In the late 1980’s I worked on automated testing applying item response theory (IRT) for pilot selection. People still think that automated testing and IRT is new ground breaking stuff!

During the early 1990’s I worked with an Associate to develop new style development centres which were later known as Talent Programmes.

In the late 1990’s Alan Howard and I developed the first commercial Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs) – the Management Scenarios Test, the Executive Scenarios Test, and the Graduate Scenarios Test.

To us, it was an obvious thing to do – as people had been using verbal and numerical reasoning for many decades to select for management skills. Sure, these tests are useful but high scores do not necessarily mean they are great managers! Therefore, offering the first neat test that does assess the more appropriate skills.

We have applied similar breakthrough thinking and methodology to develop other tests and assessments.

1996 Quest Partnership Ltd, Managing Director. As a Chartered Psychologist having worked in the Occupational Psychology Business for many years I saw an increase in demand for psychometrics.

I realised I could achieve even more of my goals with a dedicated team of experts providing HR solutions to organisations globally.  Supplying Psychometric Assessments and Tests to measure Ability, Aptitude and Personality for Selection, Recruitment and Talent Development.

This in return allowed Max Choi ‘The Psychologist’ to continue with even more psychometric research.

More recently, despite others telling us that it was not possible, we developed a version of the Management Scenarios Test to work very effectively around the world.

We achieved this by understanding all the leadership research and analysing much of the global data we had collected. 120,000 leaders from 40 countries have completed either our Management Scenarios Test or the Executive Scenarios Test.

We went on to prove that performance on these SJTs predicts the country’s GDP. The first hard evidence that the level of management and leadership skills is directly related to a country’s performance!

In 2013 I raised an issue with our professional body, the British Psychological Society regarding the need for an AC Standard.  Organisations were increasingly seeing the potential value of assessment centres. However, the quality was still very poor.  We needed to do something in order to protect the public and above all, help organisations achieve better outcomes from their AC’s.

I worked with a team of Occupational Psychologists to produce the Assessment Centre Standard. This was published in 2015 and is freely available from the BPS website.

Having been on the AC Standard working group, I have a good understanding of the research findings on AC’s and why they are not as effective as they need to be.  Unfortunately, there remains great inertia with regard to AC practices. AC’s are costly and resource hungry yet business carry on the same, assuming they are effective without checking!

Here at Quest Partnership we apply the latest innovative approaches that are evidence-based. Most noteworthy, formal Assessor  and Observer Training.

Currently, we are working on the issue that, as personality questionnaires are self-reporting, then they may not always be accurate. (candidates responding in a favourable light to match their perceived job requirements and everyone having ‘blind spots’). Sure, they are useful tools to gauge personality but there will be times when you really do need a more accurate, impartial measure of personality.

An alternative is to assess personality and behaviour directly. Therefore, we are currently researching and developing our Mosaic Personality Tasks.  Indeed, both methods can be very valuable i.e. the personality questionnaire informs us what the person thinks they are like, and the OPT informs us of what they are really like. The difference will therefore identify any interesting gaps or blind spots.