How can I identify those existing employees or external candidates that are going to make a difference to the performance of my organisation?

The investment and risk involved in hiring, promoting or developing employees is not to be taken lightly. How can I make sure I am only considering the best applicants for the job? Even friends and relations can surprise us: how can we really get to know the total stranger who's just applied for a job?

Knowing a candidate/employee can do a job is one thing. We enable you to dig deeper.  It takes time to discover the all-important X-factors: will they grow with the company? ; can they contribute over and above the job description requirements? ; are they future senior managers? ; do they fit? ; will they stay? How do you unearth these attributes early on in the selection phase?

Proven assessments provide this type of information. Our range is state of the art:

• Ability testing to help identify high performance in the tasks that star employees excel at: weighing up evidence; evaluating arguments; making decisions
• Personality questionnaires that illuminate how people to prefer to work, how they work most effectively and how their behaviours affect colleagues, partners and customers

Below, we’ll show you what we can offer and then how we administer the process and the technology used.

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Our range of assessments

All of our tools can be used for selection as well as workplace assessment.

WGCTA

The Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal assesses the individual's capability for critical thinking - a discrete skill distinct from, but not independent of, overall intelligence. Critical thinking is the ability to recognise that a problem exists and to look for evidence to solve it. It is the ability to assess this evidence in a logical way in order to determine new knowledge and direction. But far more than that, it is seen as a great skill required of all leaders today. As such this makes an ideal assessment at the manager / senior manager level. Internationally recognised, the robust standardisation, reliability and validity has ensured that this tool is one of the most trusted instruments available

RANRA

Rust's Advanced Numerical Reasoning Appraisal is a companion test to the Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (critical reasoning) and measures higher level numerical reasoning skills for use with those of high potential (graduates to senior managerial staff). It can of course be used as a stand alone tool when numerical reasoning alone needs to be assessed. RANRA assesses an individual's capability for deduction, interpretation and evaluation but is not a computational maths test, i.e. it measures sophisticated numerical reasoning skills rather than a check on basic mathematical capability. It provides an insight into an important area but one which is traditionally difficult to assess and can be used alongside the critical reasoning assessment of the Watson Glaser.

The Combined W-GCTA RANRA is a test of critical thinking and numerical reasoning, both of which are known to play a key role in managerial success. Assessments such as these have been found to be strong predictors of work performance because your ability to solve problems effectively is important to workplace performance. 

DAT

The Differential Aptitude Test (General Abilities Battery) (DAT GAB) considers two types of reasoning to support the assessment of potential whether this is for personal development, further education or a new job role. It includes measures of verbal and numerical reasoning. This battery assesses across the general population ability range. Highly regarded as a measure of reasoning capability and, with norm groups focusing on school and college leaving exams, this instrument is suitable for assessing for junior or administrative roles.

Orpheus

Orpheus is a broad-spectrum, work-based personality questionnaire that offers something quite different to other questionnaires. The first set of scales, based on the 'Big Five' model, measures durable personality traits, with a second set of “attitudinal” scales based on a model of integrity (these are the aspects of personality that are likely to change according to context and time of life). This combination tool can be valuable as it provides insight into an individual's typical preferences and relates them to their current attitudes to work. This information can assist you to understand how others see you in your role and how those with different personality traits may respond to you. Your  Orpheus report interprets your scores for the five scales of Fellowship, Authority, Conformity, Emotion and Detail. These scales assess the social, organisational, intellectual, emotional and perceptual aspects of personality respectively.

Developed entirely in the UK by Professor John Rust, the eminent British psychometrician, ensures that that you can be confident in the robustness of this tool
An additional report can be generated from this questionnaire for use within a team environment (Orpheus TPQ)

Important Note:
Orpheus scores should not be interpreted in isolation. Account should be taken of the
respondent's work history, social and educational background, present employment, future job aspirations and reasons for taking the test. Other sources of information, such as interview or Curriculum Vitae, should also be considered. Orpheus should only be used by an appropriately qualified professional.

Intrinsic

IntrinsicTM identifies what drives or motivates you.  This information can be helpful in identifying the most appropriate type of work environment that will help you maximise your talents.

Whereas ability tests and personality instruments provide a basis for assessing what the individual can do for the organization, IntrinsicTM focuses on the individual's priorities and what the organization can do to be sure that employees will be motivated to perform. As it identifies an individual's ideal role from a motivational standpoint, it can be used to determine whether a specific role will give them that 'buzz' to work well. It does not measure 'extrinsic' motivation - drivers such as salary or bonuses as these can be assessed during an interview.

The first part of the instrument therefore assesses what individuals want out of the situation, dealing with areas of work to satisfy particular needs. The second part assesses how they like to operate in their careers generally, dealing with the rate at which they will progress towards achieving their goals. Understanding the area of work with which individuals will identify and the level of work at which they will encounter an appropriate degree of challenge may be considered an essential prerequisite for all attempts at motivating staff.

Most attempts at assessing motivational tendencies focus on what is needed to get people to work harder, but this will be of little use if the area and level of the job are not a good match for them. Individuals head- hunted for jobs that are not a good match may perform well on the strength of their ability and personality and work hard in response to motivators such as praise and good perks, but they will inevitably find that the job is just not right for them and their level of performance, satisfaction, and commitment to the organisation will gradually decline. IntrinsicTM aims to define the kind of environment in which the motivators are going to work through recognising the importance of ‘being where you want to be’.

Both development and selection reports are available. The Selection Report includes a High Potential Motivation Chart to indicate high flyer potential.

Giotto

Giotto is a measure of integrity that has been designed for use in the workplace. Integrity is defined here as the conflict and balance between our instincts (ie vices) and our ability to reason (ie our virtues).

Designed using a forced-choice format, Giotto recognises that life is a series of choices and actions that are made in the context within which we are operating and therefore, our 'integrity' will change over time and across situations. Giotto can be particularly useful for selection and in the development of individuals - especially in ethics training. The test indicates particular attitudes to an individual's work-based behaviour that can then be further investigated during the interview process. It provides an insight into an important but a traditionally difficult to assess area.

Talent in a Box

Talent in a Box - Selection of general level staff combines into one assessment package:

• DAT
• Orpheus
• Intrinsic

to provide you with a comprehensive assessment battery of tools investigating reasoning ability, personality and motivation. It is ideal for assessing clerical and administrative roles.

Summary

Features common to all tests

Delivery options
Fully outsourced to be managed by McCullough Associates or, providing that the user meets the accreditation requirements, can be managed in-house.
Customisable options
Can be branded to meet your requirements.
Accreditation requirement
Require BPS Level A and Level B accreditation or McCullough Associates provide feedback on the report at an additional cost.
Recognition as a high quality tool
These tools conform to British Psychological Society and American Psychological Association guidelines on ability and personality test construction and use.

Process of administration

On receipt of your instructions, we administer the assessment process as follows:

• The delegates receive an email with a link to the test centre. Instructions to the tests can be included on this fully customisable page
• The candidate clicks through to a test, completes it, is automatically brought back to the test centre and prompted to complete the next test
• The test centre administrator (McCullough Associates or the client) can manage all elements of the interview and selection process. All candidate details, test results, and roles applied for are listed together
• Candidate data is available as a report immediately after tests completed
• Candidate receives face to face feedback

The Technology

The online system is a seamless interface between candidate and your organisation

• Candidate sees: emailed links to surveys and online test centre
• Administrator sees: full admin system – adding/deleting candidates, sending reminders, accessing reports
• Emphasis on security of data
• Simple, user friendly administration system
• Test status reporting – to ensure the credibility of offsite test completion
• Real time reporting – candidate data available immediately after test completion

Click here to return to the main Assessment & Selection page.