HR-PI-institutions

This 1 resource gives colleges a huge advantage


Resourceful universities are using an HR tool in an innovative way that’s giving them a leg-up in the student recruitment race

HR-PI-students When times get tough, and your wallet is looking a little less plump than usual, that’s when you realize your coffee table makes a great ironing board and your dishwasher makes a nice vegetable steamer. In other words, nothing sparks innovation like having to do more with less.

And as colleges and universities across the country continue to feel the burden of tightening budgets while feeling the pressure to attract and retain great staff, and also ensuring students are successful post-graduation, there’s a relatively old human resources (HR) tool that’s getting more bang for its buck and helping resourceful institutions keep ahead of the game.

It’s called the Predictive Index (PI) and it measures motivating needs and workforce behaviors…it’s also been around since 1955 in one form or another. Designed to help employers comply with their obligations under the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, it can be used for both selection and career development opportunities.

Learn more about the Predictive Index here.

“The information delivered helps the HR manager gain insight into a set of common workplace behaviors such as: how an individual will participate in teams; how s/he takes action in a role or a given task; what drives a person’s decision making process; what drives an individual’s communication style; and how s/he delegates tasks versus authority,” explained Scott Kiefer, vice president of the management consulting firm, The Oliver Group.

And it’s this HR tool that’s helping universities gain the advantage in recruitment, retention, and rankings success.

(Next page: How colleges are using the PI)

Now, more than ever, thanks to a host of online learning options, such as MOOCs, higher education institutions need to focus on hiring not just professors who can publish, but who can also fit in with the college’s mission and relate to its students.

During a recent keynote, Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen related a story about a talk given at a university. After his lecture, a university official pointed out people in the audience, as well as board members, who gave substantial funds to the university. They were all alumni. Intrigued, Christensen asked these members why they donated, and without fail, each mentioned a professor that changed his/her life.

“It didn’t matter if they were now a mathematician or financial analyst,” he explained. “It wasn’t about what was taught, but how the professor inspired them.

Christensen’s recommendation for colleges when recruiting faculty is to focus less on their publishing capabilities and expert knowledge of material, and more on their ability to connect to others.

“I predict that those universities that in a decade from now will be in turmoil will only see themselves survive another day because of the resources provided by loyal alumni,” he said.

Read the full story here.

According to Kiefer, institutions across the country are now making more use of the PI tool than ever before, exactly for this reason; but for campus staff as well.

“The complementary job analytic tool, the PRO, allows managers to identify the specific behavioral requirements for a particular role.  A PRO incorporates input from several stakeholders within the [institution] so it is highly targeted,” he explained. “By analyzing an individual’s PI with the specific job PRO, an [HR] manager can quickly see the fits and gaps to conduct more informed interviews and make more accurate decisions.

For example, Bellarmine University has used the PI for their hires, while the University of Louisville uses the PI for development in the Advancement Office and athletics programs. Mississippi State University’s women’s volleyball team uses PI for team development, and Miami University of Ohio uses PI for their men’s golf team.

“Finding and retaining talent across a [an institution] continues to be a growing challenge,” said Kiefer. “Faced with a growing talent shortage, a workforce plan is needed that directly supports strategic intent. Colleges and universities are unique based on location, educational focus, philosophy and many other factors. Using workforce analytics to ensure job-fit for professors and administrators optimizes individual development and team dynamics.”

As a result, he emphasized, students benefit from higher levels of employee engagement because professors and administrators have greater job satisfaction and retention.

Behavioral assessments are proving so valuable that today, 92 percent of companies report using assessment data to improve workplace performance, according to the Aberdeen Research Group.

And that’s probably because, as Kiefer noted, institutions have experienced “significant ROI and business impact in several areas including: reducing turnover; improving retention; increasing employee engagement and satisfaction;” asset growth and productivity; and cost savings in hiring, training and development.

Amazingly enough, colleges and universities aren’t stopping there: Many are using the HR tool to help students land long-lasting jobs post-graduation.

(Next page: An HR tool for student success)

The University of Louisville, outside of using the PI for administrative hires, uses the HR tool in their MBA program for student development; and Kansas University also uses PI in their MBA program.

But perhaps the best example, said Kiefer, is the IIT Stuart School of Business (a business school with a focus on technology, offering Bachelor, Master, Doctoral and non-degree programs), which is part of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

One of the pride points for the school is its ability to give students a leg-up and help the U.S. stay globally competitive–one of the tools it credits with succeeding in these goals is by using the PI to gauge students as potential future employees.

Luigi Pecoraro, director of Career Services at IIT Stuart realized that preparing students for the workforce was becoming increasingly challenging, thanks to a global recession and students having trouble identifying good employment fits.

Wanting to “speak the language that the employers used” to improve IIT Stuart MBA graduate placement rates, Pecoraro, with his HR background, sought to find out how employers were selecting students and how he could match those selection benchmarks to his students to help them seek the right opportunities.

“Luigi administered the PI assessment to a group of 46 MBA students in their native languages,” said Kiefer. “Now, instead of perhaps talking themselves into roles they won’t fit into, students have keen ideas of the types of careers they’d fit best into.”

According to a recent survey, 87 percent of Pecoraro’s class believed that the PI confirmed information about their personalities, and students were able to describe those traits more objectively after reviewing the results. 100 percent of students were able to describe how the PI helped them in their career search.

“Through the intentional use of the PI tool and matching science to the human factor, IIT Stuart’s MBA program has been able to develop students who are more self-aware and are better aligned with what the workforce is seeking,” concluded Kiefer. “By becoming informed on what organizations are looking for, students understand how to develop their careers right out of the gate.”

And as many higher education institutions are quickly becoming aware, nothing says attracting more students like having a great job placement rate. Read the full story here.

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