MOUNT VERNON — Resumes detail a person’s previous employment. Interviews provide insight into personality traits. But, how can employers tell if a candidate is really the best fit for a job?
A tool purchased by Opportunity Knox, Knox County’s employment center, is designed to assess just this.
The tool, AcuMax Index, is a cognitive reasoning assessment that measures a person’s innate wiring — the type of environments people will thrive in, how they are motivated, how they process information — and matches them with the job for which they are best suited.
Opportunity Knox trained its staff to use AcuMax Index in mid-August and began using the tool this fall, said Opportunity Knox administrator Brandy Booth.
“We are using this with our general job seekers looking for career guidance and those that are seeking assistance for training,” Booth said. “The program allows us to find occupations that match with the person’s natural wiring to help guide them to a career where they will most likely be happy and successful.”
The assessment takes roughly five minutes to complete.
Previously, Opportunity Knox had often used a tool called Copes, Cops, Caps, which takes approximately three hours to complete and has three parts measuring interests, abilities and values. Copes, Cops, Caps may still be used in certain instances, such as when a deeper look at career clusters is needed, however AcuMax Index offers a quicker yet accurate option, Booth said.
Opportunity Knox used formulary grants to pay for the AcuMax Index tool, which cost $3,000 for the tool itself for a year and $500 for staff training (over two days).
The assessment is not a requirement for job seekers, but rather one tool Opportunity Knox can use to improve job placement success, Booth said.
Employers in Knox County and across the country have seen a lack of response to available jobs in recent months, coupled with increased employee retention problems. In the current workforce climate, many employers are simply looking to fill openings as soon as possible and may not be inclined to pay much attention to the assessment results, Booth said.
“It’s not a huge thing yet,” Booth said, regarding how frequently the tool is being used. “But we haven’t had it for very long. (Employers) haven’t had a lot of experience with it. And, we’re kind of in a ‘desperate need for help’ climate right now.
“But I think long term, this is going to be a good tool.”
How does AcuMax Index work?
Dependable. Flexible. Shy. Patient.
These are just a few adjectives job seekers pick from when taking the AcuMax Index.
The assessment has two parts, which each involve the job seeker selecting words from a list. For the first part, job seekers select words from a list that describe how others expect them to act. For the second part, they select words that they feel truly describe them.
AcuMax Index measures the difference between the two sets of words — a person’s adjusted versus natural self — and determines what it calls primary wiring drivers.
The assessment looks at four drivers and measures a person’s levels on each — A: Autonomy (Idea Flow), B: Communication (Thought Processing), C: Patience (Work Style), D: Certainty (Information).
For example, a “high A” wants freedom in determining how work is to be prepared and accepts conflict, whereas a “low A” is team oriented and seeks to minimize conflict.
In terms of thought processing, someone who is a “high B” communicator will handle verbal instructions differently than someone who is a “low B.”
A “high B” develops their thoughts verbally, whereas low Bs are the opposite — they want opportunities to analyze and figure out problems individually and may need time to “recharge” from extended periods of face-to-face communication. An example of a job well-suited for a “high B” would be a salesperson, for example.
Once someone takes the AcuMax Index, Opportunity Knox matches the assessment results with job profiles, which are created based on job descriptions, to see if the job is a green, yellow or red match.
“If it’s a yellow, approach it with caution because there may be areas that have to be tweaked in order for them to be successful in that position,” Booth said. “And if it’s a green, then they may match all the characteristics well enough that they would likely do well in that position.”
A red match does not necessarily mean the person will be unable to do the work a position requires, but rather that long-term success in the role is unlikely (i.e. retention issues are likely to arise), Booth said.
Additionally, the AcuMax Index provides drive-based coaching tips as well as interview questions. And, because the assessment measures a person’s adjusted self against their natural self, it can also measure how engaged the person is and how much stress they may have faced recently.
Have other areas seen success with AcuMax Index?
Opportunity Knox discovered the AcuMax Index through the Allen County OhioMeansJobs Center, Booth said.
Allen County first began using the tool in 2017, and was one of the first in the state to do so, Allen County OMJ executive director Joe Patton said.
“What we did was kind of take a business model approach,” Patton said. “We were always sending people candidates and they weren’t always the best, necessarily. So now what we do is we try to listen to our employer customer, and we try to eliminate the problems from their life and kind of be the HR team.”
Costs add up when a hire that does not work out, including spending money for advertising for a position, training expenses and decreased productivity levels while a replacement is being found.
AcuMax Index is statistically validated, and according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the tool does not show variances by gender, age, race or nationality. It is also available in approximately 20 languages.
The tool has seen lasting placements amid the pandemic in Allen County, albeit along with decreased interest, Patton said.
“We’ve seen a slight slowdown in people we’re funding,” Patton said. “But as far as our numbers on our successes, those haven’t really dipped during this.”
AcuMax Index results can also be used to find ways to motivate remote employees.
Allen County OMJ has used AcuMax Index within already established company staffs as well.
“We can use it as a team building effort,” Patton said.
Allen County OMJ will work with a company to have each of their employees take the assessment, and then using those results, OMJ can find ways to improve communication and productivity among staff.
Patton’s staff has taken the assessment, and brief one-page summaries of employees’ results are posted around the office in an effort to improve communication, he said.
“So as a manager, when I’m walking around, I just have a constant reminder of what is my best way to interact with this employee,” Patton said.
It is too early in Knox County to tell how effective AcuMax Index is in terms of employee retention, and there is no guarantee Allen County’s results will replicate in Knox County.
Allen County OMJ is considerably larger than Opportunity Knox both in the employers it serves and the county’s population. Allen County’s OMJ team serves more than 650 employers, whereas Opportunity Knox currently has worked with 80 employers so far this year. According to the 2019 Census, Allen County had a population of 102,351, and Knox County had a population of 62,322.
Although size varies between the employment centers, Booth looks to Allen County OMJ as an example.
“I know they’re a much larger county than we are,” Booth said. “They have a much larger budget than we do. But what can we do here in Knox County on a smaller scale that replicates the success that they’re having?”
Specifically regarding the AcuMax Index tool, Patton cautioned that it is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but rather one component of continued employment efforts.
“Anybody can do any job. It’s just how long you’ll do it, and want to stick,” Patton said. “We don’t want people to job hop. We want to get them the right job that’s going to fit who they are and make them feel like they’re going to stay.”
