Engaging a Multi-Generational Workforce

*This is a guest post authored by Lynne Cruickshank, senior consultant at Peter Berry Consultancy (PBC).  A clear link has been established between how leadership drives engagement, which in turn drives performance. However, one of the challenges that leaders face is how to engage a multi-generational workforce that consists of people who differ in their perceptions and approach to work. Through developing an understanding of the unique motivators, drivers, and values of their workforce, leaders can identify the kind of approaches and work environments that are most likely to engage and motivate their employees from all generations. So, what motivates different generations? Research conducted by PBC revealed that people from younger generations in the Australian workforce (i.e. Generation Y [born 1978-1992] and Generation Z [born 1993-present]) tend to have distinctly different values and motivators compared to those from older generations (i.e. Generation X [born 1965-1977] and Baby Boomers [born 1946-1964]). Read More »

8 Common Personality Types

When discussing personality, it’s common to hear people refer to themselves or others as “Type A” or “Type B.” Or, for those who have taken the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, acronyms like ISTJ or ENTP or INFP are so commonplace they frequently show up in online dating profiles.

At Hogan, we’ve historically steered away from labeling people as a certain “personality type” based on their assessment results. The primary reason for this is that personality trait scores lie on a continuum and dividing people into convenient buckets sacrifices precision. Further, even two people with highly similar personality profiles can be dramatically different from each other if they only differ on a single scale.

Read More »

Leaders around the World: Who Comes out on Top?

*This is a guest post authored by Adrian Chew, principal consultant at Peter Berry Consultancy (PBC).  Globalization and the expansion of organizations across international borders have created opportunities and challenges for current and future leaders. As a consultant, psychologist, and coach, I am excited to see more organizations around the world investing in psychometric and multirater feedback data for leadership development. Having reputational data available can be tremendously helpful to leaders for understanding and narrowing down key areas to focus on for development. Many multirater assessments allow leaders to compare themselves to other leaders around the world using global benchmark scores (for example, the Hogan 360°, powered by PBC, does this). Having the ability to use benchmarks to understand how leaders differentiate themselves is great, considering how globally connected we are. But given how diverse we are from country to country and culture to culture, are we missing any critical nuances that need to be considered when supporting our leaders and managers in their development? Read More »

How Personality Assessments Improve Safety at Work

Gaining the best and most suitable employees for your company is the key to success. Nowadays, companies are trying to hire the best of the best and are putting a lot of effort into new and exciting forms of recruiting. While a strong recruiting strategy provides only one major advantage for most companies, it is substantial for other companies.

Hiring the wrong employee for a job can inevitably lead to underperformance, which can cost millions and expose other employees to increased risk. Every year, companies within the EU lose billions of euros from accidents, injuries at work and other damages. In 2017, European companies lost more than € 476 billion, which was a staggering 3.3% of the European Union’s GDP.

It goes without saying that industries with higher levels of physical labor, such as construction, oil and gas, are at greatest risk from accidents at work and injuries. Companies working in security-conscious industries need to take additional measures to ensure that they hire the right people and create a safe environment for their employees.

Read More »

Is Mental Toughness Part of Personality?

Do us a favor. Go to Google and search for the term “mental toughness.” Then click on “news” to see the latest news on mental toughness. We can almost guarantee that you will find an article published within the past three days. Doing this exercise on August 6, 2019 yielded the results on the right.

The point is, people – particularly sports coaches and athletes – talk about mental toughness as a key ingredient for success virtually all the time. Clearly, the concept of mental toughness is of wide interest and importance. But what is mental toughness exactly and how is it related to personality? A few years ago, we set out to investigate this question. Last week, our findings were published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences. In this post, we summarize the key results.

Read More »