Why are behavioral profiles important in employee selection?

Many mugs where it is written I love my staff and my boss, symbol of staff relations and motivation in workplace.

Here at Gateway we use behavioral profiles to complement the skills and experience selection criteria that have been in place since Moses was a little boy. It’s not the resume that you’re looking to show up for work but the whole person so it’s a good idea to understand WHO that person is.

The link between motivation, behavior and engagement. 

Let’s back up, I find myself going to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, I had mentioned it in an earlier blog post just recently. 

Maslow states that we have a hierarchy of needs and our primary motivation is to fulfil those basic needs such as food, shelter, safety etc before we go on to satisfy those higher level needs such as self actualization, well being, esteem etc.

Of course none of this happens in isolation, so if you’re being offered a job with a higher salary it perhaps goes back to one of those more basic needs, which is why when people say that all of those people on government issued COVID benefits aren’t motivated, they’re wrong, they’re just satisfying a more basic need, the motivation to survive. 

 Now, let’s assume that you’ve met those basic needs and are now looking to satisfy those higher level needs, if you can’t then the motivation does not happen. It is up to the employer to create an environment that can motivate by satisfying those higher level needs. 

Those higher level needs/motivators include

  • Education
  • Rewards (it can be money, it can also be recognition, a promotion or whatever)
  • Love and belonging (think DEI and….drumroll…B)
  • Friendship or camaraderie in the office. Think teamwork

So let’s say you’ve recognized those higher level psychological motivators, you now have motivated the very behavior that you’re paying the person for. 

Once they’re motivated there is an emotional bond or need or desire and that leads to increased engagement which basically means that they are now motivated to do whatever they’re doing well. If you would like to see some examples of how this works in the corporate world go to our testimonials page at https://l6j.72f.myftpupload.com/  or better still, drop me a note and I’ll take 6 minutes of your life to do a quick behavioral profile on you, for you, courtesy of Predictive Index.