Stakeholder management skills or a candidate’s fit with the organisational culture and ways of working cannot be fully uncovered in a job interview alone. When looking for the best possible match for a role, personality profiling is an important tool, says Kati Stenius, a professional in modern recruitment.

When an employer needs support with a recruitment decision, they may give Kati Stenius a call. Stenius is a specialist in modern, candidate-centric recruitment process. She supports her clients in recruitment processes by conducting candidate assessments – in other words, by providing additional information about candidates to support the decision-making.

Most typically, Stenius is invited into the recruitment process once the client has reviewed the applications, conducted interviews and selected two or three finalists to continue the process with.

“Everyone says they handle stress well”

To begin with, Stenius receives the job advertisement and, if needed, a description of the role. If the client is new to her, Stenius also wants to have an in-depth discussion with them to gain a better understanding of the organisational culture and ways of working.

After this, she invites the candidates to complete the WorkPlace Big Five Profile® personality assessment and then meets them for an interview and a profile debrief.

“I go through the assessment report with the candidate and, at the same time, interview them to validate the profile. I might ask, for example, what kind of interaction feels most natural to them, or what causes stress and what helps them recover,” Stenius explains.

According to Stenius, one of the benefits of the WorkPlace Big Five Profile® tool is that it brings up things that cannot be uncovered through an interview alone.

“For example, stakeholder management skills do not necessarily become visible in an interview. And everyone always says they have good stress tolerance or that change is easy for them – but the profile may show that these are not natural tendencies for the person at all.”

Personality also affects how well a person adapts to an organisation

Finally, Stenius analyses the material gathered from the interviews and profiles and reviews it together with the client.

“Often, the client’s own view of the strongest candidate becomes clearer, or they receive confirmation for a concern they already had, which may lead to one of the candidates being ruled out,” Stenius says.

Sometimes, even after the profiling, the candidates still appear to be on an equal footing. In such cases, Stenius guides the client to consider which strengths of the different candidates would be most useful and important in the role in question.

With the help of the WorkPlace Big Five Profile®, Stenius also reviews the candidates’ fit with the organisation together with the client.

“It is important to understand that the same person may perform very well in one organisation, while in another, their personality strengths may not fit at all. For example, the size and culture of the organisation matter. The WorkPlace Big Five Profile® helps me support the client in these kinds of reflections as well,” Stenius explains.

In many organisations, candidate assessments are still most commonly used only for managerial or leadership roles.

“In my opinion, candidate assessments should be part of every recruitment process – regardless of the level of the position. I also have clients who already conduct a candidate assessment every time they hire someone for a permanent role,” Stenius says.

A scientifically validated personality assessment

Candidate assessments cannot be conducted without the right tools. Stenius has conducted hundreds of WorkPlace Big Five Profile® personality assessments and particularly values the tool’s practical approach and concrete workplace context.

“The profiling questions are easy to answer, and completing the questionnaire does not take too much of the candidate’s time. As a bilingual professional, it is also important to me that candidates can answer the questions in both Finnish and Swedish, and that the reports are available in both languages. Many of my clients are bilingual.”

Before moving into her current work, Stenius had a long career in HR roles, including in the healthcare sector. She has been using the WorkPlace Big Five Profile® tool since 2015.

She also uses Workplace Nordic’s other tools.

“I value Workplace Nordic’s comprehensive portfolio of tools. All the tools are scientifically validated and complement one another. The Workplace Nordic team are the friendliest people in the world. When I first started using WorkPlace Big Five Profile®, they helped me, among other things, with a challenging candidate assessment case,” Stenius says.

WorkPlace Big Five Profile®

An efficient personality and team profiling tool based on modern personality research
Well suited for career planning, defining recruitment needs, developing teams, and assessing and building leadership capabilities
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Explore WorkPlace Big Five Profile® and start using the tool.

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Kati Stenius is a specialist in candidate-centric recruitment. She has been using the WorkPlace Big Five Profile® tool since 2015.