General information

Don't take assume careful interviewing and reference checking will get you the right staff. Correct recruitment is your most important job because your business is only as good as the people you gather around you. Where key staff are concerned, a ten percent difference in ability at the top of your pyramid equals a huge difference in operational efficiency at the bottom of your pyramid — where it counts. With customer service staff, a team selected with genuine willingness to be of service can translate to huge amounts of income.

Over the years we have learned the shortcomings of interview based recruitment and staff selection the hard way. No matter how skilled you are, it is still a subjective and risky process. The people you interview are trying to sell themselves and are generally behaving in an unusual manner in order to win a job or a promotion.

We first encountered job aptitude testing in the fast food industry in the late 1960's. It proved to be a very valuable tool that helped companies who used it to lower their management and supervisory staff turnover and build the quality of their people. Since then, the aptitude tests available have become more sophisticated and with the marrying of computer technology, easier to use. We use them for all our own internal recruiting jobs as a matter of course. They have proved their worth many, many times over. The tests we use have undergone a rigorous validation process (and come with full validation information).

More information on aptitude testing

For management and supervisory staff

The test we use for management and supervisory staff is called The Achiever (formerly called The Profile). Candidates either come to our office or we go into their workplace, and they are supervised to sit a strictly timed, 45 minute, written test. The test results are formatted into a profile report.

Reports can be customised to suit various purposes. They can either be:

1. general;
2. for recruitment;
3. for training and developing the person;
4. for managing the person.

You can specify what you require.

What does The Achiever measure?

The Achiever measures 6 Mental Aptitudes (Mental Alertness, Business Terms, Memory Recall, Vocabulary, Perception and Mechanical Interest) and 10 Personality Dimensions (Nervous Tension, Character Strength, Work Habits, Sociability, Emotional Maturity, Dominance, Competitiveness, Stamina, Naivete, Work Motivation).

What will The Profile reveal?

The Achiever will reveal the mental aptitude and personality dimensions of an applicant or employee. It will help you to assess whether or not that person is suitable for a specific position or company. Among other things, the test will tell you whether a person will be dependable or unpredictable; is easy or hard to train; will follow or disregard rules and procedures; can make decisions or procrastinates; can give or take orders; will talk too much and sell too little; can be motivated and how; can do boring repetitive tasks; can work on their own or with other people; can understand complicated tasks or equipment; is organised or disorganised; is impatient or tolerant (see sample test report).

For customer service staff

The test we use for customer service staff is called The SQ-11 (Service Questionaire, Version 2). Candidates sit a 20 minute, written test and the results are interpreted by computer to produce an aptitude report.

What does the SQ-II measure?

Specifically the SQ-II will measure the following traits:

drive and energy:

measures a person’s quickness, sense of urgency and action orientation. This scale is related to how a supervisor ranks an employee’s productivity.

acceptance of authority:

measures the extent to which a person accepts lines of authority and the structure of the organisation. It reflects a person’s willingness to follow rules and regulations and work systematically in a structured environment.

sociability:

measures a person’s willingness and ability to interact with others, to be communicative and to initiate conversations.

emotional consistency:

measures a person’s consistency of mood, tolerance for frustration, optimism and tendency to maintain composure under pressure.

accommodation:

measures a person’s willingness to work alongside others and deal with people in a friendly and co-operative manner exhibiting a responsiveness to their needs and considerations for their feelings (see the sample report).

How to organise aptitude testing for (victorian businesses only)

Individual Testing (single people)

Call us, arrange a suitable time and we'll either come to you or you can send your staff to us, depending on your location and the number of staff you want tested. We'll need to know the job or position the person is applying for (a copy of the job description would be great).

Test results will be sent back to you by confidential courier in a bound presentation document within 24 hours of testing.

Prices (for single tests):

PURPOSE	TEST TYPE	LOCATION	PRICE (AUD inc. GST)
Management & supervisory testing	The Profile	Your business (Melb metro)	$495
		Our office	$385
Customer service & sales staff	SQ-11	Your business (Melb metro)	$209
		Our office	$132

Prices for bulk testing or in house purchase of testing system : Please call us: (03) 9813 3311

Purchase the testing system for in house use

These testing systems are available for purchase in bulk to use in-house.
Please call us on (03) 9813 3311 to discuss your needs.

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