Safety and regulatory compliance practices are critical to keeping employees out of harm’s way and employers on the right side of the law. They’re also foundational to organizational productivity. That’s especially true in high-risk industries, where safety incidents can slow or stop normal operations.
Employees are more engaged when their workplaces are safe, and engaged employees are more productive. Safety, compliance, and productivity form a virtuous cycle: Safe employees are engaged and productive, and engaged employees do their part to ensure continued safety and compliance.
The question for many organizations is: How do you kick-start this cycle?
One answer is to use personality and mental health assessments to identify the best candidates for the job, as well as to provide continuous support for their mental health and well-being.
Employees’ personality traits and psychological states directly impact their safety. For example, research shows that neuroticism can negatively influence safety behavior, while conscientiousness positively influences it.
Employers can use personality and mental health assessments to uncover valuable information that they can use to tailor their team structure, training, and support resources based on their workers’ unique strengths and needs, enhancing both individual well-being and organizational effectiveness.
The key is understanding what assessments to use and how to use them.
Picking the right assessments for the workplace
Personality and mental health assessments serve different purposes. Some evaluate general personality traits, while others act more like snapshots of mood and mental state. To choose the right one, an organization must clarify the specific goal of the assessment.
One approach is to identify a concrete safety or compliance goal, such as reducing accident rates by a specific percentage or lowering self-reported stress levels among employees. As with any objective, the more specific and measurable the safety goal is, the more actionable and achievable it is likely to be.
Next, determine how you’ll reach that goal. Will you reduce accident rates by rolling out a new safety training program that better speaks to employees? Will you lower stress levels by providing better mental health resources?
Understanding your goal and plan to reach it will help you select an assessment that will deliver relevant insights. For example, if your goal is to update safety training, you could use a personality trait assessment to tailor training to your workforce’s unique risk profile.
Organizations should opt for well-researched tests with evidence linking their scores to job performance or safety outcomes. Example assessments include:
- The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-3 (MMPI-3) is a broadband measure of adult personality and psychopathology. The MMPI is often used in hiring processes to look for tendencies that could lead to safety risks, such as aggression.
- The Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) is a personality assessment often used to explore and clarify dimensions of personality during preemployment screenings.
- The Quality of Life Inventory (QOLI) measures a person’s satisfaction in areas such as family, work, and health. QOLI can bolster wellness programs by identifying areas of an employee’s life where they could use more support.
- The Beck Scales assess mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. They are often used to shape support resources and guide appropriate roles and responsibilities.
Turning insights into action: Making the most of assessment results
Anyone administering assessments or using their results to make decisions must be properly trained. Misusing or misunderstanding an assessment can nullify its benefits. For example, basing hiring decisions solely on QOLI scores — an assessment of life satisfaction — may not align with relevant job criteria. A person’s current level of life satisfaction isn’t the most salient criterion for many jobs. Organizations should also follow laws and regulations regarding the use of assessments in the workplace.
Additionally, assessments should be used to support, not penalize, employees. If someone scores high on a depression inventory, for example, the appropriate response is to offer support resources. When assessments are seen as punitive, employees may withhold honest responses, which reduces the results’ reliability and impact.
Common productive applications of assessments include:
- Improving employee support: Assessment data can help employers understand employees’ common struggles and develop wellness programs tailored to those needs.
- Strengthening compliance: Assessment data can help shape safety training and compliance processes. For example, if employees score low on conscientiousness, their employer could use a buddy system to promote increased responsibility and diligence.
- Role and team alignment: Employers can use assessments in the hiring process to help find candidates with personality traits associated with safety behaviors, such as agreeableness. Assessment data can also help employers place employees in roles and teams where their strengths will shine.
- Monitoring risk factors: Assessment data can help employers monitor changes in employees’ moods and mental states, especially after significant safety incidents. Regular reassessments can help organizations identify new risk factors and adjust organizational training and policies to address them before they become a problem.
Workplace personality and mental health assessments work best in context
Personality and mental health assessments can be vital in shaping safety and compliance practices and boosting employee performance.
However, assessments should not be the sole basis for important decisions about hiring, training content, wellness programs, or other policies and processes. Instead, assessments should be combined with a variety of data points — such as interviews, investigations, and systems data — to create the most robust picture possible.
When used as part of a broader decision-making framework, personality and mental health assessments provide valuable insights that help organizations make informed, evidence-based decisions for their workforce and their mission.
To learn about how Pearson’s assessment solutions can support safety and productivity in high-risk industries, contact us today.