John Smith
Percentile - A percentile represents the proportion of people in a comparison group who would do better or worse than the candidate. Thus the fortieth percentile means forty per cent of the comparison group would do worse than the candidate and sixty percent would do better. The percentile ranks quoted for candidates are compared against a group of customer service operatives.

Energy and Confidence
The extravert is essentially sociable, energetic, socially confident, and cheerful, whereas the introvert is more quiet, self-contained, serious-minded, and somewhat aloof. Extraverts tend to seek out environments that satisfy their desire for stimulation. High scorers on this scale tend to be sociable, active, venturesome, affiliative, and assertive, and prefer to have a lot happening around them. Low scorers are more inclined to be conforming, stick to one task seeing it through to completion, and are less confident in group situations. High scorers generally prefer to move quickly from one task to another, often before the first is complete. Low scorers often prefer to work in solitary environments where they can work without distraction.

John has produced a lower than average score on the Energy and Confidence dimension. It should be noted, however, that this trait should be considered as a preference rather than a fixed attribute. Those of us who are less assertive in social situations can develop the skill over time. It should also be noted that low scorers on this scale have particular strengths, such as the ability to work without distraction; they tend to remain focussed on the task in hand rather than moving on to another task when they become bored with what they were originally doing. Additionally, it is unlikely that John will be constantly seeking stimulation by taking on too many tasks at once.

Interpersonal Orientation/Agreeableness
This scale measures a combination of customer focus and agreeableness. Customer focussed individuals have the knowledge, skills and attributes required to provide effective customer service, underpinned by a strong intuitive understanding of the dynamics of customer interaction. This includes the ability to restrain hostility (not being rude, dismissive or abrupt when customers are demanding), the extent to which the individual values good customer relations (finding customers pleasant to deal with and enjoying the interaction), and knowledge (being seen as someone who knows how to best deal with customers in different situations).

Agreeableness is reflected in an individuals style of interacting with others. High scorers tend to be good-natured, empathic, co-operative, trusting, mild-mannered and make natural team players. Low scorers are more irritable, mistrustful, headstrong, tough-minded, and hostile. This factor thus has enormous implications for the quality of an individuals relationships with others.

Achieving a low score on the Interpersonal Orientation dimension, suggests John does not particularly enjoy dealing and interacting with customers. It is clear that he has yet to acquire the knowledge, skills and attributes which underpin effective customer service. In other words, John does not fully understand how to deal with customers nor does he value the employee-customer relationship. This may be reflected in discourteous or unhelpful behaviour, even to the point of hostility. This level of Interpersonal Orientation may also spill over into Johns role as a team member. He may encounter some difficulty when having to deal with unfriendly or intimidating co-workers. If John is to be effective in a customer service environment, he will have to develop these skills.

Productivity/Conscientiousness
This broad and well-established factor emerges out of associations between obedience, persistence, impulse and control, planning and organising, perfectionism, and integrity (honesty). It is very well established. The high scorers behaviour is dominated by the need to live up to other peoples and self-imposed expectations. High scorers therefore have a strong sense of obligation and duty. They are more likely to arrive at work on time, complete tasks accurately, keep reliable records, whereas low scorers have less concern with living up to other peoples expectations and usually have fewer self-imposed standards. This makes them more individualistic. They pursue their own agendas and are more willing to overlook or ignore the rules which constrain other peoples actions. In being more concerned with rules, high scorers tend to adopt a more systematic and procedural approach to work. They prefer orderly, predictable environments where there are clear targets, performance strategies, and work roles. Low scorers are less organised, plan less, and prefer to work things out as they go along. They tend to be more flexible and responsive, coping better with turbulent environments and fuzzy work roles.

In a work setting low scorers can also adopt fairly expedient strategies. This can make them sometimes seem ill prepared. They are also irritated by rules and regulations or what they see as red tape. Low scorers enjoy finding loopholes - ways of getting around rules. Conversely, the downside of being too high on this factor can be inflexibility, a tendency to play it too much by the book. Additionally, particularly when under pressure, high scorers may feel they cannot do things to their own very high standards and can start to become overly perfectionistic and obsessive.

With a productivity score at a level which is lower than most of his colleagues, John appears to be rather individualistic in approach. He is likely to feel hindered and restricted by regulatory frameworks, systems and rules. It is likely that he would rather overlook organisational procedures instead of using these to structure his approach. Johns score suggests his colleagues and his customers are likely to perceive him as somewhat disorganised and ill-prepared. This can be detrimental to customer relations because it can lead to poor service delivery and can also mean that customers do not have faith in Johns abilities to deal with their particular issues. On a positive note it means he is able to react well to changing demands and will respond well to fast moving environments.

Evaluation of test scores should form only part of an overall selection decision. It is important to bear other factors in mind, such as previous work history, academic or vocational qualifications, and information gleaned from sources such as interviews and references.