Hospitality advisory AETHOS Consulting Group shares insight on the psychological factors that limit the accuracy and usefulness of HR surveys and assessments. Dr. James Houran, Managing Director of AETHOS and author of the study discusses the "One Size Fits All" approach many assessments in the market use when providing feedback on applicants or incumbents.

In Houran's white paper, a sample personality evaluation is given to highlight how a candidate or hiring manager will accept vague and illegitimate feedback. The Barnum Effect is present when a person finds personal meaning in statements that could apply to many people. The Forer Effect finds that people tend to accept vague or overly general personality descriptions as uniquely applicable to them. Some of the more notable conclusions and recommendations in Houran's analysis include:

  • Hope, wishful thinking, vanity and the tendency to make sense out of experience are the most common explanations given for the Forer effect;
  • Item Response Theory (IRT) is the best practice approach for constructing, validating and scoring assessments;
  • Assessment systems should assist HR professionals by pointing to the right questions to be addressed in live behavioral interviews and follow-ups. They should further provide detailed, customized and actionable feedback and points of discussion to ensure maximum effectiveness;
  • Standardized assessments should always be in conjunction with both a behavioral interview and a process whereby a person's experience, education, qualifications, competence and trainability can be assessed.

"People tend to accept claims about themselves in proportion to their desire that these be true rather than in proportion to their objective accuracy," states Dr. Houran. People will psychologically "fill in the blanks" and provide a coherent picture of what is seen, heard and perceived, even though examination of evidence would reveal the data to be vague and inconsistent.

20|20 Assess, a wholly owned subsidiary of AETHOS Consulting Group, is the proprietary suite of hospitality-specific HR and leadership software for performance management. The 20|20 Assess surveys include: 20|20 Skills - a hospitality-specific competency assessment for use across the employment cycle and different employee levels; Employee Opinion Surveys - the industry-validated and benchmarked survey gauging integrity, partnership, entrepreneurship, service-branding and reality issues; and the 360-Degree Review - an evaluation that compares an individual's self-assessment to performance feedback from multiple sources.

About AETHOS Consulting Group is a global advisory firm serving the hospitality industry. The firm enhances value for its partner organizations via access, know-how and fresh thinking. Core competencies include executive search, compensation consulting, business strategy and psychometric assessments. The firm is designed as a single partnership operating from ten locations in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. www.aethoscg.com.

Leora Lanz (for AETHOS)
LHL Communications
AETHOS Consulting Group