Many employees work 40 hours per week. That is about 2,080 working hours per year. So, on average, we spend approximately 71% of the year working.
The real question is how many of us are truly satisfied with our jobs? Gallup’s findings suggest that only a mere 15% of employees worldwide are engaged at work. Yes, the numbers are shockingly low.
Let’s take this further to imagine ourselves pouring hours and days of effort into something that doesn’t give us satisfaction. Perhaps, we’re burnt out, unhappy with our supervisor, over-worked, or simply just unaware of our true interests.
This is why career assessments are so important in helping us understand our behaviors and interests to provide us with better direction. We’re fortunate because there is an abundance of development tools available – from personality tests to behavior analysis, and leadership assessments – to help us find clarity. But how do we know which one to choose? Today, we’re comparing two well-known tools to give you a better understanding of each and sharing which one is our preferred tool, at Crosworks.
The DiSC Assessment – An Overview
DiSC is a popular behavioral assessment tool that allows employees to assess their leadership potential by providing insights into their managerial strengths and weaknesses. The DiSC behavioral model was first introduced by renowned Psychologist, William M. Marston, in his 1928 book titled, Emotions of Normal People. Marston believed that as individuals if we understand our primary behavioral traits, we become better at managing our experiences and relationships.
Using DiSC, individual behaviors fall into four broad categories: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. To understand which category employees fall within, they are asked a series of questions and based on their responses they are assigned a personality type (D, i, S, or C). From a facilitator’s point of view, this test is easy to administer. However, as there are so many versions available of this assessment, some information derived from these tests may not be updated. Another limitation is that this test fails to measure environmental factors in the workplace.
The Birkman Method – An Overview
Birkman is known for understanding helping us understand the intricacies of our personalities. It allows us to explore the different aspects of our behavior and gives us better insight into how our behaviors affect us in the workplace. It provides eleven scales that dive into understanding interpersonal behavior and environmental expectations. If you’re a leader, this information can provide great benefits by identifying individual work preferences and communication styles that you need for better team productivity.
It’s common for us at times to be unable to express our needs and expectations. In fact, in most cases, this goes completely unnoticed and unattended. But what happens if we are expected to continue working without our needs being fulfilled? Thankfully, this is where Birkman steps in and taps into identifying our invisible needs. It allows us to gain insights into how we want to be treated and motivated to perform at our best. This, we believe, is where the magic happens. The identification of an employee’s unspoken needs creates a firm foundation for building better relationships and working cohesively as a productive team.
Birkman works on identifying an employee’s true interests to ensure that the right person in the right job. Data derived from tests can reveal important information about the type of activities that each employee enjoys and, in parallel, those activities that can increase their stress levels. With this information, we can easily achieve better engagement and employee retention.
Closing Thoughts
The availability of multiple personality assessment tools can make choosing the right one a difficult task. But it’s important to prioritize the positives and pick one that best suits your operational needs and business requirements.
While DiSC does well to identify the different personality types, Birkman goes beyond and explores multiple facets of our personalities and tells us how this would impact us in the workplace. At Crosworks, we know that The Birkman Method provides an accurate assessment of one’s interests and expectations and also lays out actionable information to drive your career in the right direction.
To talk to a Birkman Certified coach and learn how you can leverage Birkman in your career path, schedule an introductory call here.