Predictive Indexing & Building The Right Hiring Profiles

What Is Predictive Indexing?

Predictive Index (PI) is a workforce assessment tool that helps employers identify and understand the behavioral traits of their employees and job candidates. It provides insights into their motivations and needs, and can help predict how they will behave and perform in various work situations. With over 60 years of research and development, PI has become a trusted resource for companies looking to make data-driven hiring decisions.

The foundation of PI is the identification of four primary personality traits, also known as "behavioral drives": Dominance, Extraversion, Patience, and Formality. Each of these drives falls on a spectrum and has a corresponding adjective to describe it:

• Dominance: Assertive vs. Accommodating

• Extraversion: Outgoing vs. Reserved

• Patience: Patient vs. Urgent

• Formality: Formal vs. Informal

By understanding a candidate's primary behavioral drives, you can better predict how they will fit into your company culture and perform in a particular role.

One of the most significant benefits of using PI during the hiring process is that it helps to identify which candidate profiles are most likely to succeed in a particular position. For example, if you have identified that top-performing sales representatives at your company typically have high dominance and extraversion scores, you can use PI to screen candidates for those same traits. This replication of top-performing profiles can increase the probability of success in new hires, reducing time to review and increasing employee tenure.

In this blog post, I will explore the many benefits of using PI during the hiring process, including how it can help organizations replicate top-performing profiles and increase employee tenure. I will also provide real-world examples of how PI has helped organizations improve their hiring practices and build more effective teams.

Understanding the Predictive Index

Before diving into the benefits of using PI, it's important to understand what the tool is and how it works. PI is a behavioral assessment tool that measures four key factors: dominance, extraversion, patience, and formality. These factors are combined to create a unique behavioral profile for each individual, which can then be used to evaluate their fit for a particular role.

In addition to these four factors, PI also measures cognitive ability, which is a predictor of an individual's potential to learn and succeed in a given role. By combining these factors, PI creates a comprehensive picture of each candidate's strengths, weaknesses, and potential for success in a particular role.

The Benefits of Using Predictive Index

Replicating top-performing profiles

One of the most significant benefits of using PI during the hiring process is that it allows organizations to replicate top-performing profiles. By identifying the key traits and behaviors that are common among the most successful individuals in a given role, organizations can use PI to screen candidates and identify those who are most likely to succeed.

For example, let's say that a sales organization has identified a group of top-performing sales reps who consistently exceed their targets. Using PI, the organization can analyze the behavioral profiles of these individuals and identify the key traits and behaviors that they all share. This information can then be used to create a "success profile" for the role, which can be used to screen candidates and identify those who are most likely to succeed.

Improving employee tenure

Another key benefit of using PI during the hiring process is that it can help organizations improve employee tenure. By identifying candidates who are a strong fit for a particular role, organizations can reduce turnover and improve employee satisfaction.

For example, let's say that an organization has identified that individuals who score high on the patience factor are more likely to succeed in a particular role. By using PI to screen candidates and identify those who score high on patience, the organization can improve employee tenure by hiring individuals who are more likely to stay with the organization long-term.

By hiring candidates with the right behavioral drives for the role and your company culture, you can improve retention rates and reduce turnover. Employees who feel like they fit in with their colleagues and are comfortable in their role are more likely to stay with the company long-term.

Speeding up the hiring process

Using PI can also help organizations speed up the hiring process. By providing a comprehensive picture of each candidate's strengths and weaknesses, PI allows organizations to make more informed hiring decisions quickly.

For example, let's say that an organization needs to hire a new sales rep quickly to fill an open position. By using PI to screen candidates and identify those who are a strong fit for the role, the organization can quickly identify a shortlist of candidates who are likely to succeed. This can help the organization make a hiring decision more quickly, reducing the time and resources required to fill the position.

Once you have a pool of applicants, you can use PI to screen candidates and narrow down the list to those who best match the behavioral drives required for the role. This screening process can significantly speed up the hiring process, saving you time and resources.

Reducing bias in the hiring process

Another significant benefit of using PI is that it can help reduce bias in the hiring process. By providing a comprehensive picture of each candidate's strengths and weaknesses, PI can help organizations evaluate candidates objectively and reduce the impact of unconscious bias.

For example, let's say that an organization is looking to hire a new marketing manager. Without PI, the hiring manager may unconsciously favor candidates who share similar backgrounds or experiences. However, by using Predictive Index success profile, companies can identify individuals who show the right behavioural and cognitive traits to be successful. 

With PI, you can make more objective hiring decisions based on data rather than intuition. This reduces the risk of making bad hires and can lead to more successful outcomes.

In conclusion, Predictive Index is a powerful tool for improving the hiring process and making data-driven hiring decisions. By identifying the behavioral traits that lead to success in a particular role, you can attract qualified candidates, reduce time to review, and increase employee tenure. PI can also help reduce the risk of making bad hires and improve retention rates, leading to a more successful workforce.

SP Data digital combines the powerful use of Predictive Indexing, along side their AI Algorithms and resumes grading system to support fortune 500 clients across North American refine their hiring processes, built successful hiring profiles based on data and science taking into account experience, skills, behavioural and cognitive aspects as well as leverages performance and turn over data to consistently update hiring profiles as their employee base continues to grow.