Psychometrics may seem daunting, but are an invaluable recruitment tool

Almost every day there is news coverage about the international expansion of Chinese business and the further penetration of the Chinese market by international business. But what is often overlooked and not discussed in sufficient detail is the resulting need for recruitment and selection of the most suitable people in order to secure and sustain such international expansion, which nearly always involves expanding across very different cultures.

For example, China's banks have been in the news recently, unhappy with treatment by the British financial services watchdog, the Financial Services Authority. China's largest banks expanded into London shortly after the global financial crisis of 2007 and are now moving further into the heart of Europe with branches in Luxembourg.

Expansion into new and culturally different markets not only applies to China's internationally ambitious companies. Many foreign companies operating in China are now eyeing many of China's second and third-tier cities and even rural communities, now considered to be commercially attractive market opportunities.

Such expansive strategies are exciting, but they involve great risks. Most attention is often paid to differences in the external business environment, such as analyzing competitors and consumers, but often little attention is paid to the need for a change internally, to working practices and for recruiting people more suited to change and different environments. Integrating teams of people from different national and corporate cultures is still particularly new for many Chinese firms.

Also overlooked is the importance of recruitment and selection when seeking to create an effective multicultural, team-working corporate environment. Too much attention is often paid to post-recruitment training and development

If selected carefully in the first place many potential inter and intra-team conflicts can be avoided. Cross-cultural working environments may well prove beyond many current and potential employees, and the sooner they are screened out of any recruitment and selection process the better.

Organizational behavior research continues to show that employee personality and emotional intelligence play a telling part in their ability to work effectively in different cultural settings and adapt to change in their working environment.

So it is to the area of psychometric testing that many Chinese firms should focus far greater time and effort. My research and training in Chinese firms over many years and across firms from many industrial sectors and of very different sizes highlights a continued reluctance to even consider psychometric testing let alone implement it as part of a comprehensive selection process.

This presents a threat to any expansion plans Chinese firms may have - and most do - but also represents a golden opportunity for the most experienced, often Western, organizations that provide specialist advice and training in the use of psychometric testing. Indeed, many of these organizations have also developed and updated their own in-house, bespoke psychometric tests. Chinese firms would benefit considerably from a long-term partnership with such an organization.

Of course psychometric testing and the area of personality assessment and measurement in general will almost certainly differ across cultures, and most of the extant research originated from US and Western European cultures. However, Chinese firms will find that many organizations are now very experienced across very different cultures and have successfully adapted their psychometric testing approach accordingly.

One such organization worthy of discussion is Talent Q, a specialist over many years in psychometric testing and with a global presence. Talent Q is also very much market-oriented, with a keen appreciation of the need for relevant, user-friendly and culturally robust psychometric assessments.

The founder, Roger Holdsworth, was a pioneer of modern assessment tools, having transformed the industry in the late 1970s with ground-breaking products still highly regarded today. Holdsworth's affection for China was long-standing. Following an invitation from the psychology department at Hangzhou University, he was honored with a life-long visiting professorship.

His son, Christopher Holdsworth, now CEO of Talent Q Group, is even more committed to the China market. "China is an important strategic market and will be for many years to come," he says. "Having had first-hand experience living in Beijing for six years, firstly working in a joint venture between Royal Bank of Scotland and the Bank of China and then with setting up the Talent Q China office, I know there is so much talent out there. But there are also many challenges for companies striving to recruit, develop and retain staff to effectively and objectively identify it.

"In the UK, we have two Chinese nationals who are a key part of the team developing products and providing keen insight into the Chinese market, in order to help Talent Q provide relevant and up-to-date products for HR practitioners. Our China norm group is continually updated, and it is our aim to provide industry-specific norms as well."

Many of the challenges that Chinese and multinational companies face in their human resources processes are to do with the ever-changing needs within the talent management cycle. "In China, the only real constant is change," says Susie Bates, general manager of Talent Q's Beijing office.

Bates, a Briton who speaks fluent Mandarin and who has worked in senior human resources roles in Beijing for 30 years, is a strong believer in the successful integration of the right assessment to complement existing company practices. "At the end of the day, the need to get your people decisions as right as possible in terms of really getting to know the traits, behaviors and preferences of your key hires is equally as relevant and critical in Chinese public and privately owned companies as it is in the multinationals. We all know the high costs of a bad hire. No good HR practitioner wants to be taking hiring risks, particularly in the rapid-paced China market, where talent acquisition is at the top of every CEO's list."

Talent Q has been providing personality and ability assessments for Chinese companies since 2009, to help in ensuring right-fit hires and also help Chinese CEOs really get to know their high-potential employees. A good example of this is a client organization that approached Talent Q China to help with an entire restructure focused on identifying those who could take the organization to the next level. Talent Q was able to deliver a program that helped individuals to clearly identify strengths, areas for potential growth and development, as well as providing a role-match profile that helped identify the best fit of employee into senior management team roles. The project was highly successful, and the company continues to be a client today.

Terms such as psychometric testing can sound daunting to human resources managers who have not used them before, but the ethos of Talent Q is to make these assessments as accessible and practical as possible with a clear purpose: making better people decisions.

It is now time for strategic human resource management to be placed at the center of Chinese firms' expansion plans with psychometric testing an essential part of their strategy toolkit.

The author is a visiting professor at China's University of International Business and Economics and researcher at Nottingham University's School of Contemporary Chinese Studies. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily. Contact the writer at mike211_2@hotmail.com

(China Daily 11/09/2012 page11)