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How to Use the 3D DISC Personality Profile for Better Hiring Results

Written by Coleen Kulkin | 11/10/17 11:36 AM

Many believe DISC is the gold-standard in psychometric tools, and it is true that it's used all over the world in companies today. It's simple, accurate, and legally-defensible as a hiring tool. Most importantly, it makes leading and managing easier.

But like many good things, even the best ones get improved. They become simply the original or "classic" version. We regard them highly and discover we can't live without their time-honored and long-established convenience. But often there is a newer version enhancing the original version. We love our cell phones, but how many of us are still toting around a bag phone? Right now there is something even more effective than your DISC tool.

The "Original" DISC

DISC Personality Testing has been gaining popularity for years and now. Try applying for a job without having to answer a random question about how many family pictures you prefer hanging on your office wall. What does that have to do with your actual job? A lot, according to a growing number of employers and recruiters trying to predict job fulfillment, productivity, group dynamics, leadership, and best fit within a job role or corporate culture. The fact is Behavioral Benchmarking with DISC works for many companies and has created a billion-dollar industry. Yes, today's hiring managers, recruiters, and HR departments are utilizing DISC more than ever before because it works to augment that gut instinct or inform beyond the resume and lists of accolades.

There is something better, even more powerful than DISC but also utilizes DISC at its core. What if you could get an industrial strength DISC that was like a triple espresso to your regular strength DISC?

There is such an instrument that takes the one-dimensional DISC and increases its accuracy, triples its effectiveness, and rounds DISC out to a three-dimensional view that is particularly spot-on in delivering a short list of candidates fully behaviorally-vetted in the most critical soft-skills categories. Drum roll, please!

The "3D" - DISC, TEAMS, and Values Report

Though the 3D report may seem novel, it's not new. PeopleKeys has been using DISC, TEAMS, and Values assessments and analysis for over 30 years to help corporate consulting clients nationally and internationally. PeopleKeys has applied their practical knowledge to combine these three assessment tools into one powerful report exploring three critical areas beyond DISC alone:

  • DISC: to understand relational and communication strengths
  • TEAMS: to understand how a person best thinks and fulfills a role on a team
  • Values: to understand the values, motivations, and driving forces

3D for Three-Dimensions of Behavior

To meet the needs of their clients who sought more behavioral dimensions examined beyond DISC, PeopleKeys developed the TEAMS and Values Assessments to augment the behavioral dimensions of the DISC assessment.

Now there are three dimensions: Communication + Team Role + Motivators. These soft-skills are scrutinized to assess the candidate's behavioral strengths so that employers can capitalize on them in their position. The 3D report also assesses any potential limitations or red flags so that an employer can address these questions in the interview or develop these shortfalls in the individual's behaviors later during the job role.

The 3D Performance Pyramid

As mentioned earlier, why we love DISC, and likewise should adore 3D, is because of its #1 benefit: it makes a leader's or manager's job easier!

You will ask how? The insight gained from the 3D report helps a leader in just some of following areas:

  • Creating high-performing, productive teams
  • Placing team members for maximum effectiveness
  • Restructuring the organization chart for more compatibility and fewer personality clashes
  • Placing staff in areas aligned with their strengths
  • Lowering workplace stress and misunderstanding
  • Understanding how each individual is uniquely motivated
  • Creating environments for employees that they will thrive within
  • Identifying and nurturing leadership qualities
  • Hiring for job and cultural fit
  • Replicating top performance in hiring

What This Means for the DISC Practitioner

You don't need to throw out your DISC certification or re-learn a new methodology; however, there are paradigm shifts to make. Think in three dimensions. Where DISC informs quality decisions about communication, 3D goes beyond with:

  1. DISC - matching the task and relational needs of the individual to the job
  2. TEAMS - matching the right team role to the individual
  3. Values - making sure the motivational needs are met in the job role
Benchmark for pinpoint accuracy using the 3D report for hiring to filter candidates is a step in the right direction, but each job is different and each corporate culture is different. PeopleKeys suggests benchmarking.

Benchmarking can be done in one of three ways:

  1. Standard Benchmark
  2. Custom Benchmark Study
  3. Occupational Keys

DISC graphs Benchmarking Example: This DISC graph shows the benchmark applied (grey area) behind the candidate's DISC style. In the third graph the candidate falls within the benchmark.

Complete 3D solution for your hiring needs

Now PeopleKeys offers everything you need to utilize this core product, The 3D Analysis System, in your coaching, consulting, counselling, or HR practice in a package of training and 3D Personality Profiles in 4 different bundles:

  1. DISC, TEAMS and VALUES (3D) Product Bundle 1, consisting of online training and ten 3D reports
  2. DISC, TEAMS and VALUES (3D) Product Bundle 2, consisting of online training and five 3D reports
  3. DISC, TEAMS and VALUES (3D) Product Bundle 3, consisting of PowerPoint training and ten 3D reports
  4. DISC, TEAMS and VALUES (3D) Product Bundle 4, consisting of PowerPoint training and five 3D reports

The recommended applications are Hiring, Filtering, Recruiting, Team Building, Leadership Development, Managing, Benefits Planning, On-boarding, Succession Planning, Strategic Planning, and Employee Reviews.