The “Right” and “Wrong” Way to Utilize DISC and Other Assessments

DISC is a behavioral/communication measuring tool that can be a great catalyst for developing personal and professional awareness in self and interaction with others.  It can give leaders, managers, and teams excellent insights into how to evoke more effective communication, develop emotional intelligence, assign people with job duties, generate rapport with clients, benefit sales conversations, reduce conflict, and increase understanding and connection.

DISC, along with Job Benchmarking, Motivators, Competencies Skills, EQ, and other surveys, can help H.R. staff and companies hire the “right people for the right jobs,” dramatically increasing job effectiveness and reducing the costs associated with a “miss-hire.” Assessments can assist in developing career paths that align with people’s natural styles, and provide guidance in creating a training path to develop new areas to stretch and strengthen a leader/employee.  

“Right Way”:

Some key components that are imperative for a positive and beneficial experience in utilizing DISC and other assessment tools the “right way” are:

• Understanding and determining your/the organization’s reasons and desired results from using assessment tools;
• Vetting the assessment company and assessments themselves to ensure that the company and surveys meet rigorous and perpetual standards of excellence in research, analysis, validity, adverse impact studies, case studies, scientific and detailed support for their assessments;
• Using a trained professional in the debriefing, reviewing, and application of the results with continuity in training, coaching and/or consulting for leadership/management development,
  team building, hiring, communication, etc.; and
• Understanding that they are “assessments,” which may be defined as a judgment, idea or opinion about something (or someone), and are very well utilized as part of the total hiring decision.

“Wrong Way”:

Here are some examples of how DISC and other assessment tools can be used the “wrong way”:

• Selecting a DISC/assessment tool based on lower price and/or with little or no investigation as to the validity of the instruments;
• Not asking for an adverse impact study (that holds up in a court of law); a valid adverse impact study shows that the assessments closely follow guidelines of the EEOC, stipulating that organizations use reasonable efforts to remove biases in their hiring process. Valid, vetted pre-employment assessment surveys, that do not discriminate in age, race, gender, culture, and other factors, should actually minimize liability risks by making the selection process fairer and more objective (rather than just using interviews which can be more subjective). Prospective employees have won lawsuits regarding misuse of pre-employment surveys when the hiring organization was unable to produce a valid adverse impact study from the assessment company;
• Spending money (and time) on employees taking assessments and then minimally or not fully applying the results to new learning, awareness, creating new habits in communication effectiveness, building the team, developing the leader/manager, etc.;
• Using invalid, incomplete DISC/assessment tools can do more harm than good because the results are not trustworthy;
• Having unqualified debriefing or little/no reviewing of the reports, resulting in misapplication, using “styles” as excuses in behaviors, pigeonholing people as “a type” and thus mislabeling as incapable of doing or being something outside their “type;” pinning people against each other rather than aligning, balancing, and encouraging the benefit of all types of staff to the organization.

To recap, in order to derive the full merit of these potentially insightful, highly valuable tools:

• Request a DISC assessment experience for yourself with a trained professional who can explain the results in detail and demonstrate the validity of their tools. Request and review white papers, ongoing research, adverse impact study, as provided by the assessment company;
• Work with the trained coach/consultant/trainer to discuss the desired outcomes in using the assessment tools and to formulate a plan for their application – leadership/management development, 360 reviews, team building, sales/customer service goals, public speaking/presentation skills, hiring, organizational culture review, workplace stress assessments-wellness initiatives; and
• Periodically reassess that your current assessment tools are still meeting your needs, validity standards, and being applied to their fullest benefit.

These measures will ensure that the investment that you and your organization put into the assessment tools in money, time, and people-resources will be returning an excellent value toward accomplishing your goals, maintaining the company’s mission/culture, and increasing your bottom-line by contributing to quality and care in delivering your products/services to your clients.