During the hiring process, the ability to really know the candidate is limited. Often, interviews are conducted in numbers and with completely unknown people. Graphology assists the company in the following areas:
Great first impressionists
These are the candidates who are adept at power dressing and throw a great image of themselves out there. Owing to lack of time, interviewers may get swayed by them and forego doing an in-depth interview of the core skill. A handwriting sample of the candidate will go a long way in eliciting the traits possessed by him/her and whether they are suitable for the role being applied for.
Anxiety ridden
Candidates appearing for the first time in interviews may find the work culture of organizations larger than life. Eager to do well in the interview, they get stressed and are unable to answer even simple questions which they are good at. Companies lose out on great candidates due to stage fright. In these cases, a handwriting sample can show whether the candidate possesses the skills and attitude required for the job on hand.
Integrity and values
The recruitment process may not have ways of checking the integrity of the candidate till the background check is performed. This check can be done only after the candidate has joined the organization involving high recruitment cost, months of time and client commitments. If the background check shows otherwise, the organization has to restart the process all over again. Graphology helps by checking the integrity of the candidate and his/her propensity to lie. While not 100% accurate, the analysis can throw up hidden traits.
Promotions
This is another area where graphology can provide valuable insights. A promotion means a change in role higher up the pecking order and newer skills sets are required. Often an employee who is excellent in the current role would have the personality makeup for that role. Moving up the order would require a new set of behavioral traits. A Graphological analysis would help greatly in identifying the gaps or strengths.
Team Dynamics
Teams involve an invisible thread of work relations that often require very different people working with one another. Some teams work very well and others do not. Often, there is no concrete reason for two people being unable to work with each other. Graphology can help identify emotional pressure points which can be transformed to compatibility once team members' likes and dislikes are known.
Collaborative Processes
Training Needs Analysis
To improve employee performance and productivity, a training needs analysis study is done. The basic objective is to identify the organization’s expected skills from the employee, conduct a gap analysis to find the shortfalls and address these through training, mentoring and coaching programs.
Assessment Centres
As organizations grow, the demand on the existing staff tends to grow in tandem as there is a need to manage larger and more critical processes and people. Assessment centres help in identifying the suitability of staff being looked at for these specific roles, especially during promotions or new process and account management. The candidates’ personality quotient and aptitude are assessed by using various behavioral studies such as group discussions, situational studies and psychometrics. Occasionally, these staff are the ones who possess a high level of experience and may occasionally know how to manage the psychometric tests. Again, graphology helps provide a valuable insight into the character of the candidate at that point of time.
Leadership Growth Processes
Existing and upcoming leaders are an extremely integral part of any organization’s growth. And organizations realize that there is an enormous gap between the personalities of leaders and bosses. Both appear to get the job done but only the leaders create more leaders by taking the team along with them on the productivity and personality growth path. For example, leaders mentor and coach their subordinates to become coaches themselves while bosses get the job done. Leaders use participative feedback to ensure that their subordinates learn while working while bosses use authority to force the job to get done.
The Training Needs Analysis and Assessment Centre Exercises can be conducted along with a Graphological analysis for mentors and coaches.