SquarePeg's behavioral traits assessment

SquarePeg's behavioral traits assessment is a valid and reliable psychometric assessment of 19 workplace behavioral dimensions using a forced-choice scale. This approach was selected because it limits self-enhancement and results in a truer picture of the applicant’s behavioral tendencies.

Behavioral dimensions included in the SquarePeg assessment have a long history of being predictive of job fit and future performance (Arthur et al., 2003). The fact that assessments of behavioral dimensions are not highly correlated with assessments of intelligence makes them particularly useful for predicting non-cognitive aspects of work performance (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998).

Enabling the traits assessment

• To enable the traits assessment, edit any job and navigate to Settings

You can choose to make SquarePeg's traits assessment an application prerequisite (i.e. applicants must take the traits assessment before submitting an application.) Alternatively, you can make the traits assessment optional. If optional, assessment results will only be shown for candidates who have completed the assessment. You can also disable the assessment, however, all this does is hide assessment results for candidates who have already completed it. 

If you set the traits assessment to required or optional, you will be asked to set values. These values will be used to compare a candidate's results and generate a traits match score. If you aren't sure what values to set, you can take the assessment yourself (shown in the screenshot below.)

Viewing results

If a job has the traits assessment set to required or optional and an applicant has completed the assessment, results can be viewed on the candidate's profile (shown below.)

Trait definitions 

Adaptable

Highly Adaptable people tend to be flexible and open-minded towards any range of situations
they may face at work. They are open to change and will adjust themselves or their work depending on the situation at hand. They are comfortable working in unfamiliar areas and are not thrown off by new or different circumstances.

• They can accommodate different perspectives and points of view
• They are open to feedback from others and are capable of switching gears when needed
• They are not rigid in their approach to work and are open to suggestions for change

Reliable

Highly reliable individuals can be counted on by others to meet their commitments, producing work that is consistent and predictable. They are diligent when it comes to completing their assignments - managing their time and workload accordingly.

• They make sure they are able to handle their current workload before agreeing to take on more
• They know how to deliver consistently

People Oriented

People-oriented individuals are able to read others and relate to them. They have intuitive social skills and take a great interest in those around them. They have large networks and find it both easy and natural to form relationships with colleagues, clients, and acquaintances. They tend to act as a connector between people in their networks.

• They are more inclined to seek answers, solutions, and ideas from people
• They are empathetic when it comes to others' needs, and make an effort to help
• They are understanding and tolerant of others; they respect different workstyles

Level Headed

Individuals who are level-headed are able to maintain their composure and act consistently despite the conditions around them. They are capable of navigating a range of situations without losing their self-control or giving in to pressure.

• They exhibit emotional stability and are not easily offended by others
• They can maintain relationships with people on both sides of an issue or argument
• They maintain calm and do not allow stress to impact their behavior or ability to make decisions

Motivated

Highly motivated people strongly value achievement and are ambitious in their pursuit of it.

• They are distinguished by their drive to perform well at tasks associated with specific goals and can be competitive at times
• They have a strong sense of purpose and align their actions and attitudes to their objectives. In many cases, they are willing to make sacrifices to achieve these objectives.
• They value success and encourage others to be successful
• They tend to have little tolerance for laziness

Confident

Highly confident people are marked by a strong sense of security in themselves and a conviction in their views and abilities. They are self-assured and do not require validation from others to confirm their status or views.

• They openly state their views and do not compromise them in the face of opposition or criticism
• They are assertive and can hold firm even when challenged by authority
• They are not afraid to make mistakes and are not easily embarrassed. They don't mind the attention
• They are not easily intimidated and don't need others to lead the way

Efficient

Highly efficient people have an approach to work that maximizes their output and productivity without wasting time or resources.

• They are outcome-oriented and look for the most direct and streamlined way of getting to a result
• They rarely waste time and respond well to the demands of fast-paced environments
• They can identify bottlenecks and unnecessary detours, avoiding or managing them without getting sidetracked
• They can organize themselves and have systems to help them be productive

Orderly

Individuals who are highly orderly prefer structure, organization, and proven methods. They are careful in their approach to work and tend to stick to the rules and guidelines.

• They prefer regularity and planning and are hesitant to act on a whim or rush into things
• They are organized and structured with their time, preferring to finish things and cross them off their to-do list before moving on to something else
• They like to have clarity when it comes to their assignments
• They are cautious and prepared
• They are organized in most aspects of their work, taking care to avoid mistakes

Strategic

Those who are highly strategic tend to take a long-term perspective, defining their end goals and the plans needed to achieve them. They can see the big picture and act with purpose, even in conditions of uncertainty.

• They can reflect on a wide array of information and think clearly about the best direction forward
• They are capable of articulating and expressing a vision or mission for the work they do
• They pay attention to patterns and changes, evaluating information and recalibrating their plans as needed

Detail Oriented

People who score highly on detail orientation usually want their work to be perfect, concerning themselves with the specifics in order to achieve a level of quality they are able to accept.

• They prefer to invest time in producing polished results rather than rushing their work
• They are precise in their delivery and pay attention to all components involved, making sure important details are not overlooked
• They often find errors or omissions that others are likely to miss and like to see that they are addressed
• They are usually able to identify improvements needed when tackling a project or assignment

Persevering

Persevering individuals simply do not give up easily, and are capable of sticking to a plan or goal in spite of setbacks they may face.

• They are persistent once a target is set, and rarely give in to pressure or allow obstacles to throw them off track
• They are usually more capable of enduring difficulties without getting discouraged or distracted
• They can be effective at closing out projects and seeing work to completion

Principled

Principled individuals hold themselves and their work to a high ethical standard, demonstrating integrity in the way they conduct themselves.

• They do what they think is right, even if it is not as easy as other options
• They usually opt for the morally-sound choice in any decision, particularly if it aligns with their personal or their company values
• They prefer honesty and transparency
• They have a strong sense of right and wrong and can exercise judgment based on it

Collaborative

Collaborative people excel at working in teams and are comfortable navigating group dynamics to accomplish projects.

• They communicate well through both active listening and participation
• They prefer working through problems with others rather than solving them alone
• They are able to cede control of tasks to others, identifying when they should let others lead and where they should step up to add value
• They are encouraging of others in a team setting and look for participation and contribution
• They avoid politics and inefficient behavior by finding ways of working with others toward a common objective

Curious

Individuals with high curiosity are eager to achieve depth in learning and are not satisfied with a rudimentary understanding of the work they are engaged in.

• They are open to exploring ideas and deliberately seek out differing views, experiences, and research in order to gain meaningful knowledge of a subject
• They will go to greater lengths than most to fully understand the problems and issues they are working on
• They tend to ask more questions when others might settle for existing answers
• They welcome new findings and opinions that challenge their views, rather than the comfort of certainty and familiarity

Proactive

Proactive people make things happen instead of waiting for them to happen. They are able to act of their own volition without needing guidance or oversight, anticipating the best course of action.

• They require minimal instructions to get to work, tackling problems head-on
• Oftentimes they prefer to get out in front of things rather than wait for approval
• They try to influence the environment around them rather than responding to it
• They are enterprising and often start new initiatives on their own accord

Logical

Highly logical people rely on structure and reason in their thinking. They are practical in their approach to work, using available information to arrive at sensible, understandable outcomes.

• They prefer data-driven and evidence-based decision-making
• They are skilled at getting to the core of a problem and identifying what matters, easily filtering out the noise
• They tend to think problems through to their conclusion using deductive reasoning

Persuasive

People who score highly on Persuasion are gifted at crafting a position, expressing it effectively, and convincing others of its merits.

• They are skilled at observing others and adjusting their style of communication to be more effective
• They have strong convictions and are able to articulate them in a compelling way
• They are able to influence others without evoking negative feelings or reactions
• They are comfortable with disagreement and can advocate for their own views
• They are adept at negotiating

Innovative

The most Innovative people are always thinking of original and different ways to do things. They are invigorated by ideas, experiments, and possibilities, and are inclined to push the boundaries where possible.

• They embrace the brainstorming part of any project and will push others to think outside the box
• They prefer to be at the forefront of new projects and solutions and get bored by routine work
• They have an appetite for risk and like testing and experimenting with new ideas
• They like to challenge conventional thinking and question traditional approaches, methods, and systems - usually believing that they can be improved upon

Decisive

Decisive individuals are unique in their ability to process information and arrive at conclusions in a direct manner. They are comfortable making decisions and do not get caught in inertia when presented with choices and options.

• They are purposeful and firm in their thoughts and actions
• They can act on limited information and set a path forward even when the future is uncertain or some things are out of their control
• When "good enough" is better than perfect, they set clear parameters for arriving at a result and tend to not overthink or prolong decisions
• They prefer to settle an issue and move on instead of engaging in open-ended exploration or conceptual discussions

Additional Information

The science behind personnel selection is over a century old, and there is a growing body of
conclusive evidence that has proven that, in reviewing job candidates, subjective evaluation and
intuition lead to less effective and more biased decisions (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2017; Highhouse
& Brooks, 2017). Although the quick resume scan is still prevalent in most organizations as a
method of screening applicants, research shows that standardized assessments provide a more
accurate measurement of a candidate than does instinct.

Talent management solutions should help to identify the degree of compatibility between an
individual and a role, context, and environment. And, psychometric assessments allow for
considerably more insight in this regard than resume data alone, which are historical, selfreported snapshots of skills and experiences, rather than appraisals of how someone tends to
behave in workplace situations.

The taxonomy of workplace behavior dimensions was based on current research on effective
measures of applicant attributes (e.g., Highhouse, Zickar, Brooks, Reeve, Sarkar-Barney, & Guion,
2016). Attributes identified in the literature were then combined with those discovered through
analysis of interviews of employers.

The sample of employers who were interviewed consisted of ~100 hiring managers, HR recruiting
staff, and top senior executives who hired for and/or were experts about non-technical roles
across multiple industries and roles (e.g., consulting, communications, marketing, advertising,
media, finance, consumer goods, project management), as well as across company sizes; the
smallest company was a 20 person investor relations firm while the largest consisted of 30k+
employees. In the interviews, a single member of the research team asked all employers the same
10 questions. These questions were intended to identify the workplace attributes and
determinants of fit that matter most in making hiring decisions and in ensuring employee
performance (e.g., "What makes a great hire for X role/team?," "Describe the attributes of your
top performers," "What do you look for in a candidate?"). The qualitative, open-ended responses
were codified and subjectively clustered.

Again, the combination of the literature-based attributes and the attributes determined through
interviews resulted in an initial list of 16 initial workplace behavior dimensions.

Anchor Scale Development

The research team wrote and revised 126 traditional Likert-type items intended to measure the
16 workplace behavior dimensions, and administered the items to 10,000 workers via Mechanical
Turk’s (MTurk). The workers were asked to respond with the following directions: “Please use the
response scale below to tell us how well each statement describes you and the way you do things
AT WORK.” After screening for careless responses, data were examined for 8,074 of the 10,000
MTurk workers. Each dimension was factor analyzed, and items that did not load on the first
factor were discarded. The remaining items were assessed for reliability (i.e., Cronbach’s Alpha),
and those that did not contribute to the reliability of the summated sub-scale were discarded. This
resulted in a reduced set of 83 items. The reliability estimates for the dimensions for the final set
of items are presented in the table below.

Further analyses found sub-clustering of items within certain dimensions. Review of content of
sub-clusters of items resulted in three new dimensions being discovered within three of the
existing dimensions: 1) Orderly was pulled out from the Reliable dimension, 2) People-Oriented
from Collaborative, and 3) Confident from Motivated. Further review of the literature
corroborated the creation of these new dimensions. While these new dimensions were identified
via review of previously written items, as noted, the redefining of constructs encouraged rewriting of the items associated with the new constructs to ensure content validity, i.e., adequate
coverage of the nomological network.

Normatively-Scored, Forced-Choice Measure Development

Due to concerns about faking, the researchers developed forced-choice items to assess each of
the 19 dimensions. This approach forces applicants to choose between equally desirable options in
describing themselves, and has been shown to result in less self-enhancement (e.g., O’Neill et al.,
2016). The anchor scale (described above) was used as a standard against which the forced-choice
items would be compared. The approach of mapping non-traditional measures to established measures – sometimes referred to as rainforest empiricism – preserves the interpretability and
stability of traditional approaches, while limiting socially desirable responses (Mael & Hirsch,
1993). Reliability analysis of the initial set of forced-choice items resulted in a final set of 63
forced-choice items. The reliability (i.e., Cronbach’s Alpha) estimates for the 19 dimensions as
measured through this assessment are presented in the table below. The construct validity estimates, also shown in the table below, represent the correlations between anchor scale dimension scores and scores on the same dimension measured using this forced-choice measure (n = 630).

Analysis of SquarePeg Job Seeker Data

More recent analysis of the forced-choice work behavior dimensions assessment was
accomplished using user data collected from the SquarePeg platform. Reliability estimates for the
19 dimensions are shown in the tables below, below (n = 2,765). While some of these internal consistency reliability estimates are lower, adequate coverage of the constructed space means that items measuring broad dimensions may reasonably lack consistency, given how few items are used for
the measurement of each trait.