September 2012

PLI Overview

David Lahey
President, Predictive Success
Agenda

Brief Background & Cognitive Backing

Logistics: the How-Tos when incorporating PLI
into your business activities
How to use PLI: the technical's
How to use PLI in recruitment
How to use PLI in benchmarking
How to use PLI as a continuous process
Mitigating challenges, FAQs
Wrap-up
Diagnostics Leadership

Profile Cognitive
Sales / 360
analysis ability
Influence
analysis

Multi Source Leadership

development survey Transition
Program

Lead others
Lead leaders
PLI Clients

4
What Changes and What Doesnt?

Hardly changes
DNA

Culture & Values Change difficult

Competencies Change easy

ISAT
Decision Making

6
 Validity of the different assessment
methods to predict future performance

Correlation
1.0

0.9

0.8

0.7

0.6

0.5 - Cognitive tests/ability tests

0.4 - Personality profiles
- Structured interview, business cases
0.3 - Biographic data (cv)
0.2 - References

0.1 - Unstructured interviews

0 - Graphology, astrology, random prediction,

-0.1
Source: M. Smith 2005,
Testing People at Work
Great People Decisions says:

When you hire employees who

have no previous experience in
the job, the single most valid
predictor of future performance
and learning is general mental
ability (GMA)

IQ is indeed important, since

some of the basic cognitive
competencies measured by IQ
tests (such as memory and
deductive reasoning) are 2007
Claudio Fernandez Araoz,
prerequisites for performing
Global Executive Committee,
Egon Zehnder

8
 PLI + PI

PLI + PI:

High

PI fit

Low
Low PLI High
What is PLI

&

Why use it?

10
Scientific Background
What is PLI

Ever since the publication of Charles Spearmans seminal writings on

intelligence (1904, 1923, 1927) it has been almost universally accepted among
intelligence scientist that there exists a unitary factor of cognitive ability (or
intelligence) the g factor.

Highly g-loaded tests demonstrate a more far-reaching and universal practical

validity than any other existing coherent psychological construct. g-loaded tests
predict performance to some degree in every kind of behaviour that calls for
learning, decision, and judgement.
11
 The Professional Learning Indicator
What is PLI

PLI is a highly g-loaded test that measures peoples general cognitive

abilities.

PLI measures verbal, mathmatical and abstract intelligence

All questions are carefully anchored in the intelligence sub-factors

that collectively lead to general intelligence

PLI provides quantified information about peoples ability & capacity

to learn, adjust, understand, solve problems, process complex
information, etc.

PLI can thus measure the potential of a person in an organisation.

The more complex jobs the more important cognitive ability becomes

The combination of PLI and PI gives a fuller picture of a persons

potential. PLI and PI complement each other perfectly

12
Scientific Background

Higher levels of g = indication of stronger ability to learn

In all jobs and along all dimensions of performance.
Average correlation of general cognitive ability tests with overall rated job
performance is around 0.5

Effects of g are linear

Successive increments in g lead to successive increments in job performance.

g predicts job performance better in more complex

jobs
0.40 in the simplest jobs to 0.58 in the most complex ones

13
Getting Great Players from the Start
PLI Introductory Training Deck

If we werent still hiring great people and

pushing ahead at full speed, it would be easy to
fall behind and become a mediocre company.
- Bill Gates
Brief Background & Cognitive Backing
What is the Professional Learning Indicator ?

Our analogy:
YOU
Processor
Hard Drive Speed

Education Complexity,
Skills i.e. how many
Experience windows can
Values be open
PLI measures how fast is
your processing speed.
 The challenge of picking the best person is especially hard in the current
difficult job market, when advertised openings often receive hundreds or
thousands of applications.
Conducting so many interviews is time consuming. But the bigger problem is
that traditional job interviews are simply not very good at selecting the best
candidates.
Languages

Initially 31 languages will be produced with base in American English

1. English (American) 11. Swedish 21. Norwegian

2. English (British) 12. Chinese (traditional) 22. Hungarian
3. English (Australian) 13. Chinese (simplified) 23. Czech
4. Spanish 14. Japanese 24. Turkish
5. French 15. Korean 25. Tamil
6. German 16. Hindi 26. Malayalam
7. Italian 17. Russian 27. Tagalog
8. Dutch 18. Arabic 28. Polish
9. Flemish 19. Brazilian Portuguese 29. Mexican
10. Danish 20. Finnish 30. Romanian
31. Canadian French

Further languages are budgeted for development .

18
Queens BComm Class of 2014 Study

PLI Results:
Sent: 235 Completed: 42

Highest score: 49
Lowest score: 17

Average score: 30.76

PI Worldwide Confidential 19
What is the Professional Learning Indicator ?

Quick Facts:
50 questions in 12 minutes
Online format in 52
languages
Culturally neutral
Suitable for employees on
all levels
100% dynamic
Created by Valtera
Corporation, one of the
worlds leading test
system developers
What is the Professional Learning Indicator ?

PLI is a cognitive test which measure trainability, i.e. the

employees capacity of absorbing new knowledge

Predicts performance Acts as an indicator for:

requiring: On-the-job performance
Learning & understanding Ability to acquire job
Decision via reflected knowledge
judgement
Processing complex
problems
In-depth Understanding of PLI: Cognition

Cognition outlines how a person understands and acts in the

world. Cognitive abilities are the brain-based skills we need to
carry out any task from the simplest to the most complex.

Sample Cognitive Skills J. Carroll defines cognitive

abilities as quantifiable potential
Perception
to solve certain cognitive tasks
Decision-making tasks that involve mental
Motor functions of understanding,
processing and performance of
Language
tasks.
Social
In-depth Understanding of PLI: g factor

Carroll proposed a hierarchy to describe

cognitive abilities using factor analysis

What does it What are the

determine? results?
What is it? It determines Through factor
A method where variance between analysis of the 460
correlations between factors and studies, different
the different abilities establishes if some cognitive abilities
measured by a test factors (abilities) can have been separated
are derived be grouped together into narrow, broad
and belong to a and general
certain group cognitive abilities.
In-depth Understanding of PLI: g factor

Stratum III: the general cognitive ability, or the g-factor, comprises a

general ability level that correlates with the factors of more specific
abilities: induction, reasoning, visualisation and language comprehension
tasks.

Stratum II: Broad ability factors, like fluid intelligence, crystallised

intelligence, general memory ability, broad visual perception, broad
auditory perception, broad retrieval ability, broad cognitive speediness

Stratum I: Specific (narrow) abilities - We see some 50-60 or more narrow

abilities that are linearly independent of each other.
In-depth Understanding of PLI: g-factor

G-loaded tests predict

performance to some degree
in every kind of behaviour that
calls for learning, decision,
and judgement The g-factor is
the best predictor
The g-factor dominates sub- of peoples
factors; highly g-loaded
tests will explain peoples learning
cognitive abilities better capability and on-
than any test on a sub-factor the-job
performance
The validity increases with the
job complexity
In-depth Understanding of PLI: What is Measured?

The test is g-loaded in the sense that all

questions are carefully anchored in the
intelligence sub-factors that collectively
PLI provides valuable quantified indicate general intelligence.
information (in terms of the raw score and
the raw score broken into 3 sub-factors)
about peoples ability to:
Logistics: The How Tos of PLI

How to use PLI as a business strategy

How to use PLI: the technical's
How to use PLI in recruitment
How to use PLI in benchmarking
How to use PLI as a continuous process
PLI as a Business Strategy:
What Great Managers Do

The Manager is a
Catalyst
who must be
able to:
Select a Develop
person the person

Set Motivate
expectations the person
PLI as a Business Strategy:
Conventional vs. What Works

Conventional Wisdom says: BUT Great Managers:

1. Select a personbased on 1. Select for talent
his experience,
intelligence, and 2. Define the right
determination outcomes
2. Set expectationsby 3. Focus on strengths
defining the right steps
4. Find the right fit
3. Motivate the personby
helping him identify and
overcome his weaknesses These are called the
4. Develop the personby Four Keys
helping him learn and get of management
promoted
The Technicals: Structure

50 questions of
varying difficulty Number series
and categories of Numerical
Number value
reasoning. Math word
Questions can problems
appear in millions of
different
combinations. Antonyms
Tests are similar in Verbal
Verbal
reasoning
difficulty
Analogies
All areas of
reasoning will be
equally represented Visual analogies
in any given test. Visual series
Abstract
3 areas of Common
reasoning: features
numerical, verbal,
abstract
The Technicals: Web Client

http://pliadmin.learningindicator.com/
The Technicals: Web Client

http://pliadmin.learningindicator.com/
The Technicals: Web Client
The Technicals: Requirements, etc.

System uploads data every 5 Questions are culturally

seconds neutral, requires no specific
ensure that all answers are knowledge or wisdom
correctly registered and to verify
the computer vs. server time
Questions relate only to logical
(prevents cheating). ability of an individual
Can be taken from a
smartphone
may use up time due to lesser
processing capability
Can be taken from a kiosk
Specific kiosk mode for this
function, useful for talent
management centres
The Technicals: The PLI Report

The PLI report shows the result of

the test and illustrates how the
test result relates to the general
distribution of test results.

The PLI report consists of

the following data:
Name and demographics
Raw score with sub-factor
scores
Comments
PLI normal distribution
PLI quartile distribution
The Technicals: The PLI Report

You can download and print the report and

save it either electronically or in hard
copy.
Important! You must download and save
the report within 8 weeks after a test has
been completed as the system will delete
the report hereafter for security reasons.

Raw score with sub-factor scores

The sub scores of verbal, numerical and abstract

abilities, the sub scores can be helpful in
determining the strengths and weaknesses of a
candidate.
The Technicals: The PLI Report

PLI quartile distribution

Based on the cumulative distribution of actual scores in

the PLI test. It is a simple statistical way to illustrate the
raw score level compared to all other completed tests.

Raw scores in the top 25% are in 4th

quartile
Top 50% - 25% = 3rd quartile
Bottom 25% - Top 50% = 2nd quartile
0 - bottom 25% = 1st quartile
The dark green square in the diagram
shows where the actual raw score belongs.
The Technicals: The PLI Report

PLI normal distribution

A general illustration of a normal distribution

curve. 50% of the scores will be above the mean
score of all PLI tests (to the right in the curve)
and 50% will be below the mean score of all PLI
tests (to the left in the curve).

The curve illustrates the probability of deviations from the

mean is comparable in either direction.
The dark green area in the curve shows where the actual raw
score belongs in the PLI normal distribution.
The percentage in each area shows how large a percentage
of the population is expected to score within that area.
The Technicals: The PLI Report

To note between the quartile and normal distribution scales:

PLI quartile distribution is a distribution of actual test results
PLI normal distribution is a statistical way of describing how
we would expect a representative part of a population to
score in the test
You cannot translate scores directly from one distribution to
the other.
PLI: Meaning of Scores

Obvious conclusion: the higher the score, the better as any organisation would
like to have employees with high learning capability.

However, when you recruit people for different positions, you must make sure to take
other things into consideration.

Whereas PLI measures peoples general cognitive abilities, it

does not measure how well people utilise their cognitive abilities. You will need also to look
at peoples personalities and motivation for taking the job.

Each organisation should build up their own database of scores,

performance personality profiles etc. And then over time translate that
into preferred candidates.
PLI: Recruitment

Including the PLI early into

your selection process ensures
you dont reject potential
talented applicants
Unsuitable applicants may
compensate by being much
faster at acquiring company-
specific knowledge than those
with the perfect CV.

Recommended Process
Invite Invite
Advertise the Review
applicants to selected
job in various applications
conduct a PLI applicants for
media and CVs
test interview.
PLI: Benchmarking

The PLI system enables the organisation to build

its own strategic recruitment tool.

By entering the demographical data you will,

over time, be able to analyse how different
people with different PLI scores perform within
the organisation in accordance with how you
measure performance.

You may find that a high score in the PLI test is more relevant
in certain positions. You can then issue local and global
recruitment policies that ensure significantly enhanced
chances of recruiting the right people for different positions.
PLI: Benchmarking

PLI does not dictate general values for cut offs for certain
jobs and job types.
Each company has its own supply and demand when it comes to
recruitment of staff to their vacant positions.
Open positions differ in the tasks/level of complexity and thereby demand
different same cognitive ability.

A PLI client benefits more from establishing their own cut

offs based on internal data.
Knowledge of and experience with the different positions and job roles is
crucial in this respect.
Cut offs' should ideally be ranges rather than minimum scores since
under-utilized individuals tend to get bored and leave their jobs quite
quickly.
PLI: Continuous Process

Succession Planning

You may find that

Job complexity for You need to
the requirement
senior leadership recruit for
of higher PLI
positions would tomorrow rather
scores increases
normally be than just for
with job
significantly higher today.
complexity.
compared to
junior positions.
PLI: Continuous Process

Appoint a staff member or team of staff to act

as client test administrators

Responsibilities:
a) That the test is administrated in accordance with these guidelines
throughout the organisation
b) That unauthorised access to the system from within the company
is prevented
c) That internal users of the system are properly trained in using the
system
d) That tests are ONLY issued to employees and applicants related to
the organisation that the contract covers
Mitigating challenges, FAQs

Unusual Scoring
Critical Feedback
Mitigating: Unusual Scoring

Problem:
Some scores are
unrealistic and dont
match the capabilities of
the test taker

Solution:
The applicant could have had a bad day during the first test or maybe misunderstood
parts of the test!
The PLI offers the opportunity to retest applicants and you can be certain that all
questions are different from the questions in the first test.
If the first test is completed as a remote survey, it is critical to retest the applicant
onsite.
Experience shows that multiple tests brings you closer to your ideal/maximum score,
giving the company the best possible insight in the candidates true potential.
We recommend testing all applicants at least twice to approach this ideal score
Mitigating: Critical Feedback

Problem: Negative results from the

PLI is damaging to the test
takers self-esteem
Solution:
Giving feedback on test scores for cognitive tests can be very sensitive.
Most people would prefer to be quite intelligent and at least among the top 50%. Few people
will be pleased if they score below average in a test related to cognitive abilities.
Whoever provides feedback should be very sensitive about how to convey the results.
Before sharing the results, ask the test taker how they experienced the test(s).
Did they have understood the test guidelines, etc?
How sensitive they are towards test feedback?
We recommend that you only share the scores (raw score and sub scores) and the
number of questions answered.
Sharing normal and quartile info would only create more confusion
You also avoid the discussion about how the test taker scores compared to other test takers.
Some applicants will ask if the score disqualifies them for the job.
Share that this is just one factor that will be taken into consideration and that a holistic
approach will be taken when candidates are selected.
Wrap-Up
Business Implications of PLI

HBC was able to establish a PLI

range to ensure new store
managers possessed the
necessary cognitive abilities to
excel

Bell found that top-performing There is a distinct correlation

Regional Managers scored 9% between performance and PLI at
higher than the average RM the Regional Manager level.
- Bell report, Oct. 2011
Bell established a minimum
score of PLI for their Sales
Consultants and ideal ranges
for their RMs
 Thank you

Any last questions?