have your duties been relatively constant or have they changed frequently? What would you prefer? How much change would you like to have? Describe your best work environment and your worst.

Additional special probes based on ASSESS results:

• Tell me about recent changes you have experienced at work. Were they good ideas or bad? Why? (Is there a stubborn resistance to trying new things?)

• Tell me about a time when you felt frustrated by people making too many changes in your work requirements. What was the situation? How did you feel? What did you do? (Listen for an ability to adapt to change despite a strong need to be free from close control.)

• Tell me about a time when you had to completely break from your normal way of doing something because of a change. What happened and how did it affect you and your work? (Listen for a resistance to a change in routine.)

NOTES:  (details of the situation, actions by the candidate, and the resulting outcomes)

Planning And Organizing:  Effectively organizing and planning work according to organizational needs by defining objectives and anticipating needs and priorities.

• Tell me about a successful project or initiative that you had responsibility for planning and organizing. What did you do? Why was this project successful?

• Tell me about a project where you had responsibility for planning and organizing that did not go as smoothly. What did you do? What could you have done better?

Additional special probes based on ASSESS results:

• Describe a situation that illustrates the kind of techniques that you use to stay organized and focused in your own work. (Listen for an ability to keep work organized.)

• Tell me about a time when you had to coordinate and manage several projects at once. What was challenging? How did you prioritize? How successful were you? (Listen for difficulty juggling multiple tasks at once.)

NOTES:  (details of the situation, actions by the candidate, and the resulting outcomes)

Driving For Results:  Challenging, pushing the organization and themselves to excel and achieve.

• Describe a time when your group set and met an aggressive goal. What types of obstacles did you face? How did you overcome them?

• Describe a time when your group failed to meet an aggressive goal. Why did this happen?

Additional special probes based on ASSESS results:

• Tell me about one of your projects that had an aggressive deadline for completion. How did you get it done? (Listen for an ability to accomplish things quickly.)

• Describe two situations in which you were unable to thoroughly complete a project. What happened? Why? (Listen for an ability to follow-through on commitments.)

NOTES:  (details of the situation, actions by the candidate, and the resulting outcomes)

Managing Others:  Directing and leading others to accomplish organizational goals and objectives.

• (If not previously covered) Give me a history of your management experience. For each step along the way, tell me what your group did, how many people you managed and how you assigned work and organized the group to get the job done.

• Tell me how goals were set for the group and each of the individuals in the group for these situations? How did you manage people to achieve these goals?

• How do you discipline and reward people who work for you? Give me specific examples of both.

Additional special probes based on ASSESS results:

• Tell me about your poorest performing subordinates. Why do you think they struggle? What have you done to improve their performance? (Listen for a tendency to expect others to fail.)

• Give me several examples of positive feedback you have given to subordinates recently. Examples of negative feedback? What did you say? Why? (Was the negative feedback constructive or overly harsh?)

• Tell me about a time when your group had a tight deadline to meet and was successful. What did you do to ensure the deadline was met? What about a time when your group missed the deadline? What did you do to try to achieve the missed deadline? (Does the candidate have the energy level to set a good example and energize the activities of others?)

• Describe a situation where you, or others, thought you pushed your group too hard. How did it affect the group and their performance? Looking back, would you change how you handled the situation? (Listen for a tendency to be overly competitive to the detriment of group morale.)
  

NOTES:  (details of the situation, actions by the candidate, and the resulting outcomes)

Coaching And Developing Others:  Advising, assisting, mentoring and providing feedback to others to encourage and inspire the development of work-related competencies and long-term career growth.

• Tell me about a time when you successfully helped develop or coach an individual to reach their potential. What was the situation? What did you do? What difficulties did you overcome to help this individual?

• Tell me what things you have done in the past to ensure people who worked with you or for you were given the resources and opportunities to grow.

• Describe those aspects of your experience, knowledge or background that are valuable to the development of others in your organization. What do you have to offer, and how willing are you to share this with others?

Additional special probes based on ASSESS results:

• Tell me about people you have chosen to help or coach at work. How are they different from the ones you did not or would not help? Give some specific examples. (Can he bring a positive outlook on people to a coaching situation?)

• What is your approach to helping someone learn something you know? Use a current example to tell me what kinds of things you say or do. How have others responded to your help? (Will the candidate be willing to extend himself or herself to help others?)

NOTES:  (details of the situation, actions by the candidate, and the resulting outcomes)

Motivating Others:  Inspiring others to perform well by actively conveying enthusiasm and a passion for doing a good job.

• Give me two examples of situations in which you have had to motivate people to perform. What were the circumstances? How would you describe your motivational style?

• Tell me about a time when you have had to motivate people in different ways or use different methods of motivation based on the person or situation.

Additional special probes based on ASSESS results:

• Tell me about some of your co-workers or subordinates. Which ones are doing a good job and which ones are not? Why? What have you done or could you do to change the poor performers? (Listen for a tendency to be overly negative and faultfinding with little expectation of improvement.)

• Describe a time when you needed to inspire others to work harder, accomplish more, in a short timeframe. How did you do this? (Can the candidate exert the extra effort when it is needed?)

NOTES:  (details of the situation, actions by the candidate, and the resulting outcomes)

Functional Acumen*:  Having the skills, knowledge and abilities necessary to be effective in the specific functional content of a job.

• Please describe for me how your education and training have prepared you for this job. What courses have you taken and how do they apply to this job?

• Please describe your previous job experience and how it prepares you for the technical requirements of this job. Try to give specific examples of what you have learned and how you learned it.

• What are you doing on an on-going basis to maintain and improve your technical skills and abilities?

NOTES:  (details of the situation, actions by the candidate, and the resulting outcomes)

Integrity*:  Upholding a high standard of fairness and ethics in everyday words and actions.

• Describe for me an ethical business dilemma that you have faced. What were the circumstances? What did you do? Why?

• Tell me about two situations in which you have seen others be unfair or dishonest. What happened? What would you have done differently? Why?

NOTES:  (details of the situation, actions by the candidate, and the resulting outcomes)

Your goal is to bring the interview smoothly to a close.

Ensure that the candidate feels that he/she has been able to give you a complete and accurate picture of him/herself.

Explain the next steps in the process and timeframe as appropriate.

Thank the candidate for his/her time and close the interview.

Good selection decisions require careful consideration of all the available information (education, training, experience, skills, abilities, personality, etc.) from as many different credible sources as possible (interviews, reference checks, background checks, ASSESS results, etc.) against a clear specification of what is needed or desired in the job.

Use the following chart to evaluate the candidate on each of the competencies of the Model. Carefully consider each competency before making your overall judgement.