What Is Harrison Assessment?
Harrison Assessments was founded in 1990 by Dr. Dan Harrison who holds a Ph.D. in organizational psychology. He founded Harrison Assessment with the goal of using psychology and human resources to help companies optimize the skills of their employees. They pride themselves on the user-friendly interfacing of their software and have extensively researched how they could create the best user experience. Harrison Assessments has collaborators around the globe and is constantly updating its technology to reflect advancements in the field of organizational psychology and changing trends in human resources management.
What Are the Harrison Assessment Tests?
Talent Acquisition Assessments
The Harrison Talent Acquisition was developed to provide companies in a variety of industries. The tests in this category are designed to be “SmartQuestionnnaire” which is designed to take 25 minutes to complete. There are 6,500 variations of these tests, all tailored to be job-specific. Tests that fall into this category include:
- Staged Psychometric Testing
- Qualification Screening
- Job Specific Behavioral Testing
- Personality Testing
- Technical Recruitment Assessments
- Customer Service Assessments
- Sales and Retention
- Administration
- Supervisory
These are psychometric tests designed to measure specific attributes and weigh them against a list of qualifications. The personality tests use Paradox Technology to compare personality traits and make sure they are well balanced and help make an individual the right personality type for the position.
Talent Development Assessments
The talent development assessments are a series of tests used to determine how suitable an applicant’s behavior fits into a job or a company, emotional intelligence, and team working skills, behavioral competency, and motivations. These tests are all designed to take 25 minutes to complete and use the Harrison Assessment Smart Questionnaire system. As with all the Harrison assessment tests, these tests were designed to be job-specific. Tests that fall into this category include:
- Job Specific Behavior and Personality
- Paradoxical Strengths
- Individual Engagement
- Emotional Intelligence
- Behavioral Competencies
- Administration
- Supervisory
Leadership Development Assessments
This group of tests was designed to test candidates who have applied for promotions or for leadership roles within a company, and determine if they have the key attributes necessary in a leader. They each consist of a 25-minute questionnaire and have been tailored specifically for a specific job.
- Emerging Leader Competencies
- Senior Leader Competencies
- Paradoxical Leadership Skills
- Management Assessments
Eligibility Assessment
The Eligibility test is a 5-minute pre-assessment test that compares an applicant’s education and qualifications against the job requirements. This saves time by weeding out non-qualified applicants.
Harrison Job Suitability Assessment
This test is customized for the company using it and tests the applicant’s motivations, values, people skills, and the factors that would encourage them to stay with a job. This test can be used for pre-employment, job satisfaction, and performance development.
Harrison Career Navigator
The career navigator identifies skills and matches them with suitable professions. It is used as a placement aid by career counselors and utilized by human resources departments to assist in outplacement. It is also a useful personal development aid for those who are seeking a new career path.
The Harrison SmartQuestionnaires are made up of statements that you will need to rank in order of how well they describe you. Some of the statements you may see on the test are:
- I enjoy staying busy
- I enjoy working with things that require attention to detail
- I enjoy leadership roles
- I enjoy trying new systems
Paradoxical Leadership Technology
The Harrison Assessment tests use these personality questionnaires to measure different character traits. When measuring these traits, they use Paradox technology to make certain each trait is balanced by an opposing trait to prevent a strong trait from becoming “derailing”. For example, if a person is authoritative, but not collaborative, they will be domineering and have difficulty working as part of a team. Harrison considers paradoxical pairs of traits to be core values in each of the three areas. The three core areas and their paradoxical values are:
- Interpersonal – Confident receptiveness, self-accepting humility, forthright diplomacy, helpful assertiveness
- Achievement – Logical intuition, poised achievement, creative persistence, flexible organizing
- Leadership – Mindful courage, compassionate enforcing, authoritative collaboration, realistic optimism
Companies That Use Harrison’s Assessments
These are some of the many companies that use Harrison’s psychometric tests:
How to Prepare for Harrison’s Tests?
The Harrison SmartQuestionnaires are designed to be difficult to manipulate. The system is programmed to note any inconsistencies, and if these increase over a certain level, you will need to retake the test. The statements are designed to be positive and are ranked due to research that indicates that answers that are ranked as “agree” or “disagree” tend to be skewed.
The Harrison assessments are not pass or fail. Being honest in your responses and thoughtful while considering your answers will help you achieve the best result.
