In Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, as in the previous Avengers film, much of the drama arises from the conflict between the heroes. The villains are there to inspire the action set pieces, but how boring would the movie be if Captain America and Iron Man decided to start a bromance because they got on so well or the Hulk didn’t have anger-management issues? All we would have left is two-and-a-half hours of explosions and aerial fighting.
Any good writer understands the dramatic value of throwing contrasting personalities into the same story. You don’t need a Caliper Profile report to know that Tony Stark has excessive ego-strength and creativity, Bruce Banner exhibits heightened aggressiveness, and Steve Rogers is a risk taker (Caliper doesn’t collect data in Asgard, so we can’t talk about Thor in a legally defensible way). If S.H.I.E.L.D. were a Caliper client and used our pre-employment assessments to find the right mix of superhero personalities, the Avengers would probably be a more efficient team, though The Avengers would surely be a less exciting film.
You may think of your staff members as superheroes sometimes, albeit dressed in business casual clothes instead of Norse god attire. That said, you probably prefer to keep the drama to a minimum and productivity and job satisfaction at the maximum.
Using a scientifically validated pre-employment assessment like the Caliper Profile is a good place to start in working toward that goal. A good assessment tool can help you spot the Sales applicants who have the results orientation and the communications attributes to get out there, meet clients, and close deals; the Engineers with the creativity, reasoning skills, and project-management dynamics to bring customers’ complex business solutions to life; and the support staff with good follow-through and the client-service motivation to smooth over any bumps along the way and tie up the administrative loose ends.
A pre-employment assessment is also useful for identifying potential coaching opportunities for your applicants. You might discover that your favorite candidate for Contract Administrator has the detail focus and analytical skills you want but needs help with time management. The accessibility of such data puts you at an advantage when it comes to onboarding and training because you already know what the challenges will be going in.
Sure, there are limitations to employment screening for superheroes. Not even a proven assessment tool like the Caliper Profile can evaluate an applicant’s propensity for turning into a green monster or his skill at wielding a magic hammer no one else can lift. But you can bet S.H.I.E.L.D. has a pretty big operational staff of non-superheroes to keep the whole thing afloat, what with the flying battleships and underground bases.
And then there’s the Legal team. You’re going to want some people who don’t mind putting in extra hours down there in Legal.