TTISICON 2016 was an enormous success.

Hosted by TTI Success Insights at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort in Arizona, hundreds of industry professionals gathered to discuss the latest trends in talent management. The group was comprised of business consultants, human resources professionals, university professors, neuroscientists, and research institutions from around the world.

For those of you not familiar with TTI Success Insights, they are an incredible organization. They have a mission to positively impact businesses and individuals around the world. This is accomplished by empowering others to become aware of their unique talents and how to apply them. Their tools and processes are truly second to none, which is why we have chosen them as a partner.

Let’s take a look at the conference summary now.

Table of Contents

Boot Camp

TTISICON 2016 officially commenced on January 8th, 2016, but many attendees also participated in a boot camp from January 6th-8th. The purpose of the boot camp is to prepare HR professionals and consultants for certification, and ensure they are informed of critical developments to our talent management products and processes.

The boot camp was led by TTI’s Adam Wong and Favor Larson, who gave an informative and concise presentation over the three days. Participants from around the world were in attendance, collaborating and sharing ideas with one another throughout. It was an excellent opportunity to hone one’s skills and learn how others are making an impact with these tools internationally.

The Role of Soft Skills in Predictive Analytics for Hiring

The verdict is in: soft skills (competencies) are highly predictive for job performance. From a predictability standpoint, they can raise hiring confidence to 92-93%. Here’s the breakdown:

  • No Assessments = ~50% hiring confidence (coin toss)
  • Motivators Only = 59% hiring confidence
  • Behaviors Only = 60% hiring confidence
  • Motivators + Behaviors = 80% hiring confidence
  • Motivators + Behaviors + Competencies = 92-93% hiring confidence

Moreover, the process for validating ipsative assessments has been patented as of June 23, 2015. The following are images that were included with the validation patent, showing the depth of research TTI has undergone to ensure accuracy and consistency.

Validated Talent Management Assessments - Patented

Original images from TTI’s ipsative assessment validation patent. Image Copyright © 2016 TTI Success Insights.

 

Validated Talent Management Assessments - Segment From Raw EEG for Analysis

Segment from Raw EEG for Analysis in performing the neuroscientific validation research. Image Copyright © 2016 TTI Success Insights.

By hooking people’s brains up to EEG machines while taking an assessment, their immediate reaction responses were recorded and evaluated. One major insight was that we humans feel more strongly about what we are not, versus what we are.

This has obvious implications for the scoring, weighting, and ranking of talent assessments and predictive analytics.

What was most directly helpful to us, though, was further understanding the role of soft skills in predictive analytics.

While behavioral and motivational factors are still important (and increase hiring confidence from 50% to 80% when used together for job benchmarking), soft skills push the bar even higher to 93%. But how?

You may already be familiar with the science of behavior and motivators, but if not here’s a quick primer: our behaviors assessment measures how a person does things, while our motivators assessment measures why they do them.

By contrast, the 25 Soft Skills assessment measures a person’s skills and experience – things they have learned and developed over time. And we have statistically significant data showing top performers normally score above the population mean for 18+ of these 25 skills.

In other words, they are well-rounded. Over the course of their lives and careers, they have developed a broad range of critical skills needed for personal and professional success.

This research is very exciting because it allows us to select with greater accuracy and train/develop people with greater precision.

Expansion of Motivators to 12 Driving Forces

Another exciting development coming from TTISICON 2016 was the announcement of the new Driving Forces science. In fact, it is not a brand new science but rather an expansion of Motivators.

Whereas there were previously six core Motivators, there are now twelve Driving Forces that represent the high and low ends of the Motivators spectrum. You can learn more about these on our Measurable Factors and Five Sciences pages.

tti driving forces, tti motivators, twelve driving forces, employee motivation, employee morale, human morale, core motivation

Image Copyright © 2016 TTI Success Insights.

At its essence, the shift comes from TTI’s significant research on avoidance emotions (how we feel more strongly about what we aren’t, as opposed to what we are). Since the original Motivators assessment placed more focus on “high” scores, Driving Forces now more clearly defines the implications of “low” scores.

In particular, this is achieved by breaking out the “low” side of the original six Motivators into its own group, yielding a full twelve Driving Forces. In turn, we can now go even deeper with job benchmarking and individual coaching.

TTI Success Insights 100,000 Lives Project

TTI’s 100,000 Lives project is both exciting and heart-warming. In recognizing that not every individual, nor every business, has the ability to purchase solutions like ours, TTI is partnering with organizations like ThinkPlanLaunch to bring their assessment products to those who cannot afford them.

Our combined goal is to help businesses and individuals recognize their unique talent and realize their potential. Through this community-oriented project, we will help others achieve growth by providing discounted (or even pro-bono) services to those who cannot afford our fees.

tti success insights, 100000 lives project, thinkplanlaunch pro bono, realize your potential, discover your strengths, identify weaknesses, unique talents, achieve growth, community service

Image Copyright © 2016 TTI Success Insights.

Note: this joint effort is primarily directed at non-profit organizations. If you are a non-profit org or you know of one who would be interested in our work, please contact us to let us know. We would love to explore the opportunity of extending this program to your organization and its people.

Professional Networking at TTISICON 2016

It was a pleasure speaking with so many bright minds at this year’s conference. With so many intelligent people from diverse places around the world, there was much interesting discussion to be shared.

TTISICON 2016 Talent Management Conference Scottsdale (1)

Me with our strategic partners Mindy Bortness, CEO of Communication Works, Inc. and Bill Bonnstetter, Chairman of TTI Success Insights.

The most enlightening takeaway from TTISICON 2016, though, was realizing how many organizations are starting to care more about their people. Of course, investing in people has a positive bottom-line impact, too – many times in the six to seven-figure range – so perhaps the financial motivation is still most powerful.

Regardless, we are proud to have aligned social and financial incentives with our solutions. We are happy to see win-win outcomes for our client organizations and their people, and even happier to see so many others doing the same.

We know people (and the organizations that employ them) thrive most when job fit is excellent and communication is effective. We know people can achieve career advancement when they understand how to use their unique talents. Further, we know people are happiest and healthiest when they focus on relationship quality.

Our mission in 2016, then, is to help others “discover their music.” Along with TTI Success Insights, we aim to help businesses and people mature in powerful ways, and we are ready for the challenge. If you are ready too, please contact us here for more information.