Identikit candidates

But is the only way team bonding can work? Can science help you build a good team quickly? Roger Leveson, HR director of Pearce Retail Services argues just that. Pearce uses psychometric testing on all its employees to find out what personality type they are. It then holds the personality of every worker on file and, according to the data they have gathered, its employees tend to have a lower than average orientation to risk but a stronger work ethic.

Psychometric testing covers a range of things, from IQ and aptitude tests, to personality questionnaires and numeracy indicators. Pearce concentrates on personality questionnaires, to discover what types they have in their organisation, and whether there is a personality type typical to Pearce. Everyone is tested either at final interview stage or when they start at the company, and again over the course of their employment as part of their career development plan. Pearce uses psychometric tests as part of the recruitment process and once teams have been selected, to help them bond and understand each other's differences.

But for those of you thinking this is all a bit Orwellian, Leveson insists that the data is not used in a negative way. "We wouldn't reject someone because they didn't fit in with the corporate profile," he says. "We are looking for good relationship builders, but that is the only thing we insist on. Other than that there is room for lots of different types. In fact it is helpful to have a range of personalities in a team, to create a balance."

Leveson says that for Pearce (which is organised through an account structure, meaning the same team works on the same clients' projects throughout the country), it is vital these teams gel and stay together. Pearce put a team together for its Waitrose account three months ago, and psychometric testing was used at a team-building session.

Rachel Cains is an assistant cost manager for Pearce and part of the Waitrose team who took part in the bonding session. Each team member had to fill in a questionnaire before the session, and were then confronted with a "scarily accurate" personal profile, according to Cains. "It gave us an insight into how to approach each other," she says. "We had only known each other for a few months, so it was helpful to find out more."

The team was also given a set of bullet points on how to treat each other, according to their type. "This was helpful on site," adds Cains. It got us talking and working together better. The whole mood in the team lifted because we knew how to handle each other."

As an industry that relies on good teamwork, construction could gain from using psychometrics, says Leveson. But the industry is blind to its benefits at the moment, he argues. "If you ask a site manager why a project was a success or failure, the concept of the team will always come up. So why leave it to chance if it's that important? Behaviour and teamwork is neglected - it's just assumed that it will magically happen. We measure everything else, so why not personality?"

The use of psychometric testing is widespread in other UK sectors. In a Chartered Institute and Personal Development survey carried out this year, more than half of all employers admitted to using psychometric testing and saw it as the fourth most important selection process after CVs, interviews, application forms and letters.

Dr Charles Johnson, chair of the British Psychological Society's steering group on personality tests is also in no doubt that construction could benefit from using the tests. "A psychometric test tells you how likely a certain group of people are to work well together, and you can improve the chances of that happening by determining what sort of personalities they are."

He advises caution, however. "You have to be very careful about what you want to find out and what questions you ask. You also need to keep an open mind about what sort of personality you want, it may not be the one you are expecting. For example, for years it was assumed that to be a good salesman you had to be an extrovert. In fact some of the best salesmen aren't extrovert at all."

Measurement is also difficult. "There isn't a hard-and-fast indicator to see if the test has been successful, and it often takes a long time for the benefits to show up. However, you can measure productivity, profitability, wastage, safety and predictability on your project to see if they have improved by using a team put together with psychometrics."

Career development
The tests can also be used for career development, says Leveson. "We don't use the tests for principle screening, and just for creating teams. We also use them as part of our staff's personal development programmes to raise their awareness of their strengths and weaknesses. This can lead to training programmes and career development to improve on the weaknesses. It can also make you a better manager by making you more aware of how you relate to - and motivate - people."

Adrian Chapman, who is a Sainsburys account manager with Pearce, would agree. "Taking the test helped me to improve my general management skills by making me aware of how I relate to people and how to get the best out of them. It didn't tell me anything I didn't know, but raised aspects about myself that I didn't think of on a day-to-day basis. The test is uncanny in its ability to tell you about yourself.

"I wouldn't advise using the tests as the principal method of putting a team together," adds Chapman, "but you do get a better understanding of how people would react in certain circumstances. You can get a greater understanding of someone's character from the test than from having a general chat with them."

If you are convinced that a personality test could help you create the perfect team, be aware that significant training is required to administer the tests and give useful feedback. "You have to be trained," says Leveson. "In the wrong hands these tests can be extremely dangerous. The test should be exploratory, and not prescriptive. We've only ever had one employee refuse to take the test, and that was because he had taken one before and it had been used negatively against him."