i WAM - can you? from Paul Stewart

I have just completed the two day training course for iWAM, and survived! In fact, I found it completely fascinating and fully intend to complete the accreditation process and to use it in real life. iWAM stands for internet Work, Attitude and Motivation questionnaire. In simple terms iWAM is the most up to date psychometric testing currently on the market. The reports are applicable to recruitment and coaching, and can be used with individuals, pairs, teams and for organisations.

I am a fledgling coach and was on the course looking to find out what the latest testing had to offer, I have had some experience with Jungian Based psychometric tests and wanted to find out what the new boy on the block has to offer.

iWAM is based on the work of Patrick Merlevede, a scientist, business consultant and an expert in Cognitive Behaviour. This unique profiling tool can be used for assessment but it is rather labour intensive if you want to write up reports for feeding it back. The iWAM assessment can be completed on line in about 20-30 minutes and the reports produced within an hour of completion.

The LAB Profile is the based on Metaprograms which are the series of mental filters which determine how people behave, based on how they think and what they pay attention to in a given situation. I do not have the time to cover this in detail here, suffice to say it is very complex and has a lot to the with the inner workings of the mind. The course was a steep learning curve for me because some of the material is related to NLP which I have only a passing knowledge of, but the trainers made sure that I was kept up to speed and didn’t miss out on anything.

Sally and David, who gave the training, are both vastly experienced and extremely well qualified. The training was superb, when difficult concepts came up, Sally and David always had an appropriate example or analogy to bring the concepts to life. Questions were encouraged and the practical exercises very useful and relevant.

The group, myself excluded, were all veteran HR managers and coaches. The consensus was that the reports were extremely accurate. It was strongly emphasised that the reports also highly contextual, meaning that they applied to the candidates work situation, not how they are at home or when out with friends. We had plenty of practice feeding back the reports to each other. The reports were very detailed and quite different to the Jungian based DISC reports of which I have had previous experience.

From a coaching point of view it was clear that the iWAM starts where DISC reports left off because they cover attitude and motivation far more than behaviour. The discussions I had when feeding back the report to my partner were quite intense but in a really good lets-get-down-to-business sort of way. The HR consultants among us felt much the same thing; that it would be really useful in getting under the surface of things very quickly.

In conclusion I would thoroughly recommend iWAM as a psychometric assessment tool whether or not you have experience with Jungian based assessment tools as it covers completely new ground regarding attitude and motivation. Like any new skill you will need to put the practice in to get the most out of it, but you will be rewarded with very rich and deep coaching and development conversations. I can't wait to go back and moved to the more advanced user modules

Communication, motivation and information processing preferences

Testing used to measure maximum performance, however this is now changing. As part of the Emotional Intelligent toolkit, measuring typical performance gives a more realistic view of how a person is likely to perform on a daily basis. This is measured by motivational testing which assesses what drives individuals on a daily basis. Each response is defined from their communication and information processes and reports give line managers advice on the motivational language to use to get the best out of specific employees.

JobEQ provides online HR tools that help to improve Emotional Intelligence (EQ) in the workplace. jobEQ brings HRM to the next level by focusing on work attitude, motivation, values and skills for each partof the human resources process. Whether you are an HR consultant or an organization looking to improve its own HR, jobEQ can help you find and manage great employees. There is a suite of three assessments from JobEQ in the UK

JobEQ iWAM

The Inventory for Work Attitude & Motivation(iWAM) is a questionnaire used for job-related activities, such as recruitment, coaching andtraining projects. It is based on a model of cognitive thinking styles (48 parameters are measured and explained).The iWAM Management Report identifies aperson's motivational and attitude preferencesin the job context and predicts how this person will behave in various job types, such as administrative, customer contact or managerial tasks. The iWAM Attitude Sorter predicts key motivational preferences and development areas.

JobEQ COMET

The Performance Solution can use COMET to model and test competencies in your organisation. We can evaluate how employees' skills compare to those of the organization's top performers. You can use a predesigned questionnaires, to measure competence areas such as emotional intelligence, or we can help you create your own! The core of the COMET system is two things: First, COMET is a methodology to design custom competence (or capability) models based on the behavior of top performers within a function of an organization. Second, COMET is the software for administering questionnaires which are based on these competence models. The Performance Solution can provide COMET questionnaires in self-assessment mode
as well as 360° feedback mode. COMET is an ideal tool to assess current employees to improve management, recruiting, or coaching.

JobEQ VSQ

Cultural fit is the third pillar of jobEQ's testing suite, and we measure it with the VSQ. The test was built on the foundation of human values and culture research. Essentially, the VSQ measures three things:

1. Value Systems: 8 patterns of value systems that help determine what decisions you make (see Clare W. Graves, Beck & Cowan)
2. Value Hierarchy:A ranking of the most important values for an individual
(inspired by Nietzsche)
3. Social Pattern Variables:10 patterns orignialy proposed by Talcott Parsons and often used in cultural and social research (e.g. Trompenaars, Hampden-Turner, Hofstede, ...)

For a Free Summary Profile Report that identifies your Motivational Strengths and some Areas of Development click here

Assessment at all levels for multiple outputs

Assessment needn't be just for recruitment or used only for senior levels. Assessment at junior and team level can have much more impact on the bottom line. e.g. using an Extended DISC team analysis profile showed a group of design engineers that the reason a new product was not getting to market as soon as expected was because they had no influencing and communication preferences in the team and so internal awareness of the new product within the business was lacking, resulting in it being low priority in the sales and marketing departments.

Having said this, we can't expect junior people to go through long assessment processes. A quick on-line questionnaire suffices and this is what aids retention. The CIPD's Recruitment, Retention and Turnover 2008 survey showed that 80% of 800 employers questioned are experiencing increased retention difficulties, up from 69% oin 2006. An economic downturn suggests there is even more pressure on retention and carrying out team profiling such as a team alignment review and a half day facilitated team event gives maximum impact for minimum time away from the day job. This is an example of psychometric testing being more easily accessible to line managers, yet not 'dumbed down'. The reports are more usable, the automated response system is more user friendly and the cost is much more viable with current economic restraints.

Extended DISC

Extended DISC® is a set of integrated assessment tools for enhancing individual, team and organisational performance. One of the unquestionable strengths of the Extended DISC® System is that it integrates a whole range of tools to provide a flexible business solution.

Extended DISC® Personal Analysis
Personal Analysis is a self-assessment that identifies the strengths and development areas of an individual. What makes Personal Analysis different from other assessments is that it is able to measure at a deeper unconscious level to exclude the impact of the environment. In practice this means that the result show who the individual actually is and not what the person thinks he/she needs to be in the existing environment. As a result, the report identifies the true strengths and development areas to allow for true performance improvement.

Extended DISC® Work Pair Analysis
Extended DISC® Work Pair Analysis is a tool that combines the results of two individuals into one, user-friendly report. It identifies the styles of individuals, how the styles complement one another, and where the behaviour gaps exist. It also provides information regarding what the individuals should remember, accept and practice when working together.

Extended DISC® Team Analysis
Extended DISC® Team Analysis is a tool that can combine all of the individual assessment results into one report. It shows the team dynamics, the strengths and development areas of the team, and illustrates how the team members are adjusting their behaviors in the existing work environment.While team applications are the most popular uses of the tool, Team Analysis is capable of assessing an unlimited number of individuals. As a result, it enables our clients to perform various, more complicated analyses very cost effectively.

Extended DISC® Open 360
Open 360 is a customisable and flexible tool for measuring skills, competencies and behaviours. It is an excellent tool for applications such as coaching, leadership and management development. Open 360 can be used in any application where feedback from others is helpful in developing the performance of employees, teams and organizations.

Extended DISC® Job Analysis
Job Analysis allows the users to identify and to prioritise the behaviours for specific jobs that will produce the best results. The results are specific to their organisation. Job Analysis is designed to ensure that reasonable and realistic expectations are created, and that the different viewpoints of the assessors are clearly defined.Finally, and what many of clients think is the most valuable aspect of Job Analysis, once the job requirements are shaped, the results of individuals’ Extended DISC® Personal Analysis can be compared to the Job Analysis results to identify development needs and a behavioral job fit.

Extended DISC® Surveys Platforms
Surveys Platform is a customisable and flexible tool for conducting large scale surveys cost effectively. Organisational Climate Surveys and Customer Satisfaction Surveys are among the most popular applications.

Added value through assessments

Psychometric assessment originated with the armed forces, who needed to get the best possible recruits for the best possible outcome in times of great adversity. With the current financial crisis, media hype about recession and daily news of redundancies, one area where employers are not cutting back is that of performance assessments. After the last recession, many organisations ended up with employees covering two jobs. With current issues such as work related stress, increased employment legislation and the need for competitive advantage, there is no room for the luxury of more cuts. Employers are therefore ensuring that their people are in the best possible shape for a highly competitive future.

Having said that, employers are much more discerning about added value. This is provided through ease of use, ease of training and ensuring the tool used measures what the employers wants measuring and provides results that are easy to interpret. This could be through bespoke solutions, or through some of the newer tools that are easily accessible for line managers who often see the traditional tools as very academic, administratively burdensome and very much within the power of the HR function.