Author: uku

Companies today are in the midst of transforming their business models, restructuring their teams, and rethinking how they service their customers. Many have also permanently integrated hybrid or remote work arrangements, moving away from an office-only structure. Employees who work in these environments, where there is constant change and poor communication, are experiencing high-stress levels and burnout. Many are reacting by Quiet Quitting or pulling back from collaborating and communicating with their colleagues.

What would it be like as a new hire starting out in this kind of environment, when more than ever, job seekers are demanding a great deal from potential employers as far as culture, work/life balance, and support from their managers? This scenario is happening to millions of new hires all over the world. What’s clear is this: Coming off the pandemic and The Great Resignation, the number of new hires, as well as the stress associated with starting a new job, has skyrocketed. How are HR teams dealing with this unprecedented number of new hires and how can they adjust their processes so that people don’t fall through the cracks?

The struggle to keep new hires is real: almost 30% of people will quit a new job within 90 days. According to Gallup, the estimated cost to replace an employee ranges between one-half to two times their annual salary. That’s a huge and recurring hit to the bottom line. 
In this time of uncertainty, we wanted to know if HR teams were able to deliver an impactful and effective onboarding experience to new hires, one that makes them want to stay well beyond the onboarding period.

Reality of the New Hire Experience

We surveyed 6,000 people through Wiley Workplace Research, of which 1,266 were new hires, to learn more about what people experienced when they started a new job. What we found is that the job market continues to be highly competitive. Given that nearly 25% of those we surveyed said they started with a new company in the last year, HR professionals and managers have been busy.

According to our findings, 75% of respondents said that some form of onboarding happened at their new company. For more than half of new employees, this experience lasted a week or less.

The process varied greatly, too. Some received zero direction or guidance while others received a highly structured and planned experience.

Critically, although almost all felt welcomed and accepted, only 38% finished their onboarding experience with an understanding of what was expected of them.

Onboarding in a Rapidly Changing Workplace

Consistency is key to delivering on expectations and ensuring that every new hire has a meaningful first experience that makes them want to stay. In fast-changing environments, this can be more challenging. To be successful, today’s onboarding process must be agile but well-planned. So how can HR professionals adapt?

One thing we know for certain is that employees want a positive work culture and an impactful employee experience. Your responsibility for this starts the minute you extend an offer to a candidate and continues throughout the employee’s tenure.

Make sure there is a hiring and onboarding process in place that is more than a simple orientation and communicate it to everyone who will be involved. Hiring managers, for example, might need training on how to conduct interviews. Frontline managers should also know how to assess the candidate to identify skills gaps and recommend individual training so that the new arrival feels confident and prepared for their role. This will ensure a seamless experience that gets the new hire ready for what’s next.

HR should also be clear to hiring teams and frontline managers about what the new hire was offered so that expectations are met, and promises are delivered. In a hectic or fast-paced workplace, this information can be missed. Misunderstandings will leave a bad impression and can lead to the new hire feeling misled or duped about their new job or company. People want to work in a role where expectations meet reality, and this is one way to make certain that happens.

Ultimately, your goal is to deliver a meaningful and individualized onboarding experience that not only helps new employees acclimate to the company, but also lays the groundwork for a positive work experience long term.

Pre-Boarding: Take this opportunity to connect with your new employees before they start to create a sense of belonging. This can include sending a care package, proposing a meet and greet, and keeping them updated via emails or video calls. This is also the perfect time to assign a buddy so that they have someone to reach out to who’s not in HR.

Orientation: This phase starts on their first official day on the job and should focus on logistical and administrative processes and procedures. Employee handbooks, paperwork, and mandatory training should help with acclimation. Let the new employee know how to give feedback and ask for help or support as they navigate their onboarding experience.

Foundation Building: This is the time to set the new hire up for success in their role by communicating about the company culture, brand values, opportunities for personal and professional development, and most importantly, how their role impacts the organization. Ensure your new hires know how to engage with their team effectively to jumpstart collaboration. Tools like Everything DiSC and The Five Behaviors can help set the foundation and continuously reinforce your culture.

Community Building: The key here is to help the new arrival feel welcomed, supported, and included within their team and the company. Providing opportunities to socialize with colleagues, build relationships, and take part in team bonding will help them connect on a deeper level, fostering better team collaboration and communication. For remote or hybrid employees, virtual activities will increase a sense of comradery and prevent a feeling of isolation or disconnectedness.

Post-Boarding: This phase is particularly important if your company is going through major changes or where employees feel burnt out and have high stress. While the onboarding process is officially over, HR teams should seek feedback on the new hire’s experience to confirm they delivered what was promised. Stay in touch to provide any additional support, information, training, or guidance if necessary. HR can also ask for feedback from hiring teams and frontline managers to continually improve and refine the process.

As you can see, this multi-prong approach requires more time and a detailed plan to successfully implement, but it is critical to go the extra mile in an environment of burnout and rapidly shifting priorities. Ideally, the onboarding process should be a month or longer, starting before the first day of work. This should be expanded in a workplace where significant changes are happening, or employee morale is low.

Whatever the environment, HR professionals and hiring managers should always focus on giving new arrivals a memorable and lasting experience that feels tailored to their individual needs. New hires are seeking an onboarding process that focuses on building connections and aligning with the culture, all while learning about how their role affects the company and contributes to outcomes.

This blog content belongs to Everything DiSC, a Wiley brand.

We know employees continue to be stressed, frustrated, and disengaged  Who can blame them? From The Great Resignation to the impact of Covid, employees have endured a considerable number of changes over the last few years. According to Gallup’s most recent report, 60% of the workforce is emotionally detached, while 19% report they are actively disengaged from work. They also found that 44% of employees globally reported feeling stressed most of the day.

How can organizations effectively tackle these issues? To answer this daunting question, Wiley Workplace Research surveyed thousands of individuals and learned this: The most impactful way to reduce stress and frustration is by nurturing a positive culture where employees are empowered to be the best version of themselves. To get there, let’s break down four misconceptions that leaders and organizations have about employees and their experience.

Myth #1: Not everyone wants to be a leader

While it may be true that not all employees want to be in a formal leadership position, that doesn’t mean they don’t want to be a leader. When we view leadership as skills that can be taught, rather than a quality or characteristic, the possibilities are endless. Everyone can be a leader when given the chance to learn and practice leadership skills. In fact, a recent Wiley Workplace Research survey found that 20% of respondents felt the biggest benefit from leadership training was employee empowerment. Nearly 1/3 said leadership training improved relationships and engagement. What does that look like in a practical sense? Organizations that give employees the skills needed to be successful will also help empower those employees to be leaders in their roles.

The bottom line is this: Developing leadership skills at every level is a worthy pursuit.

Myth #2: Pay is the most important priority for employees

While pay is a factor for employees, it is not the most important. Employees are more concerned about working in a positive culture.

The truth is that pay can only go so far when there is negative or toxic work culture. If The Great Resignation highlighted anything, it’s that people want to feel valued, seen, and heard by their employer.

Creating a positive work culture will not only improve engagement and retention, but also business outcomes.

Myth #3: Organizations don’t need to invest in the employee experience

Regardless of their role, today’s employees are stressed, disengaged, and frustrated, which can have a negative impact on performance. Knowing this, organizations need to decide how to best invest in the employee experience. The current Wiley Workplace Research survey found that employees who feel valued as a person by their employer will positively affect business outcomes. Specifically, 87% said they would feel less stressed, with 96% sharing they would be more productive. Additionally, 97% said that feeling valued would increase motivation and 96% said they would stay at the organization longer.

Employees want to feel valued, and organizations and leaders have an opportunity to create a working environment where this happens. Beyond showing employees that they are valued, having leaders who are collaborative, future-focused, and effective communicators will positively affect the employee experience.

Simply put, investing in the employee experience can positively impact the organization and its people.

Myth #4: Employees are resistant to “return” to work

Most of us have heard the adage, “it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.” The notion that employees are reluctant to return to work is a perfect example of this because it implies that they haven’t been working. In actuality, they are returning to the office, not their work. When employees constantly hear phrases that denigrate their performance, it can be demoralizing and create resentment. Moreover, employees have evolved, and the workplace needs to reflect this.

Effective communication is a critical part of organizational success. As employers and leaders consider language around change, the message conveyed should be clear, positive, and forward-thinking.

How a “return to work” message is conveyed and interpreted will significantly affect employee retention and engagement.

People want to work; however, their priorities about work experience have evolved, just like yours have. Today, people are seeking purpose, connection, validation, and growth in addition to a compensation and benefits package. People want to work for an organization that recognizes and values their potential and invests in their success. And they’ll keep looking until they find an employer who consistently delivers on these expectations. How can you influence the employee experience in a positive, lasting way? By listening. By making a commitment to employees that demonstrates your investment in creating a culture where people feel valued, heard, and empowered to lead in their roles. Only then will your organization start to fully unlock the potential of your people.

This blog content belongs to Everything DiSC, a Wiley brand.

A staggering number of people continue to leave their jobs, resulting in the perfect storm of staffing shortages and remaining employees being expected to pick up the slack. Current data from The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that over 4.5 million quit their jobs in March. What is the impact on those who stay?

According to Gallup, almost two-thirds of employees are disengaged in their current job. It should come as no surprise then that nearly half of managers from a previous Wiley survey reported having work-related stress; with 25% saying this was due to staffing shortages and quickly shifting priorities in the organization. On top of that, 50% of managers reported leadership changes in the last year, adding to the strain. While these numbers are alarming, an opportunity exists for organizations to retain and engage their employees by investing in employee experience.

Why focus on the employee experience?

First impressions matter. Initial interactions are a key predictor of retention. SHRM found that roughly 1 in 5 employees will leave their position within the first 90 days. Think about it: which onboarding process would you rather experience? One focusing on compliance, policies, and paperwork? Or onboarding that also incorporates an exploration of the workplace culture, vision for the future, and opportunities for growth? There’s no contest: a comprehensive onboarding process that prioritizes the employee is an opportunity for organizations to empower employees to be successful in their roles. When a company invests in its employees, they feel more connected to the work and business outcomes.

While a comprehensive onboarding process addresses retention and engagement with new employees, organizations still face the challenge of maintaining engagement to keep current employees.

Where should organizations prioritize efforts to keep current employees?

To answer that question, Wiley Workplace Research surveyed 5,000 respondents about their thoughts on leadership, the employee experience, and organizational priorities. Interestingly, three key common themes emerged about where organizations should focus priorities and thoughts on leadership. Respondents said organizations and leaders should focus on effective communication, access to support, and positive work culture.

1. Communication

It’s easy for people to say communication is critical to success, but when we don’t specify how or what to communicate, we lose people. Our current survey found that 82% of individual contributors and 86% of leaders feel confident in their ability to communicate effectively. Despite feeling confident in their ability to communicate effectively, respondents shared a need for clear and direct ways to streamline processes and systems, clarification of roles and expectations, and awareness of opportunities for development. One way organizations can improve effective communication is to ask employees how they want information shared. Learning if town halls, emails, meetings, a central communication hub, or a combination of those are the best ways to address communication concerns within an organization. Additionally, organizations that embrace a culture where employees feel safe to have open and honest conversations will improve communication.

2. Support

Employees want to feel that their organization values and cares about them. Employers should provide opportunities to communicate with leadership and access resources necessary for personal and professional success. We found a one-size fits all approach isn’t effective for retaining or engaging employees, so organizations should tailor support to meet the needs of individuals or groups. Two ways to support employees are to give feedback and opportunities to learn new skills. Our survey found that only 9% of respondents get regular feedback. Likewise, only 3% of respondents said they’d had the opportunity to learn a new skill in the last month. Based on these numbers, it comes as no surprise that employees don’t feel like they are supported. By learning what employees need to feel supported, organizations can tailor support to better meet the needs of their employees.

3. Culture

Our respondents shared they want organizations to focus on creating a culture that promotes a healthy work-life balance, encourages the development of positive relationships, and creates a work environment that is both psychologically and physically safe. While this may seem daunting, organizations have an opportunity to promote a positive and inclusive culture that fosters collaboration and empowers employees to be the best version of themselves. Organizations can positively affect culture with regular recognition of employees. While 79% of respondents said they are confident in their ability to recognize others for their work, only 7% said they receive recognition on a regular basis. Clearly, there is a disconnect between confidence in the ability to recognize others and doing it. Given how few employees receive recognition, organizations have an opportunity to positively change culture by regularly recognizing employees for their work.

 What do employees want?

When it comes to the goals, aspirations, and expectations of your employees, priorities do and should shift over time. Changes, both personal and professional, are inevitable. Organizations must acknowledge that a one-size fits all approach to the employee experience does not promote engagement and retention. Companies must be proactive and consider how to adapt and flex the employee experience to meet the current and ever-changing needs of their employees. One way that organizations have responded is by incorporating wellness benefits into the employee experience. While well intended, it may not be what employees want. When asked to rate aspects of the employee experience, our respondents didn’t see wellness benefits as a big factor. In fact, 63% of respondents ranked wellness benefits at the bottom of importance.

What came out on top? Culture, with 34% of respondents sharing that this is the most important thing in their experience. Employees want their organization and leaders to build a positive culture where everyone is empowered to unlock their potential. Employees are less concerned about where they work, PTO, or wellness benefits because, at the end of the day, a toxic work culture will always negatively influence their engagement, satisfaction, and ultimately their decision to stay. In fact, 96% responded that when they feel valued by their organization, they are more productive; 87% say they feel less stressed, and 96% are more likely to remain in their organization. To keep and engage employees, organizations must examine their current organizational culture and make critical changes where needed. Organizations that foster a positive culture are more likely to keep employees who are connected to the work and success of the organization.

The best investment a business can make

The best investment that a business can make is in its employees. Successful organizations prioritize the creation of a positive, collaborative, and inclusive work culture that’s focused on the employee experience. The payoff to this investment is a workforce that feels valued, connected, and supported while encouraging them to actively contribute to business outcomes.

This blog content belongs to Everything DiSC, a Wiley brand.

Everything DiSC 101

This blog content belongs to Everything DiSC, a Wiley brand.

Big News – Wiley has come out with a new engine/operating system of DiSC!

Catalyst™ is a new platform designed to make it easier for organizations to integrate DiSC into their work on an ongoing basis. It connects independent learning and facilitated sessions in a single, personalized space.

Everything DiSC on Catalyst is a game-changer. Your DiSC Profile is no longer just a PDF file – it is in a dynamic, live platform called Catalyst where you can see all of your workmates, how you are similar and different, and how you can work together more effectively. It truly is a “catalyst” for culture change.

Each Everything DiSC on Catalyst learning experience starts with our best-selling Everything DiSC Workplace application. From there, learners can continue their DiSC journey with other more specific DiSC profiles (Agile EQ, Management, Productive Conflict – stay tuned for more applications of DiSC coming in the future!). Wiley’s future vision is to migrate and create more applications of DiSC to Catalyst so that DiSC will become a continuous learning experience. Whether it’s learning to transform conflict or manage with impact, you will be able to continue adding value to your clients and learners over time using Everything DiSC on Catalyst.

The Everything DiSC Assessment – each person is invited to take the online Workplace assessment which is powered and proven by 40+ years of research. This self-assessment informs the content and builds the foundation for an ongoing, personalized learning experience. As soon as the assessment is completed, participants will have immediate access to the Catalyst platform.

Catalyst – an interactive learning platform that gives immediate access to the results of the assessment which allows learners to delve into their style and develop new skills. The platform houses all of the DiSC results for everyone in the learner’s organization which means that it is quick and easy to get real-time tips and strategies about how to build better working relationships with others.

Workplace on Catalyst Facilitation. Brings the learner’s DiSC results to life in an instructor-led experience that engages and educates. Possible to conduct as in-person training or as virtual training. Modules include scripted content, new learning videos, and activities. Short-format, modular design that is easily tailored to any group size or time constraint.

P.S. Catalyst currently works only in English and with English language profiles.

Introducing the Catalyst learning platform

Catalyst takes your Everything DiSC experience to the next level by making the hard work of lasting behavior change possible—even fun!

On Catalyst, learners will:

1. Take the Assessment

As the original DiSC provider with over 40 years of expertise, Everything DiSC offers a proven, scientifically validated assessment with a 90%+ accuracy rating from learners worldwide. Learners respond to behavioral statements on a five-point scale to measure their preferences and tendencies based on the DiSC model.

2. Discover Their DiSC Style

Catalyst delivers each learner’s assessment results using a personalized, narrative-style behavioral profile. The personalized profile content:

• Deepens self-understanding through the lens of each learner’s unique DiSC style
• Gives learners insights into their preferences and tendencies
• Lays the groundwork for a transformational learning experience full of “aha!” moments

3. Connect with Colleagues

The Find Colleagues feature enables learners to integrate DiSC into their day-to-day work lives. Learners can use this feature to:

• Compare DiSC styles and gain tips for more effective interactions
• Easily navigate through the platform to view comparison continua, actionable tips, and more
• Adapt to the unique needs of each person and situation they encounter in real-time

4. Learn about DiSC·ology

This section guides learners through modules that familiarize them with the DiSC model and the theory behind it. The modules are:

• The DiSC model
• The 12 styles
• DiSC research
• DiSC theory
• DiSC history

5. Access other DiSC assessments for Ongoing Learning

Catalyst offers a range of DiSC application content designed to help learners develop the social and emotional know-how for more effective interactions at work. After completing the first DiSC module (Workplace), the learner can continue their learning with the next DiSC profiles along with new facilitation from a certified DiSC trainer. This will help to keep DiSC alive in the organization and offer great follow-up training options for those who have already experienced DiSC once.

Investing in organizational culture should have a lasting impact – and now it can!

*Past Everything DiSC (any profile) and DiSC Classic in English learners are eligible for a free Everything DiSC Workplace on Catalyst upgrade!

For more information, download the Everything DiSC Catalyst brochure.

If Catalyst sounds interesting and you would like to know more, please let us know here and we can introduce you to the platform personally!

It’s no secret that many people love working from home. Over this past year, we were all tossed into a grand experiment in which many of us learned how to work remotely. Remote work comes with many advantages: suddenly, you are free to roll out of bed in the morning and join a meeting, pick up your child in the middle of the afternoon, or work out immediately after the workday ends.

However, many of these perceived benefits to the employee come at an almost imperceptible cost: we feel less connected to our workplace and coworkers. And this is not surprising! When we trade these natural times to connect for virtual interaction, the opportunities for colleagues to connect on a personal level—let alone express empathy—are few and far between. We think a decline in workplace empathy could tell part of the story of why people are feeling disconnected right now.

A 2020 State of Workplace Empathy report by Businessolver found that the number of employees who feel their workplace is empathetic has declined from 78% to 68%, down 10% from previous years. Furthermore, the percentage of HR professionals who felt their organization is empathetic declined even more dramatically from 95% to 77%.

At its core, empathy is about understanding someone else’s point of view, and it is essential for creating cooperative and productive relationships in the workplace. Research also shows that developing an empathetic workforce contributes to increased motivation, productivity, and lower turnover. If empathy is essential to workplace success, why might it be on the decline? We hypothesize that three common misconceptions can prevent leaders from prioritizing this important business imperative:

• Building an empathetic workforce takes more time than it’s worth.
• Expressing empathy requires a certain level of vulnerability and being vulnerable in the workplace can be seen as a weakness.
• It’s tough to know how people are feeling when you aren’t face-to-face, so practicing empathy isn’t essential in a remote/hybrid workplace.

However, you can overcome all three of these misconceptions with strategic investments in your workplace culture. Let’s take a look at each misconception and reframe our thinking.

Misconception #1: Building an empathic workforce takes more time than it’s worth

One of the keys to creating strong and healthy workplace morale is good communication. You’ve likely had meetings where people talk over one another, so only the loudest ideas in the room gain traction. Conversely, you may have seen the opposite, where no one talks, and the collective silence is taken as a tacit agreement to the prevailing idea. This is where a skill like empathy really matters, it allows people to read situations and respond accordingly, which fosters human connection, allowing people to work better together.

Empathy is considered a soft skill, also known as a social and emotional skill. These skills allow us to improve our relationships with our co-workers, develop more productive teams, and resolve conflicts when necessary. However, soft skills are hard work and require a time investment to be effective. Many of us don’t always think we have the time to invest in soft skills development because they can’t be directly tied to business objectives. But, research suggests that investing in employee well-being and soft skill development increases retention, engagement, productivity, and overall job satisfaction. With a time investment on the front end, your team will learn how to stretch beyond their natural tendencies to express empathy in every situation, ultimately getting to great ideas more quickly.

Misconception #2: Expressing empathy requires a certain level of vulnerability and being vulnerable in the workplace can be seen as a weakness

Empathy in the workplace requires you to be, to a certain extent, a little bit vulnerable. And you might be thinking, “be vulnerable at work? No thank you!” But being vulnerable at work is important because it helps to create a culture of trust. And if you’re a manager, creating a culture that allows space for vulnerability is critical. For instance, would you rather have your employees ask for help when they are having problems because they trust you will respond with empathy, or would you prefer to become aware of issues when deadlines are missed because your team does not feel comfortable opening up to you when concerns arise?

According to Harvard Business Review, “managers who display high levels of empathy have three times the impact on their employee’s performance than those who display low levels of empathy.” When leaders have high levels of emotional intelligence, they create an atmosphere where their employees feel supported and thus more engaged.

Misconception #3: It’s tough to know how people are feeling when you aren’t face-to-face, so practicing empathy isn’t essential in a remote/hybrid workplace

Your working environment has likely shifted due to the universal challenges of the past year. Virtual meetings and communications have become a part of your new normal. As a result, you are often not in physical proximity with your coworkers, making it easy to forget that you are working with people who also have their own communication styles, behaviors, and natural tendencies. Some coworkers thrive while working from home, while others miss all the daily interactions that come from working in an office. According to Virtual Vocations, there are four concrete ways to show empathy with a remote and hybrid team:

1. Incorporate unstructured face time into virtual meetings.
2. Allow each person time and space to contribute.
3. Listen and encourage different perspectives.
4. Always remain open to communication.

By implementing these concepts, empathy can increase in the remote or hybrid workplace, and what follows is a more inclusive, harmonious, and efficient remote team. That’s a result worth the effort.

Empathy is an investment in building an environment that people want to be a part of—the kind of place that inspires people to do what they do even better. The good news? You can reverse the decline in workplace empathy by providing your entire team with the opportunity to learn the social and emotional skills that are critical for creating lasting change through positive and productive day-to-day interactions.

Because empathy is a skill that doesn’t come naturally to everyone, and it takes effort to learn and develop, it’s imperative to provide your people with the right tools for self-discovery. That’s where Everything DiSC^® can help. Everything DiSC utilizes the DiSC model to describe four basic behavior styles: dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness. While identifying your DiSC style is a step towards richer personal growth and understanding, it is only one piece of the relationship puzzle. Taking that knowledge, a step further and putting it into practice leads to tangible transformation.

This blog content belongs to Everything DiSC, a Wiley brand.

Some DISC tools claim to measure “natural behavior” vs “adapted behavior”. These are typically older DISC tools similar to our DiSC Classic^® profiles. The questionnaire in these types of assessments consists of groups of four words where you have to choose a word that is most like you and a word that is least like you. As a result, you see two graphs – one with the words you picked that are most like you and one with the words that are least like you. The sum of these two graphs shows your DISC style.

Some DISC tool providers claim that the graph with your “most” choices shows “adapted behavior” (because it is a very conscious choice), while the graph with your “least” choices shows your “natural behavior” because it is a less conscious choice.

“Our researchers have not been able to find any scientific evidence that supports this interpretation, and when reviewing research reports from assessment providers who make this claim, we cannot find any research that documents that one graph shows natural behavior and the other adapted behavior.”

While you can have a lot of good conversations around natural and adapted behavior, we don’t see any evidence that DISC actually measures this.

Most other DISC providers claim that the first and second graphs measure adaptive and natural behaviour. This is a myth. The British Psychological Society, in the early 90s, performed its own validation study on the 24-item DISC questionnaire and concluded that Graph I and II were measuring nothing more than different views of self-perception. Current DISC providers continuing to make this assertion are working with outdated and unsupported facts.

When a person is responding to the basic 24-item questionnaire they are simply focusing on their self-perception – a singular focus. It is implausible to then believe that they could get two different results from that single focus such as adaptive and natural behaviour.

Adjusting Results for Social Bias

It is standard practice in the world of psychometric testing to recognize that when a person is assessing themselves, they have a tendency towards social bias – to choose items that are more socially desirable as being like them, such as “friendly”, and to not choose socially undesirable attributes such as “aggressive”.

The original 24-item questionnaire developed by John Cleaver offered attributes that describe the different behaviours that DISC measures and asked which of these attributes are most like you, and which are least like you. Then the least scores were subtracted from the most to determine the difference. This formed three graphs – most like, least like, and the difference. The reason for this type of questionnaire design was to reduce the impact of people tending to answer with responses that were more socially desirable.

This showed up in the psychometric analysis in that Graph 3, the difference scores, were always more internally reliable than Graphs 1 or 2.

For some reason, many providers of DISC profiles do not provide the results of Graph 3 – the only graph that can show the person’s overall self-perception with the removal of the social bias.

There is a myth that “you don’t need graph III, only using Graph I and II is more accurate”.

First, Wiley does not use Graph I, II and III anymore in their new generation tools (they were only used in DiSC Classic), since the new generation Everything DiSC instruments use a “circumplex”, which is a circular map, with 8 priorities around it. This “new” model goes all the way back to the origins of DiSC where it used to be drawn on a circle. So why the fuss about Graph I, II and III? Because some people claim Graph III is more accurate while others claim you should not consider Graph III, since using Graph I and II, “showing natural and adapted behavior” as some claim, is more effective.

Historically, Graph III is the result of adding up the scores of Graph I and Graph II.

Why was that done? Because the instrument (the 24 question forced-choice) was unprecise, and the research report written in 1996 proves that. By upgrading the questions and adding 4 new questions, Wiley strongly improved the accuracy of the instrument (called Personal Profile System 2800, and later on DiSC Classic II), which has been the DiSC profile of choice for decades.

In the early days of DISC, Walter Clarke and John Cleaver used the “vector analysis tool”, which consisted in a set of cards that would describe a person’s behavior, “as seen by herself and as seen by others”. William Moulton Marston also mentioned “natural and adapted behavior” in his writing. However, since John Cleaver designed the first 24 question assessment, there have been no specific questions measuring “adapted or natural” behavior. This was established by Wiley when they lead extensive research and by the British Society of Psychology around 1994. This does not mean that people do not adopt “natural” or “adapted” behavior, it just means that the 24 and subsequent DISC assessment questionnaires are not designed to measure that specifically.

There are many significant differences between the Everything DiSC® assessment and other DISC tools available in the marketplace, including our use of the little ‘i’ to differentiate our bestselling assessments from the others.

But what sets Everything DiSC apart as the most valid and reliable tool on the market?

The Assessment Questionnaire

The first DISC profile developed was a 24-item questionnaire developed by John Cleaver in the 1950s and most of the other DISC profiles available today still use a version of that original 24-item forced-choice questionnaire.

The Everything DiSC questionnaire that sets our profile apart is our use of a five-point Likert scale and our use of adaptive testing technology. There is no forced choice – respondents respond to all items. When the respondent answers inconsistently on any scale, the program asks additional questions to get a more accurate plot of their position on that scale.

This methodology increases the accuracy of the Everything DiSC assessment significantly over the 24 item version. This technology behind Everything DiSC profile is light years ahead of the technology behind other DISC profiles in the marketplace.

Four Scales versus Eight

Everything DiSC is the only DISC profile that measures more than the basic four scales of D, I, S and C. What our research has found is that the combination scales, Di, iS, SC  and CD are not an addition of the two styles they represent – they are an integration of the two dimensions.

For example, the Di style has strengths that are unique to the combination that are not shared by the D or i styles independently.

Research and Quality Standards

Everything DiSC is published by John Wiley & Sons, Wiley is a 208-year-old multinational publishing company with a strong reputation in the academic and professional world.

You probably had several Wiley-published textbooks during your university days. Wiley does not publish anything that has not met the most rigorous standards of validity and reliability.

So Wiley developed items that measure these four combination scales in 2007 when the first Everything DiSC profiles were released. The addition of adaptive testing technology in 2012 took our DiSC profiles to another level.

Sources:

https://www.integro.com.au/disc-vs-disc-the-little-i-isnt-the-only-way-our-disc-is-different/

https://www.disc-partners.com/the-truth-about-6-myths-about-disc-in-3-minutes/

https://ptc.bps.org.uk/tests-and-testing/test-reviews-and-registration

Wiley surveyed 3,000 hiring managers to understand recruiting, interviewing, selecting, and onboarding needs. The results, explored in detail in The State of Hiring whitepaper, are clear: what enables organizations to hire the best talent is a consistent, data-driven hiring process—even if that means a complete revamp.

Download the report here.

Read more about PXT® recruitment- and selection tool: https://ipbpartners.eu/en/profilext