Job seekers have become highly competitive, with the percentage of college graduates in the work world at an all-time high. With this information, how do we determine the best fit candidate? “What do you consider to be your strengths?” is one of the most common questions asked during job interviews. Imagine if there was an objective way to gather information about a candidate’s strengths and see how best they are suited for the job in question. The Gallup’s StrengthsFinder is a pre-employment psychometric assessment used just for that purpose. Below we will discuss this screening method, and give you tips on how best to get over this hurdle in the hiring process.
What Is the Gallup’s CliftonStrengths Test?
Gallup’s CliftonStrengths Assessment is a behavioural assessment used by employers to identify prospective employee’s unique strengths. The strengths as defined by the Gallup Assessment is a combo of skills, knowledge, and talents. Applying these strengths appropriately, make for a marked improvement in personal and work life.
The candidate has one hour to answer 177 sentence pairs presented to them. The sentence pairs may have no relationship, be similar or they may be opposite in nature. Throughout the test, 34 traits are highlighted based on your sentence selection. The candidate is expected to select the sentence which most reflects their thoughts or feelings.
Following the test, the candidate’s results reveal their top five strengths. Knowing a candidate’s assets puts the employer in a better position to hone these strengths and apply them to best fulfil the job’s role.
A person’s strengths are key to that person’s personality. Below are the 34 traits highlighted in the Gallup talent assessment:
->Analytical – The candidate’s ability to think about how factors will affect a given situation.
->Intellection – The candidate’s intellectual activity and how appreciative he/she is of intelligent and thoughtful discussions.
->Communication – These persons can easily put their thoughts and ideas into words and usually make great conversationalists.
->Individualisation – The candidate’s ability to identify a person’s unique traits and figure out how best these persons work with others.
->Relator – Candidates with this strength enjoy forming meaningful relationships with others.
->Futuristic – The candidate’s ability to inspire people around them with their personal vision of the future
->Strategic – The candidate’s ability to establish various means of attaining a goal.
->Focus – The candidate’s ability to prioritise items and handle them as necessary.
->Harmony – These candidates avoid conflict and try to create an environment with as little friction as possible
->Achiever – These candidates are ambitious and take pleasure in being productive.
->Input – Assesses how hungry the candidate is for knowledge.
->Context – These individuals appreciate history and its application to the present day.
->Developer – The candidate’s ability to help others grow, reaching their full potential.
->Ideation – The candidate’s interest in ideas.
->Empathy – The candidate’s ability to place themselves in another person’s position.
->Adaptability – The candidate’s ability to adjust to change.
->Competition – The candidate’s ability to assess themselves and other team members in a comparative manner.
->Includer – The candidate’s ability/willingness to include/accept others.
->Restorative – The candidate’s ability to quickly and appropriately find solutions to problems.
->Positivity – The candidate’s ability to have a good outlook, even in bleak situations.
->Activator – These are usually impatient individuals who work on turning ideas into action.
->Connectedness – These individuals believe that events are connected someway, somehow, with very little chance for coincidence.
->Belief – These persons usually stick to a set of core values which provide the general framework for their day to day living.
->Discipline – These persons enjoy routine.
->Maximiser – These persons focus on the strengths of individuals and find ways to stimulate those strengths to aid in the creation of overall success.
->Self-Assurance – These individuals possess a level of confidence and self-belief about their ability to manage their lives.
->Woo – These candidates enjoy meeting new people and connecting with them.
->Competition – Competitive individuals measure their performance by comparing their progress with that of others.
->Significance – While these individuals are independent they value being acknowledged for their work.
->Responsibility – These candidates take ownership of whatever tasks they say they would do.
->Learner – These candidates have a drive to continually learn and are constantly seeking outlets for self-improvement.
->Deliberative – These individuals anticipate future problems in their decision-making process, taking good care to ensure their choices reflect these considerations.
->Consistency – These individuals generally set clear rules and stick to them to ensure that they approach and treat all persons as equal as possible.
->Command – These are the individuals that take charge of a situation and make decisions to steer the situation.
How to Pass the Gallup’s CliftonStrengths Personality Test?
Personality tests can be tricky because there aren’t really any study guides that can help you to “pass” them. These assessments are just a means of checking if your personality traits align with the prospective employer’s vision as well as the job role. It’s either you have the traits, or you don’t. The Gallup personality test is no different in that regard, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still prepare.
Practising helps candidates to get familiar with the test material and exam format. By doing things such as practice papers and tackling Gallup test questions, candidates become comfortable, and the exam itself is almost a breeze, as the candidate can now work faster and respond to questions more accurately. While you won’t necessarily get past questions and answers to prepare yourself, just knowing what the questions may be like allows you to have that extra bit of confidence in answering the questions on the big day.
Conclusion
You now have a fairly good idea of what to expect going forward. The rest is pretty simple; Stick to the preparation plan you have outlined and maintain your cool when you get to the assessment centre. Answer the questions as honestly as possible and the job is either for you, or it isn’t. Either way, ensure you do your best.
