Introducing PI to your organization

Welcome to the Predictive Index (PI) community! You’re about to embark on a powerful journey. The decision to learn more about your employees and their needs and your belief that your people are your most valuable asset is what brought your organization to PI. We’re committed to helping you improve the working lives of your people through talent optimization — the practice of aligning people strategy with business strategy to achieve results.

We’re excited. You’re excited. Now it’s time to get your organization excited! 

Step 1: Prepare

When you’re preparing to communicate about PI to employees at your organization, ask:

• Who is our audience?
• What do we want to communicate?
• Why have we invested in PI and what are our goals and objectives?
• When, ideally, would we like to have PI implemented?
• What questions might people have and are we prepared to answer them?

It’s often easier to roll out a new program if you incorporate it into existing processes. When evaluating this, consider:

• What level of participation we need to be successful?
• How PI will change how our employees currently operate?
• Which features and insights would be beneficial for employees to see?
• What is the timeline for making these resources available?
• How will we introduce new employees to PI so they can onboard quickly with their manager and team?

Now that you’ve taken stock of your ideal rollout plan, it’s time to help your employees feel comfortable with PI.

Step 2: Communicate

How you introduce PI to your current employees makes a huge difference. The more people in your organization who understand how PI works, its benefits, and how it will be used, the more comfortable they will be and the more they will participate. You’ll see the most value when everyone is speaking the same language. Getting people to realize that behavior and needs are at the center of what we do and that we should all be aware of each other’s needs is critical.

Successful adoption starts with communication to make sure everyone is aligned on and aware of expectations. We’ve found that hosting a ​Lunch & Learn​ ​to discuss PI with your organization can also help set the foundation and expectations for employees at all levels of your organization. You can use this presentation and/or show this video to educate them about the basics.

Step 3: Send the PI Behavioral Assessment

Successful adoption starts by assessing your employees. When employees understand themselves and their peers, they develop more productive working relationships and find the value of PI. Getting and sharing the data and insights helps everyone.

Not quite ready to assess the entire organization? Take smaller steps to get started:

• Take the Behavioral Assessment yourself, and understand first hand what your employees will experience. Many clients assess their C-Suite first, so everyone can see how it works and align on how it will benefit their teams.
• Invite a single department to participate. Many clients have found the Sales team to be great pilot participants.
• Continue to share the value of PI with your organization and look for successes to share with the broader organization.

Step 4: Answer employee questions

People may have some anxiety over taking an “assessment.” They may think of it as a “test” or something they can fail. We want to make sure everyone knows there is no good or bad result to the BA. It’s a tool to help everyone understand what you need to succeed.

If an employee has questions about how the results will be used, let them know first and foremost that you plan on sharing the results with them directly. This will most likely take some of the fear out of taking the assessment.

The last thing you ever want to do is force someone to take an assessment. If you meet resistance and an employee doesn’t want to take the assessment, let it go for a little bit. The best thing you can do is educate them on the “whys” and let them see it in action first. Typically, once someone sees how beneficial this information is to an organization, they too will want in on the action. But let them get there on their own.

Employees may be unsure of how their results will be interpreted or used and may be nervous or uninterested in participation. Here are some questions you might encounter.

• What is this? The PI Behavioral Assessment is an untimed, free-choice, stimulus-response tool that measures an individual’s motivating drives and needs. It has been used by thousands of businesses around the globe for decades to assist in hiring, coaching, motivating, developing employees, and improving organizational culture.  
• What if I do it incorrectly? There are no right or wrong answers – it’s not a test.
• Are there any rules? Just make sure you’re not distracted. Read instructions carefully and use your own judgment to answer questions. If you do not understand a particular word, just skip it.
• Is it timed? Time is not a factor; take as much time as you need.

Step 5: Get started in each product

Now that your current employees understand what PI is and how your organization plans to use it, it’s time to dive into each product you plan to use. It’s also important to make sure you understand how you’ll introduce PI to candidates (Hire) and new employees during onboarding (Inspire). The sooner they see it in the process, the sooner you’ll see results.

Each one incorporates self-awareness and awareness of others. Once we know what we need and what others need, we can make sure people are in the right roles, being managed in the way they need, solving conflict, improving team performance and the overall organizational culture.

That’s what we call talent optimization — the practice of aligning people strategy with business strategy to achieve results.