What the Scores Mean
These scores are calculated as a percentage of the possible points your employee could have scored for each attribute. This can help you understand how strong their leanings are towards a specific trait. As you might guess, a higher score means they identify with an attribute more. This isn't a right-or-wrong type of score- just an extra indicator of their preferences!
What is the Domain Breakdown?
This is a snapshot of what form of compensation matters most to your employee and the balance between them. The report is intentionally broad and should be used only as a guide as assess their fit with an opportunity. The three domains (Approach, Environment, and Outcomes) are presented as a diagram proportionally divided to correlate with their responses. We find it helps to see the forest before we focus on the trees.
Tester Lester's Results
Your employee's results have been compiled below! You will see their High-low Report, which includes breakdowns of their top 3 and bottom 3 key indicators, as well as their Mid Report, which shows which attributes fall in the center of their workplace preferences.
Check out our guide on How to Read Your Results.
Domain Breakdown
What's this?The strength of the Domain scores indicates what class of compensation an individual values most. While not as specific as the individual results that follow, these results help us better understand the priorities and enable more productive conversations. Consider focusing negotiations and team-building discussions around the Domains that are strongest, even if you need to give a little on the side of the chart that is least represented. (For more tips on developing Domain-based strategies, contact our team of consultants.)
Attribute Results
Low
The results of the assessment have resulted in a tie between one or more key indicator. When this happens in the High-Low Report, we provide you with the results for all results that tied. For this reason, you see more than three results in the Low Report.
High Report
The following results represent the Attributes that contribute most to your employee or candidate's fit with employment opportunities. With the insights shared below, you should be able to develop a strategy that will effectively support evaluating a candidate, contract negotiation, performance evaluation, and aid with their self-discovery.
Collaboration Highest Attribute
77%
What's this?Strategic Insights
A person with collaboration high in their results is often an excellent match for roles where they get to be part of a team. In the sports world, they are more basketball than cross-country. They would rather be part of a band than a solo singer-songwriter. It is useful to find those who value high levels of collaboration because some of the jobs that people assume are the most mundane receive some of the highest levels of job satisfaction. Why? It’s often because the people in those jobs get to work closely with others as part of a team, and that’s what they end up enjoying the most.
Having collaboration in their top three means that this person wants to be part of a larger process and contributing to a team is a large part of what motivates them. They can get beyond some of the more mundane tasks if they feel connected to the larger team and process. Managers should make sure these employees are actually working on team projects rather than working alongside a bunch of people doing their own thing with very little interaction. We’re social creatures, and we love to achieve things together. This is especially true for those scoring high on collaboration.
Things to Consider for Fit with a Position
- Will the person in this position primarily work alone or will they work closely with others on a team?
- Find other people who have this position and ask them what they like most about their job. See if anything related to “the people they work with” shows up. If so, that’s an excellent clue that this is might be a good position for someone scoring high on collaboration.
- What do you know about the team they would be working on? How often do they see each other and work together? How socially functional is it?
Evaluation Questions
This section provides a series of questions, tailored to the tested attributes, that will help you as you recruit top talent, work to retain valued team members, and develop a more effective work culture.
Describe your ideal workflow?
Collaboration can signal a high degree of value in the “process.” Often those who value collaboration describe their job as a series of tasks and responsibilities and how they interact with the overall operation of the business. They tend to be less focused on the outcome (that is not to say the outcome isn’t important to them). To ensure a candidate is a good fit with your team you need to learn how they like to work. This question can help with that.
When working on a team, who is ultimately responsible for the outcome? Who should receive credit or blame for the results of a project?
Ownership of an idea and its outcome is important. Those who value collaboration are often good contributors to group conversations. Their willingness to accept responsibility or share praise for coauthored work varies. Understanding these motivators will help you manage them more effectively.
If you were given a solo project that you did not know how to do, how would you get it done?
Sometimes those who value collaboration struggle to work solo. If you are looking for someone to perform tasks on their own, you need to understand how they’ll go about accomplishing the task at hand. Collaboration signals a propensity to work with others, but it is also a common attribute of great networkers. Asking this question will help you strategize with the employee and understand how their skill set can be used to bring others together to solve a problem.
Predictability
73%
What's this?Strategic Insights
A person who values predictability is likely a planner. They get more done when they know what is expected and feel capable of exceeding those expectations. They would likely be frustrated by a lack of structure or when there isn't clear guidance.
For these employees, knowing in advance how they will be evaluated is crucial to their success in a new position. Unfortunately, most employers are rarely clear enough about what they need from their employees. This lack of clarity can lead otherwise talented employees to underperform. Because these employees value predictability, they will likely see the tasks that need to be done before others do. This ability to anticipate needs can make them very valuable to their organization as an employee and a leader. Chaos is not what they are looking for.
Regardless of what work they are doing, clear communication, particularly related to expected outcomes, is the key to predictability (and success) in virtually all jobs. Some jobs lend themselves to this type of clarity more than others.
Predictability can also be a management decision, so you have influence in this. If a person’s manager has not given them a clear sense of what is expected from them, they can and should ask some questions to clarify. But even if they do not, a lot of good can be done by checking in on them for the first few months and asking them specifically if there are any aspects of their job that they wish were more predictable. Asking is caring, and actually making improvements is 10x better.
Things to Consider for Fit with a Position
- What would their ideal working day/work week look like?
- How will they know if they are doing a good job?
Evaluation Questions
This section provides a series of questions, tailored to the tested attributes, that will help you as you recruit top talent, work to retain valued team members, and develop a more effective work culture.
Tell me about a time where a job was excessively unpredictable and how that impacted work.
Stories like these are invaluable for gaining insight into how people actually see the world, what their expectations are, and what negativities they are acutely sensitive too. Listen to their story and pay attention to what they explain as the central things that were “excessively unpredictable” and the negative outcomes they associate with them. How does this fit with the position you are considering for them?
What is the importance of quality control?
Predictability can coincide with reliability. Some aspects of your operations particularly need to be performed consistently, repeatedly, and reliably. While no one likes boring or exessively repetitive work, someone who values predictability might be ideally suited to work on products that don’t vary as much but have a standard that must be met. They know what to expect every day, what it will take, and when they have done a good job. This question will help you assess a person's capacity to help in these situations.
Tell me about a time when something you were asked to do changed and you had to adjust. What did you do? How did it make you feel?
This question will help you learn how someone deals with change (and emphasize the importance of some degree of flexibility).
Purpose
70%
What's this?Strategic Insights
With purpose high in a person’s results, they are likely to do well in positions that connect their efforts with their employer's mission, or even to a deeper purpose. They will likely find the greatest satisfaction in their work if they are part of a cause or have a clear sense of who they are serving and are not just collecting a paycheck or working up the corporate ladder. They want to focus on what they feel matters most and they are looking to connect with organizations that share their passions. That doesn’t mean that purpose must come at the organizational level. They can find purpose in many different areas, including in their contribution to clients, their co-workers/team, or the overarching goal/mission of the organization.
The trend over the last decades has been for people to come into the workforce hoping to receive more purpose from their jobs than previous generations did. This is tricky because satisfaction is based on expectations, and high, but unmet, expectations can lead to disillusionment, which is devastating to intrinsic motivation. Some people feel that their labor and their life is intrinsically valuable, so they want their hours of effort each day to contribute to making a difference to something they care about. They can achieve this by using their resources to support their relationships and hobbies outside of work. But if they scored high in purpose, it means that at this time in their life they want to also feel that the work they are doing is also making a difference.
Many accountants, for instance, find high levels of meaning in their work. An in-depth study discovered more than 14 different ways that they found that meaning. Some felt meaning in their role as the referee for the financial marketplace, others found great meaning in helping their companies organize their resources, while others loved being a vital part of their team.
Not everyone is looking for this from their work. Many people won't feel deeply connected an organization’s mission or will simply consider it a nice side benefit to the job. That approach is also just fine. A perk of employees who do find purpose in their work is that their intrinsic motivation goes through the roof.
In the end, there are more ways to find meaning in one’s work than most realize. However, it’s important that everyone understand that virtually no job will feel meaningful all of the time. Doctors spend a lot of time doing paperwork, firefighters spend a lot of time on false alarms and waiting in the station. Do your best to help employees connect with the meaningful parts of their work, but be realistic upfront about the parts that are not as sexy. Help employees create those moments and savor them. Traditions, celebrations, time spent with the end user all have been shown to increase meaning of work.
In the end, purpose comes from relationships and service. People scoring high on meaning will do best in positions that resonate with contributions that they want to make, and that don’t force them to forsake their life and relationships outside of work. Research shows that longer-term purpose and life satisfaction comes to workers who are better able to balance their work and non-work lives. Research also shows that’s better for their companies too.
Things to Consider for Fit with a Position
- What aspects of the work do they think they will find the most meaningful? This is a good insight into what they’re hoping the job will be like, and a good chance for you to know if they are likely to be satisfied or disappointed, or if perhaps they can be shown other ways of meaning.
- Why did the founders start the organization? A good (true) origin story can help people see how they are part of something.
- Share how you feel about the mission of the organization, and what you find most meaningful about the job.
- If you have an employee who finds a lot of meaning in their job and whose position is the same or similar to the position you are considering for someone else, it might be well worth it to set up a time for the two to meet and talk away from the watchful eyes and ears of others.
Evaluation Questions
This section provides a series of questions, tailored to the tested attributes, that will help you as you recruit top talent, work to retain valued team members, and develop a more effective work culture.
What matters most to you?
Exploring what a person values most will help you determine how to best motivate them. Their purpose might be social, familial, personal, environmental, religious, or other. To best assess fit you need to make sure that you can align their tasks and other forms of compensation to help them live a more satisfying work life.
What excites you about working with us?
This is a question designed to flip the script. If purpose is important to the person you are interviewing, one of the best ways to improve or assess “fit” is to see how strongly they align with your core mission or culture.
If you had all the money, you would ever need, how would you spend your time?
If you remove social and financial constraints, you can learn about a person's interests and values. At the end of the day, a person who is motivated by purpose can only thrive when they are supporting that purpose. Allowing them to talk about themselves and their dreams will help you see what motives them and how that might fit with the role you are considering.
Low Report
These Attributes are the least correlated with “fit" for your employee or candidate. In any relationship or negotiation, it is helpful to know what each side might be able to give in exchange for what you need. Where a low need from an employee or candidate aligns with a high need on your part, a mutually beneficial arrangement can likely be made.
The results of the assessment have resulted in a tie between one or more key indicator. When this happens in the High-Low Report, we provide you with the results for all results that tied. For this reason, you see more than three results in the Low Report.
Clarity
43%
What's this?Strategic Insights
Someone with clarity in their bottom three is ok with relatively high levels of uncertainty. High tolerance for uncertainty, even a little chaos, allows them to thrive where others falter. Still, beware if your managers simply communicate unnecessarily vague expectations.
High tolerance for uncertainty is inherently entrepreneurial and makes an employee well suited for being on the cutting edge of new initiatives. They are a good fit for spearheading the creation of new projects within companies or even creating new companies. Also, those who score low in valuing predictability can often thrive in startups. While managers should always try to provide as much clarity as possible for employees, it is often difficult to do that upfront. People who score very high on clarity can have a hard time in some creative fields and may burn out. People who score lower in desires for clarity are more likely to thrive in fields such as arts and entertainment where outcomes tend to be subjective and success is very hard to define upfront, but easier to recognize after the fact.
Variety
43%
What's this?Strategic Insights
First off, everybody likes a change of pace from time to time. Having variety low in their report doesn’t mean that this person likes boredom or monotony. What it does say is that they want to know what they’re going to do at work, be able to prepare well for it, and become good at it. High variety positions often preclude people from becoming particularly good at any one thing. Positions where they have a good idea of what they will be doing from day to day are more predictable and allow them to become better at specific things and feel confident that they are doing a good job.
Predictable jobs are less likely to cause people to feel anxious, as well. Expected outcomes are generally clearer and so they can look forward to what they’re going to do at work with some surety, and they’re more likely to get quite good at it. There are many benefits to having stability at work.
Low variety positions are where experts are forged. Virtually every single Olympian has a very low variety job. Yet it’s thrilling, they are extremely good at what they do, and they are openly admired by others for it. Low variety overlaps well with specialization. Try to get some sense of what this person wants to be an expert at. Over time the employee will gravitate toward the things they really enjoy and will stick around long enough to become an expert.
Specialization
43%
What's this?Strategic Insights
Scholars often delineate between ‘generalists’ and ‘specialists.’ Because this person cares less about being a specialist, they can focus all of their efforts on being an excellent generalist. Great generalists are extremely valuable, and generally make excellent managers, because they can “speak the language” of different areas of expertise and help them work together. The best generalists are excellent at making connections between different specialties because they have some familiarity with all of them. Specialists are generally less equipped to do this and must rely on generalists to bridge the gap between different groups. A team of all specialists, with no generalists, is likely to be producing at far below their capacity because they are short of people who understand the various parts well enough to effectively combine them. This is why generalists often become the best managers (and specialists are somewhat less likely to excel in management positions).
The generalists who thrive are often, in reality, specialists in organization and social politics. What this means is that they are particularly good at helping teams work together, organizing their efforts, smoothing over social mismatches between various factions, and helping everyone get the most from their work. They can be helped tremendously by being given the vision of themself as a generalist who needs to get pretty good at lots of things but doesn’t necessarily have to be the very best in any one thing. This can be extremely valuable.
Flexibility
37%
What's this?Strategic Insights
Scoring low on flexibility often is coupled with having a relatively high score on predictability. An excellent example here is many government jobs. Virtually all federal/state/local government positions have firm start and end times, combined with good vacation/sick policies, healthcare, and retirement, which allows employees to plan. The very same positions in the private sector may come with more flexibility, but also have a way of taking over people’s lives, keeping them late at work, and providing them less time for other things. Many lawyers, for instance, opt for jobs with the government because they can have a good income and still be home at a reasonable and predictable time every day. These types of positions can be something of a template for successful positions for those few people scoring low on flexibility.
Many people prefer jobs with rigid time-in/time-out requirements because it gives them a reliable schedule. The right non-flexible job can provide a wonderful work-life balance for certain people. Structure allows them to compartmentalize and give more to each aspect of their life.
Autonomy Lowest Attribute
33%
What's this?Strategic Insights
When someone scores low on their desire for autonomy, it does not mean that they aren’t self-motivated or independent. The opposite of autonomy is coordination. This indicates that this person likes being part of a team. They enjoy the interactions and the feeling of being an important part of a multi-faceted team or process. Many high-profile careers are relatively low autonomy (acting, professional sports, politics, etc) because their outcome and processes are deeply intertwined with the work of others. Low autonomy is not a negative, and it doesn’t mean that these employees need their hands held more than others. Not at all.
That said, nobody likes to be micromanaged. Even in the most interdependent positions, how the managers oversee and correct their employees matters a lot. Micromanaging drives everyone crazy and makes it harder to do great work. Low autonomy demands mean this person is happy working with others, not that they want to be micromanaged and nitpicked. Also, people who score low on autonomy can make incredible managers because they enjoy the processes of coordination and negotiation and take more care on this front than others. They may need a little training early on, and some occasional reminders that giving people as much discretion as they can within the needs of the project has vastly better outcomes than micromanaging. For all their strengths, they may do well with some occasional reminders that others still want their autonomy. What feels to the manager like high involvement and giving frequent helpful input (which they love) can to their subordinates feel more like a lack of trust and micromanaging. Reducing the autonomy of others unnecessarily can obliterate intrinsic motivation.
Mid Report
These key-indicators, while not as relevant to negotiation strategies or culture building, but should be studied and understood because, over the course of an employee’s career, it is likely that one or more of these results will increase in importance. There also might be an insight or question that will be of value, particularly as you compare this employee to others.
Location
70%
What's this?Strategic Insights
With location high in a person’s report, it is important to them that they consider not only who their employer is but also where they are working. The physical environment we work in can have a tremendous impact on our creativity, productivity, and even our mental health. Some people want to work in big cities, others small towns. Maybe living near family for the time being, or having some physical distance, is critical to their professional success. A commute to work may help them focus, or it may be a burden. All of this can change over time. If this is something they have scored high on, then have very open and honest conversations upfront about what they’re looking for and about what you can offer.
Another key, but often overlooked, aspect of our work lives is the aesthetic of our work environment. For individuals with location high in their results, things like how their workspace is decorated, the temperature of the office, or even the "style" or "vibe" might have a profound impact on their ability to thrive at work. Having some leeway to decorate their own space can also be a big boon. This may seem frivolous to some managers, but it’s actually very reasonable. People who are working full-time spend more of their waking life at work than they do in their own homes. It can make a big difference.
Covid-19 is changing the calculus of work and location. A 2021 Harvard study found that of those working remotely, only 12% wanted to go back to working in the office every day as they did before. The rest (88%) want to either stay fully remote or end up in a hybrid situation where they work remotely a few days a week and in the office a few days a week.
Even before Covid-19, there was research showing that “homeworking” is associated with increases in employee well-being and more balanced work-home relationships, which are associated with happier more productive employees and lower turnover. The good news is that even with these changes, after the first four months of transition, productivity has kept pace with, or exceeded pre-pandemic levels.
When a person scores high on location it does not necessarily mean that they either want to work remotely or would rather not. They might prefer either one and because of the last few years, they are likely to have more options to find a good fit than they did pre-Covid. So now it’s not just whether they like their work location, it may be whether they like a work location at all. This is all pretty new territory. Even if an employee is working from home, they will need to spend some time and effort creating a physical location that helps them achieve their work and personal goals. If this is something that matters to them you can buy a lot of goodwill, and some extra productivity, if you offer some money for furniture or technology to help them better arrange their remote/home work situation.
For many in the youngest generation of workers, those in their teens and early 20s, there seem to be more benefits to at least initially working in person, instead of remotely. A recent Microsoft study found that most (but not all) Gen Z employees are not as well served by remote work as those in the older generations. Networking, mentorship, and training are easier in person. Compounding that is the fact that often workers at this age don’t have enough money to build a good work-from-home location, and many are without families of their own or tight social structures. Remote work, therefore, can rob them of built-in social connections and be incredibly isolating. Everyone’s situation is different, but location is worth more thought than many give it.
Some may love the fast pace of a hectic and creative open office. Some may love the peace of their own office, with a door between them and the world. Others would rather live in a cabin with their family and get their work done over satellite internet. Even post-Covid, all in-person work offices aren’t going to die, workers will just have more choices. Increasingly, employees will have more opportunities to craft not just the career they want, but the location and nature of the life they want to lead. Taking a proactive approach to their location can be central to that.
Things to Consider for Fit with a Position
- If this is in-person work, ask them what they most value about being at work in person and what their ideal office setup would be.
- Where do most of the team live? Does that match what they are looking for?
- What is the commute like (train, walking, biking)?
Evaluation Questions
This section provides a series of questions, tailored to the tested attributes, that will help you as you recruit top talent, work to retain valued team members, and develop a more effective work culture.
What is your favorite thing about (insert city/town)?
Preference for a given location can be based on a myriad of features. Proximity to family, weather, nightlife, culture, recreation, and entertainment to name just a few. Understanding why a person is attached to a certain location can be predictive of likely employment longevity.
Can you describe your ideal workspace?
Our physical environment can have a profound impact on our well-being and mood. Doing the same job in an office rather than in a cubical or where we see others frequently rather than in seclusion can make all the difference to our sense of fulfillment. For someone who tests high in Location, this could be the difference between a great job and a terrible one. If you have some showpiece work locations, show them.
How did you decide you wanted to live here?
Asking someone to relive their decisions helps them put into words what was likely a subconscious process. This allows them to learn about their own preferences and help you determine if they are a good long-term fit for your organization.
Excitement
67%
What's this?Strategic Insights
Someone with excitement high in their results is looking for something that provides them with a literal physical/psychological reaction, at least from time to time. Excitement and work are not often spoken of together because most jobs, even great ones that people enjoy, aren't usually 'exciting'. Nobody wants a monotonous job, but they would probably prefer something beyond just ‘not monotonous.’
Excitement is mental, but it has effects on the whole body. It is motivating, thrilling, and can enliven the senses. Excitement is associated with perceived danger, and there are many jobs with a risk of physical danger (firefighter, etc.). These important jobs require people who thrive in dangerous situations. [A caution: ‘thriving’ in dangerous situations is not the same as good decision-making in dangerous situations. Make sure you pick for, and train for, both]. Physical danger, however, is not the only form of perceived danger. Social danger can also be exhilarating. Virtually any type of performance in front of a crowd is exciting, from arts to athletics, to public speaking, sales, or even teaching.
Excitement at work often overlaps with unpredictability. A hallmark of exciting work is solving unexpected problems on the fly, even problems outside of their job description or skill set. When done right this can lead to a lot of growth and personal development. People who can make things happen AND make good decisions on the fly in high-stress situations are diamonds in the rough.
Forging a new path is also exciting. When a worker can go to bed at night knowing that something new was created today because of the work that they did, that's exciting. While some of the jobs listed above may provide a thrill, unpredictability and urgency also go hand in hand with excitement and can be found in many positions. Those who don’t value excitement will often pass up on such jobs because of their unpredictability and urgency.
Things to Consider for Fit with a Position
- What parts of this job will they think are the most exciting?
- What are the most tedious parts of this job? Be very open and upfront about those. The new firefighter who understands up front that a lot of the job is waiting and cleaning things up at the station, interspersed with moments of high intensity is much happier than the firefighter who comes in imagining nonstop excitement and is met with a different reality. Create accurate expectations.
Evaluation Questions
This section provides a series of questions, tailored to the tested attributes, that will help you as you recruit top talent, work to retain valued team members, and develop a more effective work culture.
If work is not exciting who all is responsible for changing that, and how?
Boredom leads to underproductivity and resentment, particularly for those who value excitement in their work. Knowing how someone copes with these inevitable feelings will be critical to managing them effectively.
What do you do to keep from getting bored at work?
While managers and leadership certainly play a vital role in how work feels, ultimately we feel the most empowered when we feel that our success is our responsibility. This question is designed to help your team or recruits see how they can take ownership of their approach to work.
How will I know when you are ready for a new challenge or more responsibility?
The goal here is to see the interviewee's self-awareness. Do they know when they are bored? Can you help lay the groundwork for open dialogue in the future?
Status
67%
What's this?Strategic Insights
Status is different from power or financial reward. With status high on their list this person likely values respect/admiration, voluntary deference by others, prestige, or having their advice sought by others. Status-seeking is universal and, done right, can lead to considerable long-term benefits for employee and employer alike.
It is important to understand that status-seeking is not necessarily inherently selfish. Rather than calling it status, call it “earned respect.” It’s social feedback that helps measure the success of one’s endeavors. Earned respect distinguishes employees who have exceeded expectations. This means that they are particularly attuned to the value of the evaluations of other humans. Caring about others, and what they think, is a great thing! It can obviously be overdone, and these employees need to be willing to do the right thing even if it won’t help them socially/politically. However, many times, those social signals are helping to point them in the right direction.
They might benefit from a position where they will be able to stand out quickly. One way this often happens is in “big fish, small pond” situations where from the get-go their employer is grateful, and even a little surprised, to have someone like them joining their team. Their title and responsibilities might be a little more prestigious than they would be at a larger organization. This is meaningful to these employees and often drives them to do even better work and take their job even more seriously than others who care less about status.
Being the expert of something on a team is also a great way to enjoy earned respect. Getting to utilize valuable skills that they may hold (or develop) on a team where their contributions are vital can be very rewarding to them, even without a title. And if they enjoy a little more competition, find them a job that focuses largely on individual contributions and recognizes them.
Things to Consider for Fit with a Position
- Is there a clear path to promotion? What does that look like? Be very clear on this upfront and stand by your word.
- Tell them a little bit about some of their top performers and what makes them stand out.
- If you are hoping to woo them over, tell them a little about what stands out to you in their application. (NOTE: this isn’t just for ego-boosting, this is to give them a sense of how much you value/are impressed by them from the get-go.)
Evaluation Questions
This section provides a series of questions, tailored to the tested attributes, that will help you as you recruit top talent, work to retain valued team members, and develop a more effective work culture.
In one sentence describe how you want people to see you professionally?
Status or influence can be a powerful motivator. From the answers to this question, you can gain insight into whether you can help the interviewee reach their goals
If you are looking back over your career in 5 years from now, how will you know if you have been successful?
Success looks different to each of us. Having a personalized definition from a team member will help you with your review process.
Five years from now what does your ideal job look like? What title do you have?
The ability to forecast a career path is critical to motivating a person who is seeking influence. Answers to this question will help you determine the likelihood of satisfaction (and longevity) for an individual within your organization.
Leadership
63%
What's this?Strategic Insights
We give a little more detail in this “low” section than usual because sometimes people are concerned about seeing a “low” on leadership. Having leadership at the bottom of their results does not at all mean that they would be a poor leader. What it suggests is that they are someone who can succeed even if their supervisor is not the best. They are more ok with being their own inspiration and feel fairly self-motivated. With their ability to work even without strong leadership, you don't need to be as concerned with the quality of their leadership team.
The most important things that management/leadership can provide for people are motivation, culture, training, and coordination. People scoring low on leadership will still be able to do well in situations where they are excited to work with those on their team, where the culture is already pretty good, where they can train themselves to do what they will be asked to do, and in areas where they are intrinsically motivated. 80% of employees say they could do their work without a manager. These employees just know this upfront! So, if you have a position that suffers due to a deficit in leadership, just make sure the employee can supply those four things for themself, and they might be a good fit.
Training
60%
What's this?Strategic Insights
With training at the bottom of their results, this person is likely comfortable figuring it out as they go, or they are at a point in their careers where they already have a lot to offer. Since they don’t feel a great need for new training, there’s a good chance that they want to make significant contributions now. Look at what IS meaningful for them, and you’ll get much better insight into what they want out of a job right now, and it’s likely to include making a meaningful impact.
For these employees, opportunities for training become fewer and fewer as their responsibilities increase and they work independently. That said, we all need training, and the best are constantly learning. Just because this person scored low on a desire for training right now doesn’t mean that they are untrainable, it just means that learning new things isn’t a large value-add to them. This is often the case with seasoned managers or those who have already earned the title of “expert” in something. Figure out what they feel they are expert in.
Remuneration
60%
What's this?Strategic Insights
Having remuneration at the bottom of their results table does not mean that this person doesn’t care about money. We all need money. What is suggested by this result is that after meeting their basic needs and personal financial goals, how much money they make takes a backseat to other forms of compensation. They might prefer to be “paid” with more time with family, a friendly work environment, or a prestigious title.
A study from Princeton University found that having a higher income increases happiness only up to about $80,000 per year. Beyond that, higher pay doesn’t influence our happiness very much, and other things start to matter more. This finding has been replicated multiple times. Most people think that being rich will make them happy. Relatedly, most people making $80,000 a year don’t feel rich, but studies show they are just as likely to be happy as people who are making much more money. A person with remuneration low on their list is free to prioritize other values.
Employers often love the idea of having remuneration low in their report, for obvious reasons. But don’t make the mistake of thinking it just means you can pay them less. It primarily means that they care about other things more, so if you’re able to provide the things that are high on their list, enjoy the fact that right now they don’t require as much money to be satisfied.
Sociability
43%
What's this?Strategic Insights
A person scoring low in sociability is not necessarily bad at socializing. This score does not give you secret insight into who might be a jerk. Nor does it mean that this person works best alone. What it means is that they do not require as much social interaction to be fulfilled at work. With sociability low in their rankings this person might not be greatly impacted by relationships with their co-workers or is ok working more independently. Office politics are likely to have less impact on their life unless it makes getting the job done more difficult. They can be considered for employment that is remote, or independent, with more confidence than most.
Sociability is one of the rarest attributes to find in the bottom of someone’s results. Interacting with others helps us achieve a degree of personal satisfaction. This person is likely getting their social connections elsewhere. That said, there may be some benefit to occasionally going out of your way to help them feel welcomed and valued as a member of the team. Even those who aren’t looking for a lot of sociability at work want to feel respected and valued. This is particularly true if they are in a leadership position.