Friday, March 27, 2009

Chally Assessment Certification Workshop

I have recently been graciously invited by Shi Bisset, prominent Organizational Development figure in Asia and a delightful lady, to attend the HR Chally Certification workshop. The workshop was exceptionally led by Howard and Sally Stevens, the founders of the system. The experience of being introduced to it by these two exceptional individuals with their immensely vast knowledge of assessment, motivational theory and such, was AMAZING...

I have been in close contact with various assessment systems providers in recent years, from the very marketable MBTI and other DISC's look-a-like to the more globally relied on such as Hogan and Waterville. When addressing the subject of assessment tools, regular topics arise, usually around the themes of stability / reliability, "fakability", construct. I don't want to go into the debate of fakability or reliability in this post and would much prefer to focus on the fact.

HR Chally:
  • A PREDICTIVE assessment tool, a opposed to the hogan, for example, with its descriptive nature.
  • Not a personality tool but a predictor of "on-the-job effectiveness".
  • Actuarial science as opposed to theoretical science: The Chally is a data-based, on-going research based system and as such is continuously being validated against new population samples to be a truly globally applicable tool. Backed up by 35 years of continuous research.
  • The questions in the assessment have "no face value", rendering the assessment unfakable.
  • A perfect integration with TQM and Six Sigma quality management practices as Chally is level 5 on Six Sigma.
  • An "error" tolerance of 3 to 10,000,000 as opposed to other tools with an tolerance of around 5 to 100.
  • The only system which has never been proved wrong by a court of justice...because no court has ever dared challenging it....
These are just some of the few elements showing how tough, reliable and credible, the system is.

The Chally based Talent Audit tool is simply amazing, giving you one of the best team-building / HR management dashboard i have seen around. Great tool to use from selection strategy to succession planning via preparing group soft skills training and individual coaching programs....

This workshop was a real eye opener, on the quality/reliability of the various tools around the market, first, and second, on how, without the biased of having to commit to a consultative business model, a research intensive firm can come up with such a mind blowing and undisputed tool.

Not that i am pleased or devastated by my own results, but having gone through over a dozen of assessments, i believe i know myself well, and as such i know perfectly how to find workarounds for my own weaknesses (aggressive? me... who said aggressive!!!...Wooozzzaa....) in a work context. But let me tell you, this is a huge slap on the face for whoever thinks, or hopes, that people change! People get better at working around their dislikes and "disabilities" to achieve a positive result, but ultimately their strengths are constants and so are their "weaknesses"... Well, live with it... we all do!

If you are giving a shot to this awesome tool, which i would recommend to any decision maker, the "Best Match" report is a must do to benchmark yourself against a functional management role, and, while you are at it, it is well worth bracing yourself, if you have a tendency to push "social desirability" a notch too high, because you are in for a moment of blunt truth, and on the HR Chally, there is not much you will be able to hide...!...