People Strategies for Business

An Authorized Business Partner of Profiles International

Frequently Asked Questions:

What is Job Fit?

As described in "Right Person - Right Job, Guess or Know" by Chuck Russell, there are three components to the selection process: Company Fit, Skills Match, and Job Fit. Company Fit is largely determined in the interview - attitude, mannerisms, ethics, etc. Skills match is determined through the resume - certifications, experience, work history, references, etc.

Job Fit is the degree to which the candidate's cognitive abilities, occupational interests, and behavioral traits fit those required by the job. Cognitive ablilities relates to how, and at what pace, does a person learn new things. Occupational interests relates to whether a person prefers to work with people, information, or things. Behavioral traits are those measurable characteristics that determine how a person will react in a given situation. Shaped over many years, these traits show a person's ability to function as part of a team, or close a sale, or handle just about any aspect of a given job. The Profile XT from Profiles International is the leading assessment instrument in the industry today to measure Job Fit.

How long does an assessment take to administer and when do I get the results?

Depending on the assessment, it can take as little as 15-20 minutes or as much as 50-70 minutes. Our assessments are administered either online via our Virtual Assessment Center or paper/pencil. When taken online, the results are available immediately. The individual receives a report as does the Administrator within your organization.

What is validation and why should I care?

Validation refers to how accurately a given assessment measures what it claims to measure. All of Profiles International's assessments have very high validity scores. Each of our assessments has a companion Technical Manual which documents how the assessment was designed and built, how it was validated, and how it's reliability was established.

Are assessments legal?

Yes. The Department of Labor published a document that addresses this very issue. To view and print the entire document, click here . Our assessments meet or exceed each of the thirteen specifications the Department of Labor recommends when using assessments.

The important point here is in the consistent application of the assessment. It is not necessary to test everyone. It is not necessary to test everyone within the same job category. It is necessary to test everyone who reaches the same point in the process where tests and assessments are used. Profiles International's assessments comply with all EEOC, ADA, Civil Rights and all other Federal and State laws and regulations.

But more important - if you're not using assessments, you are heightening your legal exposure. Assessments offer a fair, objective, equal means of determining an individual's job qualifications. To simply utilize interviews, resumes, and references is highly subjective. In fact, to potentially put a person in a job where the likelihood of success is "hoped for" is not fair either - to the individual or the company. Our assessments enable you to predict a person's likelihood of success, and it is then that you will begin to realize all the Benefits of having the right people in the right jobs.

What's different about Profiles International's assessments?

Our assessments were all designed and built after 1991 - incorporating the requirements mandated by the 1991 Civil Rights Act legislation and the 1990 ADA. They are current. Many assessments in use today are 20 - 30+ years old and have not kept pace with society.
Our assessments were designed for business use, and validated by business people, not students.
Our assessments utilize state-of-the-art psychometrics and are continually updated and re-validated.
Web-based technology means that our clients do not have to install any software, buy additional hardware, etc. If you have an internet connection, you are able to use our assessments. We can have you up and running with your own Virtual Assessment Center in a matter of minutes - without having to burden your IT staff.
Reports? Many companies charge additional fees for each additional report. For instance, the Profile XT has eight available reports. You can run/print each of these reports as many times as you like at no additional charge.
Our assessments require no specialized training or certification to administer or interpret. All our reports are easy to understand, written in plain english, or spanish, with no psycho-babble!
We have the widest variety of assessments available from one company - from pre-hire to employee development, to management development, with the same look-and-feel.
Over 25,000 clients and growing - which translates into 1 million+ Profiles International assessments taken worldwide.

Can assessments be used with existing employees?

Absolutely. Using Job Fit (job match patterns) assessments can be used to identify specific gaps in an individual's job match pattern and specific training can be put in place to help narrow those gaps, and in turn, improve performance.

Assessments are also used as an extremely effective method for Succession Planning. Knowing the Job Match Pattern for a 'Director of Client Services' enables an organization to select the right individual to fill that position, or it can also assist in identifying certain individuals that could be developed over time to eventually move into management.

Our Checkpoint 360 is an industry-leading management development assessment. It has been said that people don't leave companies, they leave management. There is no such thing as the perfect manager and the Checkpoint 360 used in concert with the SkillBuilder is a state-of-the-art "continuous improvement" program. The better your management team's people skills, the more time they'll have to focus on the real task at hand - business.

Aren't these assessments basically personality tests?

No. While behavioral characteristics are a component of our assessments, we also evaluate an individual's thinking style and occupational interests. Personality tests are popular and even fun to take. But most personality tests tend to classify individuals as a certain "type" or "style" - driver, amiable, expressive, ENFJ, etc. - and are very good at helping understand how to best communicate with each "type". While this is helpful, they lack the precision needed to make serious business decisions. These tests do not take Job Fit into consideration, and "are based upon behaviorism or behavioral style theory, a concept which is no longer supported in mainstream psychology." ("Right Person - Right Job, Guess or Know", Chuck Russell, 1995)

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