“You are who you are,” Tony Quartaro of the Culture Index told the National Fastener Distributors Association autumn conference. “We are wired at a young age.”

Though you can modify some behaviors, “you are who you are,” Quartaro repeated.

The Culture Index can tell prospective employers what kind of employee an applicant will be because the personality test tells you what applicants are wired as, Quartaro explained.

Interviews can be rehearsed and resumes embellished for a candidate to look better.  And on the flip side a potential top salesperson may be overlooked by HR due to a “plain” resume.

Quartaro introduced the Culture Index to conferees as a test to determine personality fit on traits such as autonomy, self-driven, independent thinking, goal-oriented, controlling or even just stubborn.

Co-presenters Jim Ruetz of AIS All Integrated Solutions and Bill Derry of Field were going to recommend the Index to each other, only to discover each already used it. 

Ruetz said the Index helps an employee “find the hunter vs. the farmer” for a job opening. But Ruetz added the goal is to only find one or the other. AIS has a variety of employees and there is “not one perfect profile. You don’t want stable full of ‘hunters’ who might offend some customers,” Ruetz explained.

NFDA members participated in the survey prior to the conference.

Different personality types may be needed among sales staff.  One personality may be best and landing a customer, another in managing certain clients to keep them satisfied and educated on your fasteners in order to sell more total product.

The Index software can help a company determine factors such as sociability. Is the applicant an extrovert or quiet? Outgoing vs. guarded?

Derry said the Index helps answer the question, “Where do they get their energy from?”

Paul McCartney and Frank Lloyd Wright would score high on ingenuity and multi-dimensional thinking. Quartaro suggested. 

“They can see something that is not there.”

Many of those traits are hard to spot in traditional interviews, Quartaro explained.

Derry said one trait the Index can help point out is consistency. “There is a correlation between personality and performance,” Derry noted.

The right mix of people can reduce employee turnover, Quartaro added.

The Index doesn’t eliminate whole categories of people, Quartaro said. It is about placing them appropriately. The employee with patience may have the attention space for repetitive tasks, but not have the sensitivity to deadlines. It is part of looking at the whole company team for placing people, he explained.

The tests reveal “many of those traits that are hard to spot in traditional interviews.” Web: cindexinc.com