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Old 26 June 2017, 08:29 PM   #1
Abdullah71601
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Any Birkman Method experts here?

Does anyone use the Birkman at work? Have you found it to be an effective tool for predicting employee behavior?
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Old 26 June 2017, 09:38 PM   #2
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Been involved with several Psych surveys. Had one guy who was rated as "Be Aware".

It was funny, they guy knew how he was evaluated. He said, "the test asked if I thought people were out to get me", "I said yes, because they are". We debated if he was paranoid or just being honest. Psychology can be very hit and miss in it's evaluation of people.
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Old 27 June 2017, 01:16 AM   #3
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My company uses the assessment for managers. I have access to my team's assessments.

I'm curious if people feel the assessment is sufficiently reliable to adjust my approach to team members.
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Old 27 June 2017, 01:30 AM   #4
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Any Birkman Method experts here?

I'm not as I rely 100% on the Monman method.
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Old 27 June 2017, 03:56 AM   #5
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Have never used Birkman. We used to use a test called an SPQ Gold. Gave you a green/yellow/red light in a number of different categories. Being in sales we were looking for people that were "yielders" meaning they wouldn't even try to sell until they knew everything and those that had a red light on call reluctance.

Not sure what field you are in Abdullah but In my opinion those types of tests are good tool to have to guide coaching sessions and to adjust your management style to fit your employees personality as much as you can.


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Old 27 June 2017, 06:30 AM   #6
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Have never used Birkman. We used to use a test called an SPQ Gold. Gave you a green/yellow/red light in a number of different categories. Being in sales we were looking for people that were "yielders" meaning they wouldn't even try to sell until they knew everything and those that had a red light on call reluctance.

Not sure what field you are in Abdullah but In my opinion those types of tests are good tool to have to guide coaching sessions and to adjust your management style to fit your employees personality as much as you can.


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Thanks. My primary concern is whether the method is robust enough to filter dishonest answers on the test. People often answer the way they want to be perceived, rather than how they really feel.
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Old 27 June 2017, 06:48 AM   #7
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Originally Posted by Abdullah71601 View Post
Does anyone use the Birkman at work? Have you found it to be an effective tool for predicting employee behavior?
we use one called PI (predictive index) model.

its a guide more than anything.

and for a laugh, my partner got me to do one for fun, and as a result i shouldn't even be in my role!

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Old 27 June 2017, 11:58 PM   #8
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I don't personally put any stock in them, because most everyone tries to answer in the way they feel they would need to be perceived in order to get hired/evaluated. I've written several of them in my day and they never got in the way of my getting selected.

Give me 30 minutes with someone and I'll have a more accurate read on them than some multiple choice test could ever give me.
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Old 28 June 2017, 12:09 AM   #9
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I don't personally put any stock in them, because most everyone tries to answer in the way they feel they would need to be perceived in order to get hired/evaluated. I've written several of them in my day and they never got in the way of my getting selected.

Give me 30 minutes with someone and I'll have a more accurate read on them than some multiple choice test could ever give me.
Kind of what I was saying above.
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Old 28 June 2017, 04:10 AM   #10
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I don't personally put any stock in them, because most everyone tries to answer in the way they feel they would need to be perceived in order to get hired/evaluated. I've written several of them in my day and they never got in the way of my getting selected.

Give me 30 minutes with someone and I'll have a more accurate read on them than some multiple choice test could ever give me.
Exactly. Every one of these so called personality tests are published by someone trying to sell something to someone else.

Talk to people one on one. Pay attention to what's going on in your sphere of influence and you won't need these tests.
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Old 1 July 2017, 08:14 AM   #11
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I've never personally used Birkman but there are a lot of similar types of tools available in the marketplace. At our company they seem to come and go.
I have used the results alongside my own observations to determine how to best develop my team but never depended too heavily on the profiles and reports they generated. The reports are only as good as the degree of honesty when the test was taken.
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Old 1 July 2017, 08:16 AM   #12
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Originally Posted by Abdullah71601 View Post
Does anyone use the Birkman at work? Have you found it to be an effective tool for predicting employee behavior?
Is it the pi index? We use it in interviewing. It's pretty accurate. Although my management style doesn't vary that much between employees.
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Old 1 July 2017, 02:05 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Abdullah71601 View Post
Thanks. My primary concern is whether the method is robust enough to filter dishonest answers on the test. People often answer the way they want to be perceived, rather than how they really feel.


There are a few out there (the names escape me) that do return inconclusive results. More times than not, it's a result found in people trying to game the system.

With that said, it's simply as another tool that some people and companies take too literally.
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Old 1 July 2017, 02:16 PM   #14
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I don't personally put any stock in them, because most everyone tries to answer in the way they feel they would need to be perceived in order to get hired/evaluated. I've written several of them in my day and they never got in the way of my getting selected.

Give me 30 minutes with someone and I'll have a more accurate read on them than some multiple choice test could ever give me.


You've written several of these? I don't think you know anything about these types of assessments. Most have a science behind them that you will never know or begin to comprehend. They are quite consistent and identifying key desirable traits and over the course of 100+ questions, can flag the BSer's

Are there good people that get flagged and are there bad people that get hired? Yes but the number is far lower than without these types of tools.
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Old 1 July 2017, 02:42 PM   #15
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Many of these tests ask the same question in different ways and at different intensity levels.

Dishonest answers can be seen be a knowledgeable evaluator.
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Old 1 July 2017, 04:05 PM   #16
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The only "test" that I have ever seen to be reliable is the one where a potential employee gets a months trial in the job and it is made very clear in writing that it is a trial only and there should be no expectation that one would automatically progress to permanent employment at the cessation of the trial.
I have been on selection panels that made disastrous selections based on Applications, referee reports, and interviews. So has everyone else I know who has sat on selection panels.
Applications lie, Referees frequently lie, and lousy operators interview really well whilst good operators often interview poorly.
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Old 1 July 2017, 08:18 PM   #17
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My company uses these as an employee management tool, not a pre-hire screen. Employees do not have to release their results to their managers, but all of mine have.

I answered the questions honestly when I took it, but I'm not sure how often people adjust their responses in an attempt to craft an "ideal" personality for their workplace. I would think that developers of these tests would be well aware of this tendency and would have designed the test to ferret that out.

In my experience, leaders are made, not born. I've had a lot of leadership training and education on workplace and team psychology. I can assess team members very accurately. But, I'm open to tools that drill deeper into personality traits that improve performance. I'm not familiar with the Birkman methodology and don't want to spin my wheels on it if it can't filter dishonest responses.
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Old 1 July 2017, 09:32 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KDS777 View Post
I don't personally put any stock in them, because most everyone tries to answer in the way they feel they would need to be perceived in order to get hired/evaluated. I've written several of them in my day and they never got in the way of my getting selected.

Give me 30 minutes with someone and I'll have a more accurate read on them than some multiple choice test could ever give me.
Don't people do the same thing in an interview?
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Old 2 July 2017, 12:05 AM   #19
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I'm a big supporter of the Birkman tests. I've used them in two organizations, and have been impressed with the results both times. The career "prediction" (can't remember the exact title) was especially impressive. For example, out of over 200 options (and it ranks all of them), it predicted my individual career to be in law, law enforcement administration, or telecommunication administration. My actual career has been a 911 administrator, and a senior leader with a national ISP. The career I was least likely to pursue for whatever reason was pharmaceutical sales. (Shrug)
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Old 2 July 2017, 12:51 AM   #20
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Renato........

Yeah.......I've written about 3-4 of them a few years back when I was job hunting. Don't have a high opinion of them at all. Didn't design them or administer them either, so, my only exposure is as a guinea pig during the hiring process.

Anything that is based in pseudo-science and marketed by HR consultants is about as reliable as cutting off the head of a chicken, swirling it around your head while chanting unintelligibly, and throwing beads in the sand to read the pattern.

Blufinz52.........

You bet it does.........and that is where it should stay. I can't tell if a test is filled with lies or someone just misinterpreted the question a different way. And neither can the test designer. Body language, voice inflection, and other tells are also very obvious 1-1 and these are things you don't see on paper. Having said that what and how you ask certain questions and the resultant non-verbal responses are worth their weight in gold.

Of course the pathological liar will ace the test and the interview regardless. But most of them already work for the world's central banks or as finance ministers.

Abdullah.......

From my experience it's easy to spot the patterns and overlap built into the test questions to supposedly detect this. Just my two cents.........YMMV.

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Old 2 July 2017, 01:23 AM   #21
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Any Birkman Method experts here?

Quote:
Originally Posted by KDS777 View Post
Renato........

Yeah.......I've written about 3-4 of them a few years back when I was job hunting. Don't have a high opinion of them at all. Didn't design them or administer them either, so, my only exposure is as a guinea pig during the hiring process.

Anything that is based in pseudo-science and marketed by HR consultants is about as reliable as cutting off the head of a chicken, swirling it around your head while chanting unintelligibly, and throwing beads in the sand to read the pattern.



You mean you be taken them. Saying you wrote them is a totally different thing

It's not pseudo science and your post is really just identifying your inability to grasp the concept. I bet you reject sales training programs too
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Old 2 July 2017, 02:46 AM   #22
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I'm a big supporter of the Birkman tests. I've used them in two organizations, and have been impressed with the results both times. The career "prediction" (can't remember the exact title) was especially impressive. For example, out of over 200 options (and it ranks all of them), it predicted my individual career to be in law, law enforcement administration, or telecommunication administration. My actual career has been a 911 administrator, and a senior leader with a national ISP. The career I was least likely to pursue for whatever reason was pharmaceutical sales. (Shrug)
Mine was reasonably accurate, but missed the mark on stresses. It did get five of the first six career choices correct, if you assume a hobby could be a career choice.

I'll take a deep dive into my team's assessments. People often mask needs very well at this point in their career. Insight into what makes them successful is a very useful tool.
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Old 2 July 2017, 03:04 AM   #23
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Abdullah.......

Never got to see my results.

Renato.......

Your misunderstanding of the written word in my post was exactly what I was getting at. I grasp the concept and am saying it is bunk science.

We'll have to agree to disagree about their usefulness. At least we can do that.
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