The PI Blog
For hiring, coaching, team building, and every people problem in between.
Analyzing the Boston Bruins’ behaviors
In honor of my favorite time of year, the Stanley Cup Playoffs, I thought it’d be fun to do an analysis of the Boston Bruins’ first line/starting defense and goalie…not to mention, The Predictive Index has been based in the Boston area for the past 50 year so we are a bit excited for our…
How to design an effective interview process
The interview process, in many organizations, is broken. Even the most successful organizations who pride themselves on process fail to answer key questions—What’s the best way to go about the interviewing process? How should you record the thoughts of each interviewer? How many people should be involved? Is it easier to just let interviews fall…
How to predict job success
Hiring new employees can sometimes feel like a high-stakes game of chance. You screen a resume, conduct an interview, follow up on a few references… and hope for the best. But there are ways to better predict job success—and they’re not necessarily complicated. In addition to the resume, interview, and references you usually include as…
Recruiting active vs. passive candidates
When I started looking for a job last year, it was the first time I’d done so in more than five years, and I was overwhelmed. Thinking about new routines, new commute, new people, new coffee machine, new set of work passwords. It was daunting. I’m what we at PI call a Controller pattern, a key…
Can you be too smart for a job?
All jobs require some level of cognitive ability, and research has demonstrated time and time again that cognitive ability relates to higher job performance in all roles (although the relationship is stronger in more complex job roles). But is there an upper limit? Can you be too smart for a job?
Toby in ‘The Office’ is funny but wrong
True confession: Toby was my favorite character on The Office.
When their cognitive score doesn’t match their behavior
What do you do when you have a candidate with the “perfect” behavioral needs and drives for a position—you know they can handle the work, culturally it’s a match, they are driven and determines—but their overall cognitive score, their capacity to learn, adapt, and grasp new concepts in the workplace, is falling short. I have had…
How self-aware are you?
Recently, I had a client come to me very upset. She had begun working with two people who both had a Predictive Index behavioral pattern almost identical to hers and she said, “Melanie, please tell me I don’t come across like those two!” Unfortunately, what I couldn’t tell her was that the descriptions she gave me…
What does your employer brand say about your company’s personality?
When you think of “branding,” there are likely tons of things that jump into your mind. Logos, taglines, fonts and signature colors, which are pieces of visual brand identity. And then there are more interactive things like what a company represents and how it interacts with and treats its customers, which relate to brand personality…
When to fire an employee: We hire for skills, but fire for something else
Think about this: When you interview a candidate for a position, a primary input in the decision-making process (the resume) is provided by the candidate. While the resume certainly gives you an overview of experience, education, and skills, it’s still information that’s curated by the candidate. This is equivalent to a used car salesperson handing…