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.
Herb Green'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.)
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.
Predictability Highest Attribute
70%
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).
Variety
53%
What's this?Strategic Insights
A person with variety in their top attributes is ripe for jobs that don’t necessarily look the same from one month to the next, or even from day to day. One option for them could be jobs that are project-based. They may also enjoy working on a team where everyone needs to wear multiple hats from time to time (for instance, most startups). Variety comes with unpredictability, which might be a perk for these employees. They get to solve problems, and often thrive being thrown into situations in which they are not yet an expert. Variety creates opportunities to gain competency and experience in many different areas. This person will enjoy situations where others might be stressed.
Variety doesn’t necessarily mean a chaotic or unpredictable workplace (though it can in some fields and may be what some want). Some jobs, such as K-12 teaching, coaching, and construction, have variety built into them because of the different topics, lessons, projects, and people these professionals interact with every day.
This person is well suited for positions that have structural reasons for why their work varies. Does the position entail working for a variety of different clients on their various needs? From consulting to accounting to home remodeling, working with clients is one way that variety can be built in. Another often overlooked source of variety is working on a small team or in a small organization. As part of a smaller firm, day-to-day tasks and problems must be addressed by relatively few people, so an individual must pitch in across multiple areas for the venture to succeed.
Things to Consider for Fit with a Position
- Is this a position where they are working with different clients at any given time, and how different might the jobs be for various clients?
- What will their day-to-day work look like? (Often, in positions with high variety this will be a hard question to answer well, and that can actually be a good thing.)
- How big is the team that they will be working on and how do job assignments get handed out?
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 steps would you take if you felt that your job was getting too monotonous?
Repetition is a comfort to some and agony for others. When a person craves variety the most important thing you can do to keep them engaged is to honor that need and build their work profile accordingly. Start a conversation that fuels a conversation around workload balance.
How do you keep yourself challenged at work?
Helping your team feel a sense of ownership for their own progress is important. A need for variety highlights the importance of constantly creating personal benchmarks. Helping your team members challenge themselves will help you keep them engaged.
Describe the project that you most enjoyed working on in the past ten years (not the project that was the most meaningful, but the most enjoyable) Why was it your favorite?
A happy employee is a productive employee, and a productive employee is more likely to be a happy employee. It’s a virtuous circle. Starting a conversation around a good memory will help you learn how to structure their list of tasks in a more compelling way to maximize enjoyment and performance.
Specialization
53%
What's this?Strategic Insights
Specialization means that one values becoming very good at something. Every crime procedural (Bones), heist movie (Oceans 11), or superhero story (Avengers), features a team of highly-specialized individuals. These teams work because the group is made up of people who are incredibly good at their individual specialties. That is their calling card. To them, it’s exciting, satisfying, and meaningful to be the resident ‘expert’ on something. The fact that specialization is in their top means that this is something that will be particularly enjoyable to them.
Scholars often delineate between ‘generalists’ and ‘specialists.’ These workers want to be (or become) a specialist. They thrive in situations where they can focus on hard skills that are easy to quantify. That doesn’t mean they have to be a coder, but they excel in positions where they can measure, and show, their progress in some skill or area.
Perhaps surprising to some, specialization often dovetails nicely with ‘low-variety’ jobs. This does NOT mean boring jobs. It means jobs where the employee is given the time and opportunity to become excellent. Sometimes high-specialization/low-variety jobs can be extremely competitive (think: professional video gamer). Most areas of specialization, however, are not so crowded, and so it doesn’t take the same high levels of expertise for them to become the best in the room or the best in the company. Feeling like they are the resident expert in _____ will be very meaningful to them.
Becoming a specialist also helps these employees recognize how important their work is, because they are often the only one who can perform a particular task. This also comes with some social status. Expertise can be achieved in any job or at any education level. Master’s degrees and trade certifications are, by definition, paths to mastery in some specific area, and a great way to show expertise. Even if they don’t have the specification yet, people who are scoring high on this list are more likely to thrive in positions where they need to teach themselves skills and are heavily relied on for things that only they can do, or do well. In these positions, people scoring high on specialization are excellent at learning on the job.
Things to Consider for Fit with a Position
- What hard skills are vital for this job, and how do they feel about spending a lot of time getting good at those things?
- Are there any company-sponsored trainings/certifications that are part of this job?
- Does your organization offer any educational programs to help employees gain more skills? Share if you do as this will be particularly valuable to them.
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 do you do best
When someone values specialization they are either already experts or would derive great self-worth from becoming an expert in a task or skill. A good indication of how this desire can serve your organization is to ask about their self-assessed areas of greatest strength, and the areas where they would like to build that strength (see below).
Describe a time when you were asked to do something that you feel you do poorly? How did you approach the task knowing you weren’t ideally suited to it?
No one is good at everything. Specialists often prefer to delegate or outsource that which they do not do well. That might be an excellent option in your organization, or it might not. Regardless, asking this question will help you start a discussion on options for meeting expectations that fall outside of a member of your team's core competencies.
What would you like to become known as an expert in?
Often, we don’t know our employees’ aspirations. For someone who correlates highly with Specialization, their skills-based ambitions drive them. Understanding their goals and working with them to develop the desired skills will help you retain them and make them more valuable members of the team.
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.
Sociability
27%
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.
Remuneration
27%
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.
Status Lowest Attribute
20%
What's this?Strategic Insights
Having status-seeking relatively low in their motivations means that this person can more easily find value and meaning without being constantly recognized by others, (though it always feels good to be admired). It can also mean that even in less meaningful/enjoyable work they are getting enough respect and esteem in their life outside of work that they don’t need as much affirmation from their job and co-workers.
These employees can often do better than others in work that they are proud to have done even if few ever see or recognize that they did it. Not needing as much external validation opens up good opportunities that others might not enjoy. It has the side benefit of helping to keep them away from some of the potential pitfalls and temptations of self-aggrandizement and self-promotion that can sometimes make it more difficult for managers to clearly evaluate other, more status-oriented, employees.
On the flip side, they might not do a good enough job of self-promotion and might even downplay their own accomplishments. This is one case where you might want to look a little deeper and see if the work they have done is better than what they are giving it credit for. Because they don’t get as much satisfaction as others from external affirmation, it might not occur to them how important it is to recognize their own achievements.
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
53%
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.
Purpose
53%
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.
Collaboration
47%
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.
Flexibility
47%
What's this?Strategic Insights
Someone with flexibility high in their results wants to be able to blend their work life more seamlessly with the needs and desires they have for the rest of their life. Research shows that those who value flexibility and free time tend to be the happiest and most satisfied with their lives. Why? Because it's a signal that they are overcoming some of the '(un)happiness traps’ of spending too much time focusing on the wrong things, and this makes for better, happier, and more productive employees.
People scoring very high on flexibility often do very well in jobs that are outcome-oriented, perhaps project-based, and where strict, in-person face-to-face time is not frequently demanded. More and more employers are making ways for people to be more flexible with their work, and this is becoming a great differentiator in the job marketplace. Flexibility can be offered in hourly jobs, salaried positions, and production-based work. Management is the single most important factor in determining the flexibility of the organization’s operations. More significant even than the industry or organization.
Covid-19 has lead to dramatic changes regarding flexibility and work. A 2021 Harvard study found that of the workers who switched to working remotely, only 12% wanted to go back to work every day in the office as they did before. The rest wanted to either stay fully remote or return to a hybrid situation with some days remote and some in-office every week. Why? The main reason: flexibility. It turns out that feeling like they are under the constant watchful eyes of their employers and co-workers can dramatically curtail how flexible they feel and act with their time. After the first three to four months of remote work in 2020, productivity return to pre-pandemic levels or higher and has remained high, (though some employers have a hard time believing that, and some jobs obviously require more in-person presence). With a little distance, trust, and freedom people have successfully balanced their work with the most important things in their lives. Some managers and CEOs have a hard time with this and may not be a great match for people scoring very high in flexibility.
This is a fast-moving situation, but things will not just go back to how they were before. The overwhelming majority of workers have tasted flexibility and don’t want to give it up. Among workers who have children, men or women (that’s most of the workforce), only 2% want to return to in-person full time work. Increasingly, the companies that offer the most flexibility will be able to get the best talent. With good trust, good management, and good systems, flexibility can be increased in virtually all jobs to some extent.
Things to Consider for Fit with a Position
- Is there a set time that they absolutely must arrive and leave every day? Is there a good reason for this?
- Are there social pressures to be present even when there is no work to be done?
- What is the organization’s sick day/vacation policy?
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.
Can you give me an example of a day where you were able to get a lot done but still had a lot of flexibility?
A need for flexibility is not the inability to accept structure, it is a desire for fluidity within that structure. You can learn a lot about a person and how they manage their own time by simply asking how they would like to spend their time. The ability to effectively use unstructured time is a huge asset to an employer
Why can policies and procedures be important?
Managing someone with a high need for flexibility is about having a good fence rather than a strong leash. It is important that the boundaries are well understood. So, asking how they view policies will facilitate a conversation about boundaries and help you both understand where to build the fence.
Does a good manager give very clear directions or train their people and just trust them to get the job done?
This question is obviously a false binary. A good manager can give good high-level direction and trust them to make decisions on how to get there. The purpose of asking it is to force them to choose one over the other and explain why. There is more than one way to lead. If you are going to support a flexible employment relationship it is important to understand what leadership style your team members respond to best.
Autonomy
43%
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.
Training
43%
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.
Leadership
37%
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.
Excitement
37%
What's this?Strategic Insights
When someone scores low on excitement, it doesn't mean that they like boring work or, even worse, that they are boring. There are plenty of very boring wilderness firefighters. What it means is that they don't need their work to provide that excitement for them. This is a great asset because it gives you more flexibility with them, whereas others, who really want to find excitement AT WORK, have fewer options.
Because excitement is often the result of some amount of chaos, jobs that focus on making things run smoothly, creating steady growth, and organizing or arranging things/operations tend to be about creating order, and are very fulfilling, even if they are less exciting.
Excitement is a whole-body experience, and day-in-day-out, excitement can be rough on a person. People who desire excitement at work often pay for it in other areas. This person may be aware of that and have plenty of excitement elsewhere. Scoring low on excitement may make them a poor fit for a few jobs, but it makes them a much better fit for far more jobs. In fact, reducing excitement can motivate people in this category. This is exactly what you want from your IT professionals, receptionists, most operations roles, accountants, quality control, and risk management, to name a few. Jobs that focus on making things run smoothly are often especially satisfying for those who score low on excitement, to the benefit everyone.
Clarity
27%
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.