Baltimore-Based Company Helps You Recruit with Personality Testing

Wouldn’t it be nice if your recruiting team had a Director of Psychology? You know, someone who could really dig deep and find out if job candidates will fit into your culture and succeed in their positions? Baltimore-based Traitify won’t offer up a psychologist, but they are helping companies find qualified candidates through personality testing that has been developed by their in-house psychology team. In an effort to help people make better career decisions, reduce turnover, and create strong teams, Traitify’s tool lets you analyze core personalities of candidates with work-based personality assessments that are designed to measure personality as it relates to work.

Traitify has developed several personality assessments that are quick to complete and are optimized for mobile viewing. Their longest-running assessment takes about two minutes, and they claim a completion rate of 94.7%. If you want to create your own assessment, Traitify offers that option as well. The first of three assessments, Careers, tests for seven personality types (action taker, analyzer, inventor, mentor, naturalist, planner, visionary) and for personality traits. Traits enable you to assess the individual on a granular level to determine what makes them unique, and each assessment measures 56 in total including open-minded, rational, empathetic, intuitive, confident, etc). As a supplement to the Career assessment, the Introversion/Extroversion deck measures social style and a user’s proclivity to be an introvert or an extrovert. This is a key feature of understanding the needs and preferences of users and is an important element of personality.

Traitify offers two other assessments that can be used for recruiting and for other purposes. The second assessment, Core, measures overall elements of an individual’s personality and assesses a full range of characterological components in order to gain an overall picture of a person. The personality information derived from this assessment can be used to gain a general understanding of the user’s personality or to match individuals with other people which can be used for dating or content curation. Heroes is the third assessment, and it allows IT developers to make recommendations based on science, not assumptions. Personality blends, types, and traits can be matched in just minutes. This is a good tool for marketers as it enables them to segment users into distinct audiences to customize messaging, experience, offerings and more.

Additional utilities can be added to the assessments results in the form of personality blends, environments, complements/conflicts, famous people, and career matching. Data that is collected from each assessment is displayed on an Insights page that shows the personalities of people who you are considering hiring or who work for you already. A smart filter helps with team building in that it allows you to select specific sets of people, departments, etc. and the Quick Compare lets you compare every personality type of individuals within a department or in different regions.

Traitify subjects each assessment to extensive testing to ensure its accuracy in real-world use. Tested on the Cronbach’s Alpha, their Career assessment received a 0.94 which is higher than some of their traditional competitors. Additionally, Traitify practices predictive validity, where the data is looked at directly for accuracy, rather than comparing scores to those of a different group of individuals that might be irrelevant to your industry or needs.

By choosing to utilize one, or many, of Traitify’s assessment you will be in good company. Organizations such as Capital One, Johns Hopkins, Monster, Manpower, and Snagajob are all customers. The Traitify website also offers insights into recruiting and personality testing on their blog. So if you are looking to add to your arsenal of recruiting tools, try using a service from a Maryland-based company that is looking to enhance the local and national workforce.

Source: Traitify – www.traitify.com

A Look at Maryland Workforce Development News

A number of forces are at work within the state of Maryland that contribute to workforce development. Community and four-year colleges and trade schools play the main role in preparing students for careers, and grants received at the state and local level also help to drive the economy and stimulate employment. You may know on some level that all of this is happening, but you may not hear about it. This month, the Tech Council is highlighting some workforce development news.

Universities at Shady Grove
On October 20, USG broke ground on its Biomedical Sciences and Engineering Education Facility. Executive Director, Dr. Stewart Edelstein, said that the new building will allow USG to nearly double the number of students it serves from 4,000 to 7,500 when the building opens in 2019. This means that USG will provide more businesses in Montgomery County and in the region with a talent pool of qualified graduates in cutting-edge high-demand science, technology, engineering, math, and medical sciences positions. USG, along with the University of Maryland, Baltimore, University of Maryland, College Park, and UMBC will offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in healthcare, biosciences, engineering, and computational sciences.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Maryland leads the country in academic research and development and has the third highest concentration of high tech businesses in the nation. However, the growth of skilled jobs in Montgomery County continues to outpace available candidates in the region. There is a projected demand for nearly 117,000 new workers by 2017 to fill new or vacated positions in Montgomery County, and an expected shortage of qualified workers to fill the region’s wide range of occupations.

Loyola University
Loyola University Maryland has been awarded an $80,977 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a collaborative project that will significantly enhance undergraduate physics education by developing, evaluating, and sharing methods to incorporate workforce-relevant skills and activities in the student experience. The project, “The PIPELINE Network: Supporting the Development of Physics Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education through Institutional Engagement,” integrates the efforts of Loyola and five other institutions that received grant funding from NSF including the University of Colorado Denver, Rochester Institute of Technology, Wright State University, The George Washington University, and the College of William and Mary. At the conclusion of the three-year project, PIPELINE Network schools will share materials nationally through the American Physical Society. Bahram Roughani, Ph.D., associate dean for natural and applied sciences and principal investigator on the grant commented that, “Incorporating workforce-relevant training into a technical discipline like physics boosts student retention and career readiness and attracts more students from groups that are historically underrepresented in STEM. More broadly, we now have the opportunity to work together to change the widely held perception that pursuing a physics degree limits a student’s career options.”

The University of Maryland/Morgan State Joint Center for Economic Development
The University of Maryland/Morgan State Joint Center for Economic Development (EDA Center) announced recently that a new grant secured from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) will help fund a collaborative initiative that networks resources across the University System of Maryland (USM) to address economic challenges that face Maryland’s most vulnerable communities. Dr. Scott Dempwolf, Director of the EDA Center said that, “By amassing the talent, work, and ingenuity of Maryland’s research institutions with a common thread, we strengthen our efforts as individuals. Combined with the matching support of our partners, the EDA grant will help us continue our efforts through collaboration, research, teaching, and economic development practice.” Dr. Dempwolf will work with University System of Maryland’s new Vice Chancellor for Economic Development to develop a statewide network of economic developers working in and with USM’s 12 member institutions and two regional higher education centers. The network will connect economic research, resources, and best practices across all of the institutions, strengthening the capacity of USM and its member institutions to translate Maryland’s investments in research and education into local economic development impact statewide.

Anne Arundel County
Military service members in Maryland will have access to training for civilian jobs through a $4.3 million Labor Department grant awarded this month to the Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corporation.
The National Dislocated Worker Grant will go toward re-employment services for about 730 service members and spouses stationed mostly at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Fort Meade, Joint Base Andrews and Patuxent River Naval Air Station. The grants, funded through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014, are designed to help states and local workforce investment boards re-employ laid-off workers quickly through occupational training.

State of Maryland
The state of Maryland announced a $2 million award from the United States Department of Labor’s ApprenticeshipUSA Expansion Grant. The grant will be used to invest in the State’s registered apprenticeship programming. Maryland Labor Secretary Kelly M. Schulz said that, “Apprenticeships allow Marylanders to work while they learn in some of the State’s leading industries. Investing in the future of the State’s workforce means investing in registered apprenticeships. A bedrock of Governor Larry Hogan’s strategic vision to make Maryland ‘open for business’ is to provide businesses with the skilled workforce they need to compete in the regional and global economies. Under the leadership of Governor Hogan, Maryland is working toward a sizable increase in apprenticeships, from 7,186 in 2012 to 9,258 today, with a goal of 9,500 by the end of 2016.” The new funds will be used to provide additional staffing and outreach to businesses interested in creating apprenticeship opportunities to meet their talent pipeline needs. The funds will also enable the Maryland Department of Labor to create a pilot program targeted at increasing apprenticeship opportunities for skilled immigrants in occupations within the healthcare industry.

A Local Startup Wants to Help You
Find Skilled Workers

Helping people get jobs by using their skill set seems like a simple idea. Employer needs someone to say, build a website in Drupal, and the job seeker shows that they have those skills. Simple, right? You would think, but that’s not always how companies go about hiring staff. Instead, employers end up poring through hundreds of resumes trying to read between the lines only to end up getting a handful of people who are only partially qualified. Enter SkillSmart. The Germantown, Maryland for-purpose startup is helping to close the skills gap by helping job seekers, employers, and educational institutions.

Mike Knapp and Jason Green founded SkillSmart with the power of their own skills. Knapp has over 20 years of experience in technology, public policy, and local government—serving two terms on the County Council of Montgomery County. Green has experience on a national level, working in federal government and most recently serving as Associate Counsel to President Obama. Knapp and Green have created a skills-focused, closed-loop platform, if you will, that integrates information from job seekers, employers, and educational institutions:

Employers: For employers, the company helps in identifying and recruiting talent through its three subscription models that are based on monthly hiring needs and start at $400 per month. If a company wants a customized solution, SkillSmart offers consulting services in skills-demand development, education development, training assessment, and corporate development.

Job Seekers: Individuals who are looking for jobs can set up a profile and input their skills and experience. Information in the profile is aggregated and given a score which is used to show employers who will make the best match. If a job seeker applies for a job, but isn’t matched, they are given feedback on why they weren’t contacted be it a lack of skills match or that the profile just wasn’t viewed. If say 10 skills were needed, but the applicant has only 5, they would know which skills they are, and SkillSmart will link them to where they can get those additional skills.

Educational Institutions: SkillSmart partners with educational institutions to help create a more skilled and qualified workforce. By learning what skills local employers need, classes can be designed around those skills and promoted to job seekers. Schools can join the SkillSmart Educator Network which is a training grid filled with courses teaching the right skills for employers. The company works with educators to highlight training opportunities for job seekers to improve or learn new skills. With this, job seekers become more qualified and schools benefit from additional enrollment. SkillSmart currently works with Prince George’s Community College and Northern Virginia Community College.

SkillSmart is connecting the dots and approaching workforce development in a proactive and holistic manner. By integrating the needs of job seekers, employers, and educational institutions it’s likely that the result will be an in-demand highly trained workforce. The best part is that all three entities will be supporting a skills-based company that was homegrown in Montgomery County.