Leading Retailers need to have employees who are proactive, to create "actions" with customers and truly get "into the world of the client"
1. MAY 2004
STORES WWW.STORES.ORG
EMPLOYEE SCREENING
Measuring the Qualities
Needed for Success
iParty uses survey tool to define behavioral traits for managerial
positions and match candidates with jobs they naturally enjoy
openness or perceived need to support, it can be closed,” she adds. iParty
change to adapt to his current work- administers the PI to all prospective man-
place environment, and a combina- agement employees. In the future, the
eing able to understand managerial tion of the two. retailer plans to extend its use to selecting
B candidates’ natural needs and behav-
iors is essential to finding a person
who will find his assignment energiz-
ing and satisfying, and, therefore, will do well
in the job, says Lori Chamberlain, vice presi-
In effect, the PI measures how well an
individual’s natural self is in sync with the
current or prospective work environment.
An ideal match identifies a candidate who
can slip into a job situation like a hand fits
store associates.
iParty also uses the PI to help managers
interact with employees in a manner that
meets and nourishes their personal and pro-
fessional needs. Managers are trained to
dent of human resources at Dedham, Mass.- into a custom-made glove. interact with individual employees in ways
based iParty. That, in turn, leads to increased “People are most effective when they are that suit both their styles, for example. The
productivity. able to tap into their natural behavioral goal is to create positive relationships that
Party goods specialty retailer iParty is traits,” explains Handalian. “That means stimulate creativity and productivity, while
using PI Worldwide’s Predictive Index (PI), most of their energy is going into their jobs minimizing negative, energy-draining and
to help define job positions, the qualities instead of changing themselves.” non-productive exchanges.
that individuals need to perform well in NOURISHING NEEDS Chamberlain first “It helps everyone understand everyone
specific jobs and whether a candidate has, began working with PI Worldwide in 1992 else, and it helps us understand ourselves as
or can develop, the qualities needed to be when she led human resources at Iron well,” says Chamberlain. “One of the first
successful. Mountain, a records management compa- things we do with a new employee is sit
Dan Handalian, senior consultant at ny. For her, PI Worldwide is an extension down and say, ‘Let me tell you what your
Wellesley, Mass.-based PI Worldwide, says of iParty’s human resources PI says about you and what my PI
the Predictive Index measurement tool is an department. says about me.’ It really pro-
efficient system because “you put very little “The Predictive Index motes strong communica-
in and you get a lot out.” allows us to define the tions throughout the
Based on how an individual responds to behavioral traits that organization. It pro-
qualities identified in the PI survey, a hiring we want someone to motes understand-
executive trained to read a PI can measure have to be promot- ing, and it keeps
what a specific individual needs from the ed or hired into a people energized
work world, says Handalian. “The needs specific job. In a and productive.”
we measure are every bit as real as the needs very objective way, iParty also uses
for food and shelter.” PI allows us, as the PI for conflict
The survey is a concise list of personality managers, to say resolution, team
traits. Individuals who take the survey high- whether an individ- building and em-
light those traits on the list that they believe ual job candidate ployee development.
best describe who they are and who they has those behavioral When iparty.com
believe others expect them to be, such as “I am traits,” Chamberlain was launched in October
brave,” “I am persistent” and “Others expect explains. 1999, the e-retailer had 25
me to be brave and persistent.” The survey “If the natural traits are close employees and no bricks-and-
takes about 10 minutes. but not exactly what we mortar stores. By the time
Interpreting the PI is accomplished by want, the PI helps us deter- iParty's success Chamberlain joined the
clustering answers in three areas: an indi- mine whether the gap is too depends on good company in December 2001,
vidual’s self, a measurement of his most nat- far away to manage or if iParty had acquired a chain
ural behaviors and needs; an individual’s it’s close enough that, with store managers of 33 stores, increasing the