don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

Profiling has a bad image. Most people, for instance, have negative opinions about racial profiling. Yet, on this controversial subject as with others, the stands people take very much depend on where they sit. For instance, African-Americans, who are often victims of RACIAL profiling, nevertheless favor its use in selective instances, such as to screen young men of Middle Eastern descent at airports! What many people may not realize is that profiling is done as a matter of course in corporate America, and few have any problems with it. It is done to identify job candidates most likely to succeed. It is big business and likely to become bigger. In fact, a human resource manager who does NOT use profiling tools might not be exercising due diligence in the conduct of his/her duties. Maybe the time has come to look closely at ways to apply profiling technology in the wellness field.

Would profiling help to identify wellness promoters who would be most effective in varied health promotion roles? I think it might. Who are the people likely to make the greatest impact in helping others change and sustain desired behaviors? I don't think we know! Does the hiring process, dreaded by so many managers, have to be as pleasant as undergoing root canal work? I'm sure it does not. There IS a better way -- and profiling may be part of it.

If you were faced with the challenge of hiring a person to manage or lead a wellness program, wouldn't you want all relevant insights about the candidate’s behavioral characteristics, within reasonable time and financial constraints? The payoffs of effective candidate selection are obvious, so it makes sense to create effective and efficient methods to achieve a good fit between employer and employee. If doing so leads to improved retention and job satisfaction rates, then profiling for wellness would be a very good thing. It certainly would lower costs. Better to focus resources on doing what needs to be done to promote healthier, more fulfilling lifestyles than on the frustrating processes of interviews, orientations and all the rest attendant upon a continuous stream of new hires.

One key to an effective recruitment system in any profession is to have a profile of top performers in that field. West Point and the military academies surely know what they want in a military officer, professional sports teams understand their needs and companies that sell stuff have created quite specific profiles of the success leaders in their business. Why should it be any less vital to have an understanding of top performance characteristics in the business of promoting exceptional lifestyles? It is not. Yet, no systematic profile of wellness performers has been collected to date. It may be time to compile one. This would enable a database profile of traits and work habits of best performers that would be invaluable for recruitment purposes. Such findings could be used to develop questions that would reveal the presence or absence of personality types suited to unique health promotion situations. Profiling would remove the guesswork and show if candidates possess traits tied to success for a particular wellness situation. Other uses of the data collected, at least in traditional settings, would allow for more productive pairings, easier connections when people with odd dispositions must be matched, and insights on ways to manage employees for maximum effectiveness

In summary, profiling in wellness disciplines would encourage better job fits. Some health enhancement type job employers might need what, in the sales trade are called, "hunter" types, whereas others might prefer recruits who fit "farmer/gatherer-like" personality standards. All employers with benchmarks of their best performers can choose and accurately identify candidates with varying degrees of desired qualities. For instance, aggressiveness (better at handling rejection and closing deals) and consultative qualities (better at managing customer concerns, following a specific sales process and following up) are characteristics that can be identified quite easily and shown to be strong or weak in any given candidate. The report generated provides a revealing graph and narrative of applicant strengths and potential challenges. These reports enable the recruiter to pinpoint qualities required for a given profession. For instance, for sales jobs, the profile has been designed to reveal a person's level of drive, need to win, closing ability, communication style, pace and comfort with sales rejection. In disciplines with a well-known database regarding the nature of top performers, a simple 12-minute behavioral profile completed online generates an eight-page report within a few hours. Part of the fun of exploring this for wellness purposes would be developing a consensus about top performers.

Profiling systems require some initial study on the part of users. Once judgments are made about the qualities of top performers, managers of user companies must learn how to read the reports generated. They must also develop a capacity to overcome existing "go-with-the-gut" tendencies and decide whether to "stay with the instruments" (as in pilot chat) or their senses if they don't like a given candidate who scores well in the profile match-up. Most profiles are completed online in a short period of time, a convenience that is possible today because nearly all job candidates have computer skills and access.

Another advantage of profiling is that it takes account of the fact that each stage of a career ladder might favor different skills and behavioral characteristics. That is, the skills that made someone a star at recruiting participants in class offerings may be the very traits that make one a disaster as a manager or as, let us say, the author of a daily essay at a wellness website.

One such report has been independently validated as 93 percent accurate, an important factor given that pre-employment tests are now subject to increased legal scrutiny. If you would like to participate in the inauguration of a wellness profile system by learning how profiling can be adapted for wellness purposes and for improving the results of the hiring process of your organization, consider taking a complementary profile sponsored by the Ardell Wellness Report and the Omnia Group. Contact Carol Martin of the Omnia Group at (800) 525-7117, ext. 1281.

Enjoy and be well -- and look on the bright side of life.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MEANING DOMAIN under the skill area of relationships. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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