We often say that there are neither good nor bad professional profiles. It’s true, above all else, talent is the meeting of an individual and their environment. That said, there is also a percentage of the population who have intrinsic characteristics that allow them to rise above the majority no matter the environment, to stand out, evolve rapidly in a profession, and to have an incredible impact.
These are what we call A-Player profiles: individuals who resolve complex challenges, take charge of projects, develop business, demonstrate unwavering commitment and stay the course when troubled winds blow. In short, they are people who tend to succeed and progress, regardless of what environment they find themselves in.
At AssessFirst, our mission is to allow you to identify all the potential of your candidates and employees. As a part of this, the AssessFirst Science team has worked to deepen our understanding of the psychological characteristics that make up A-Players, measure their impact and above all offer you the most reliable indicators for identifying them quickly.
Why new A-Player scores?
As a feature that is already much appreciated by our customers, we wanted to go even further and provide you with an even stronger score for identifying potential. Improvements were made along 3 axes:
👉 Our previous score was built mainly on exterior scientific studies. Now, we have made enough headway to use our own empirical data. This has allowed us to increase the predictive validity of the A-Player model.
👉 A more detailed distribution of scores. It was previously presented as a plain score, we have since normalised distribution, improving the sensitivity of the predictions.
👉 An optimised algorithm. Our data-scientists found a mathematical model that allows them to combine the scores from SHAPE, DRIVE and BRAIN to enrich the prediction even further.
Strong methodology…
To carry out this work, our first step was to precisely define the A-Player profile and what characterises their success. Rather than an ambiguous definition, we chose to define success through “objective” career success, comprising 5 major indicators:
- Career level or place in hierarchy;
- Level of responsibility, in terms of number of people they manage;
- Their impact on team decisions;
- Their impact on company-wide decisions;
- The speed at which they evolved and were promoted.
We then collected data on samples of people, ranging in size from 913 to over 13,000. This allowed us to study the links between different psychological factors (personality, motivations, reasoning) and our 5 indicators of success, as defined above.
What emerged from our analysis is that the most successful profiles share:
👉 Energising motivations: these are people capable of pushing each other and themselves out of their comfort zone, as well as having a desire to outperform others and themselves each day;
👉 Extreme leadership skills and the ability to evolve even amidst chaos;
👉 Intellectual capacity in the top 15% of the population.
Without revealing all our secrets, our psychologists and data-scientists then developed a cutting-edge algorithm, which allows us to generate an A-Player score, from 0 to 100%, for each person.
…leading to extraordinary results
Profiles with the highest A-Players scores (top 20%), have an extraordinary level of career success – compared to the 20% of profiles with the lowest scores
- 242% more likely to have a high level in hierarchy (65% of people with a top A-Player score are either CEO, member of an executive committee or manager, compared to 19% among profiles with low scores);
- 428% more managerial responsibilities (on average, people in the top 20% are responsible for 37 employees, compared to 7 for people in the bottom 20%);
- More impact in decisions: 85% of people in the top 20% have a strong impact on decision-making, against only 30% for people in the lowest 20%;
- Faster evolution: on average, people with an A-Player score in the top 20% obtain 4 promotions, against 2 for people among the 20% with the lowest scores (at comparable age);
- 120% higher salary.
Easy to use
Thanks to the new A-Player algorithm developed by AssessFirst, you can easily (and quickly) identify people who have the potential to consistently perform, regardless of the context in which they are placed
This indicator has been integrated into your new AssessFirst interface in a targeted manner. Directly from your dashboard you can view a ranking of profiles with the highest A-Player score, or identify the profiles marked with a small star, which indicates an A-Player score greater than or equal to 70%.
How do you use it?
Of course, the goal is not (necessarily) to recruit based on A-Player scores alone. Again, what makes a person successful is the fit of their personality and motivations to the demands of a specific situation. However, at a time when change is the only certainty and everyone is asked to be increasingly responsible for their own activity, the A-Player indicator will allow you a complementary look at those individuals who are most able to perform in a variety of contexts. It will also, perhaps, help you to open up your willingness to accept different profiles, so long as they have exceptional potential for development.
The ball is in your court!
To discover more about this new A-Player score, visit the AssessFirst application yourself! Or try for free for 14 days, by opening an account!
