Hello and welcome to another installment of our educational video series on personality
testing in the workplace. In this video, we are going to talk about the Career Values
Test, a questionnaire for examining why we work and what motivates us. My name is Richard
Still, and I am the chief systems developer for Online Talent Manager, a psychometric
test developer based in the Netherlands.
The Octogram test is looking at HOW you work, the Career Values test is identifying WHY
you work.
The quick answer, the obvious answer, is that people work for money. We work to get paid
to buy the stuff we need and want. At a very basic level, that answer is correct. But it
is wrong to say that we work ONLY for money.
Let's perform a little thought experiment. Let's say that you are offered two jobs.
You are qualified for, and able to do both of these jobs, and both of these jobs are
going to pay double what you are currently making.
Job one is ummm a trainer in group dynamics. The other job is a manager in a call center
for the Red Cross. As a trainer, you would work closely with
people in a supportive atmosphere, you are an expert in your field, you have a lot of
autonomy and freedom to set your own schedule, and you need to be creative to communicate
your ideas to an audience.
As a manager in a call center for the Red Cross, you are in a direct management position
for a large group of people, you have lots of job security, and your work is benefiting
a good cause.
Now, if you look at both of these positions, One of these jobs is more appealing to you,
and since they both pay the same, that difference has nothing to do with money. So, money isn't
the only reason we work and in some cases it isn't even the most important reason. Peter
Warr describes this in something he calls the Vitamin Model.
There are lots of things you get out of work and like a vitamin, not getting enough of
these things is bad, getting too much either doesn't make a difference or it can become
a negative, and getting enough is just right. Maybe a better name for this would be the
Goldilocks Model.
Anyway, every person has different things they are looking for their career to provide.
Understanding these needs is essential for long term job satisfaction, engagement, and
happiness in your career.
So, let's see if there is a structure for these 'things' I keep talking about.
In the 1970's, MIT professor Edgar Schein looked into this question. His research identified
something he called Career Anchors.
Career Anchors were a list of the basic values, motives, and needs of working people. Later
research by him and others expanded that list in the 1980's. Online Talent Manager picked
up this research in 2003 by first changing the name of the list.
And then expanding the list for a 10 year research project. We tested over 20,000 candidates
and followed selected groups to find out just which values were the most significant and
testable values for employee success and engagement.
So, you can use these results for career coaching, recruitment matching, and directly helping
managers understand how to motivate their employees. For each value, it's important
for a manager to understand just exactly where that Goldilocks zone is. For an individual,
having a clearly articulated list of what you need your career to give you will make
your career planning much, much easier.
So let's look at the results and explain what OTM's Career Values test is measuring.
The names of the values are shortened up, so let's unpack each one and explain what
it's talking about.
Autonomy is about having freedom. Autonomy means being given a goal and then left to
achieve that goal using your own methods. If this is important to you, being micromanaged
will be enormously annoying to you. If you have a low score on autonomy, you want clear
guidelines and lot's of managerial oversight.
Creativity is thinking about new things, exploring options, and coming up with novel ideas. If
this is important to you, you want to be involved in product development or design or have a
job that allows you to think new ideas. A low score means that the propect of being
handed a blank sheet of paper, a blank canvas and being told to 'think up something new'
is stressful.
Entrepreneurship [ "Entrepreneurship", "(sp?)" "Owning", "being
your own boss", Richard Branson, "Richard Branson" ]
is wanting to be your own boss. Starting and building a business and reaping the benefits.
Creating something that you own. Entrepreneurs can be inside an organization, like a franchisee,
or outside like Elon Musk or Richard Branson. A high score here means you want to break
the mold and set your own destiny.
Competition is going head to head with your opponents and coming out on top. If this is
a strong career value for you, you will enjoy work situations that encourage you to compete
directly with others. You want to be the best and you want everyone else to know it. If
this is a low score, you want to work in situations where competition is downplayed or nonexistent.
Management is about wanting to be the big cheese, the top dog, the grand poobah. Where
entrepreneurship is about ownership, this value is about being in charge of other people.
If this is high on your list of values, you want to be in a position where you call the
shots and tell others when to jump. If this is a low score for you, moving up the management
ladder is not going to be satisfying or energizing to you.
Security safety, stability, knowing that you will have a job tomorrow and the month and
year after that. Security is economic, having a stable job, but it's also about continuity,
knowing that things will not shift out from under you. If this is important to you, and
your job isn't stable, this will be an enormous source of stress for you. On the other hand,
if it's not important to you, a stable job might be a bit boring, but it won't stress
you out.
Specialization is being the expert that everyone comes to for help. Being seen as the person
with the most indepth knowledge on a subject. So, if you think this is important, you need
to look for work that not only requires a level of expertise, you want a position that
requires a lot of study and knowledge. Programmers, Surgeons, Lawyers, and Architects are all
positions that require a high degree of specialized knowledge, but also, physical skills that
require practice and repetition to master might be attractive to you.
Service doing things that are good for others, being socially responsible, or working for
a good cause. If you have a high score here, you need to be in a position that you see
as helping society and making the world a better place, so look for work that means
something.
Collegiality means working with other people in a friendly and supportive environment.
This isn't the opposite of the 'Competition' value, it's just clarifying who you are competing
against. If collegiality is important to you, look for positions that require a lot of contact
with coworkers that is friendly and non-confrontational. If this score is low, you want to look for
work that is more solitary or that does not require a lot of interaction with the team.
Lifestyle is also about lifestyle balance, where do you put your energy? Would you give
up on a career opportunity if it had a negative effect on your personal life? Employees with
high scores here place a lot of emphasis on their personal life over their professional
life. This trait bounces up and down throughout your career, based on your home situation
and age. Sometimes you want to spend your time at home with your family, sometimes you
want to spend your time at the office advancing your career. But in either case, understanding
where lifestyle balance is in your hierarchy of values will help you identify what positions
will fit your needs and which ones will interfere with what is really important to you.
The Career Values test gives you a reliable and accurate inventory of what you value,
what you want, and what you need from your career. Knowing where your employees rank
these values will let you know what they think is important, how to keep them happy by giving
them what they actually want, and not just throwing more vitamins at them.
For more information on this and other tests from Online Talent Manager, please visit our
web site and subscribe to this channel for more instructional videos on personality testing
in the workplace.
Thank you for listening.