Leadership

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How big is your box? Personality and employment testing, should a Christian employer use and rely on them?:

The latest fad in HR is employment screening tests. These are intended to “cut to the chase” since we are all so busy texting, tweeting and facebooking that actually getting to know anyone who will be working with you or for you is really obsolete and old fashioned. This is a sign of our bottom line, next quarter thinking practices. Actually getting to know someone, looking into their character, matching them to your mission statement (mission statement, what's that ?) is not the in-thing. Instead, we have a short term, money driven, disposable worker mentality. This has been part of the reason for the worldwide financial crisis and the huge disconnect between the average citizen and the two “W's (Wall Street and Washington). I'm not a conspiracy-type. No black helicopters are following me, no men with suits and sunglasses, white vans with “camo dudes” in them. I'm a non-person (I think). But many signs are there that the American worker is being shortlisted, outsources, “casualed”, furloughed (that used to be a good thing in the Army), etc. Corporations fly their own flag, hire full time suited lobbyists to dish out campaign donations (bribery ? certainly not !). We can buy cheaper imported goods from foreign subsidized companies with our reduced, non-subsidized paychecks. So, to reduce costs in HR, businesses use online applications. I've gone to many a job fair and told to check the website. I wonder why does a business set up a booth at one of these and then tell me to go home and use my computer to talk to them. There is a big increase in the pop-psych type of aptitude test business. The Meyers-Briggs test has been around for years, in many organizations you are your box, not your name. A more recent type is called Tri-Metrix. It's theory is to construct a mathematical formula for repetitive personal traits and predict behavior. I've tried to find a critical analysis of this, but so far all I get is promotional materials. In short, this test is totally secular. If you are a Christian you will be determined as anti-social,a loner, a possible suicide. Why, because many of the questions are about YOU and what you like and want for yourself. Service to others, giving and sacrifice are excluded. The process is invasive and in the wrong hands can be damaging in this economic shark tank we now live in.

Pop-psych tests are word games; if you have a good vocabulary and can tell when similarities change to dissimilarities, you can score big and get the job. Character is out, being money-driven is. References? Who cares? Vague letters of reference ? Ditto. Ace that test!

Should Christian employers use these tests ? Do any of them ask where the heart is? Will they work well with others in a considerate way? What's their motivation? A pink Cadillac, a license plate frame with “billion dollar producer” on it? A spa session with botox etc? Is it wrong to want to serve others and receive a fair wage? I didn't see an oval to fill in so I guess I don't get the job.

Look inside, character counts in the long run.

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