CHPD’s latest leadership tool

 

We’ve had lots of interest in Sentio™, our latest leadership tool. This month we ask Dr Nigel Guenole, psychometric consultant at CHPD, to answer your questions about the latest leadership tool from the Centre for High Performance Development.

 

 

What is Sentio™?

Sentio™ is a situational judgement test that has been developed by the Centre for High Performance Development using our extensive research into what makes leaders successful.

 

Candidates are presented with a series of challenging workplace scenarios that test and measure their potential to respond to today’s business challenges. The data from this assessment can be used for recruitment, talent management, promotion and development.

 

 

What is a situational judgement test?

Situational judgement tests are an increasingly popular option for predicting job performance and measuring talent. Typically, a set of challenging scenarios requiring a manager to take action are presented to the candidate. The candidate is then asked to select an option that best describes the action they would take. Such tests measure a candidate’s knowledge of the best way to respond to work scenarios.

 

 

How were these scenarios developed?

The scenarios in Sentio™ are based on real situations experienced by actual leaders. They were researched using focus groups and behavioural event interviews. Responses were then written by an independent group of leaders and subject matter experts. Finally, the effectiveness of the responses was evaluated by a third independent group.

 

This methodology ensures that these scenarios have high validity for selection and development. Our research partner in the development of Sentio™ was Drasgow Consultancy Group, a US-based human resource assessment specialist.

 

 

Do these scenarios apply across different industries and levels of management?

The scenarios are relevant across all levels of management and industries. The scenarios were developed by an independent group of leaders and subject matter experts. Importantly, these scenarios measure our High Performance Behaviours and we know from our research that these behaviours translate across cultures, industries and management levels.

 

 

What is the validity of this tool?

Situational judgement tests have high validity for selection and development. They provide useful information beyond what is provided by cognitive ability and personality. Psychologists refer to this effect as incremental validity.

Importantly, such tests also result in lower adverse impact. Ethnic and gender differences tend to be smaller on situational judgment tests than they are on other selection techniques.

 

Combined, this incremental validity and lower adverse impact support valid selection decisions and provide a more balanced gender and ethnic representation of people than what we would see if only cognitive ability and/or personality are used.

 

 

What the difference between Sentio™, an assessment centre and 360° feedback?

To understand the differences between these tools, it is important to distinguish between what each one measures.

Sentio™ and any situational judgement test will measure a candidate’s knowledge of how to response to a business scenario. An assessment centre will provide insights in how they apply this knowledge. And finally, a 360 will measure their performance over an extended period of time in an actual work environment.

 

Such differences are important when making decisions about how you wish to measure the performance of your candidates and how you want to use the data from the tools you select.

 

For recruitment and selection, we recommend using a situational judgement test and assessment centres. A situational judgement test will provide you with data about a person’s knowledge and an assessment centre, the application of that knowledge in a business simulation. Both of these tools are ideal for selection as the results are exposed to minimal situational constraints. By constraints, we mean the environment factors that can impact upon performance.

 

Importantly, both of these assessments enable you to measure the potential performance of a candidate. Both assessments will assess the best that the person can do.

 

A 360 is not recommended for recruitment or selection. This is a tool that assesses typical performance. In selection we are more interested in what the maximum performance of a candidate is likely to be. It is better to examine maximum performance and complement this information with dispositional/preference information from personality questionnaires than look at typical performance.

 

 

What is the difference between the data we would receive from an assessment centre as opposed to Sentio™?

Assessment centres remain the best way to measure talent but situational judgement tests do have comparable validity. Both options offer standardised measures, so that candidates can be selected objectively and the experience for everyone is fair and transparent.

 

The good news is that measuring situational judgement is one of the best ways to narrow down talent pools. They act as a filter to select those who will participate in an assessment centre in the future. This way you can ensure that your candidates are your talent and the focus is then exclusively on development rather than selection.

 

 

Is it possible for one of our people or a candidate to self-engineer the results of this test?

Sentio™ is a test of knowledge with predetermined right answers. Faking is not an issue with objective tests.

Importantly in the development of this questionnaire, we developed two versions. Both are of equal validity but consist of different scenarios. We did this to support selection and development. For example, in job selection settings, where you do not want people to remember test items and tell colleagues, organisations can vary forms across testing days. In development settings, organisations can examine progress without any ‘retesting’ effects that come from people remembering questions. Candidates can complete one form of Sentio™ before training and another afterwards.

 

 

Who is using Sentio™?

Network Rail, AMEX, International Power are currently using Sentio™.

 

 

How does Sentio™ differ from other tests available on the market?

Sentio™ is arguably one of the most accurate tests because of the research methodology used to develop this tool. It contains very detailed scenarios that reflect the complexity of today’s business decisions and the behaviours required of today’s business leaders.

 

Sentio™ has 36 scenarios and takes up to three hours to complete. It is very likely that it contains more detailed scenarios than other tests, which require a shorter time to complete despite having a high number of questions.

 

It is also the only test of the High Performance Behaviours. These are the behaviours we have defined that significantly contribute to business success. We have researched and assessed the leadership of business leaders using these behaviours for the last thirty years.

 

 

Is Sentio™ compatible with other CHPD products?

Each of the workplace scenarios developed for Sentio™ measures our High Performance Behaviours. This means that there is a high degree of symmetry between the results from Sentio™ and our other tools.

 

In the very near future, we will have a benchmark of meg 2 managers. We plan to extend this benchmark to other managerial experience levels as more people complete Sentio™.

For more information about Sentio™, please contact us on 0207 9405 127 or email us on info@chpd.com. You can read more about our products and services on our website at www.chpd.com