The Spiritual Leadership Institute :: Spirituality in Business

The value of a profiling instrument depends on its ability to establish meaningful, instructive and productive conversation and analysis that can promote growth and development of individuals, organizations and communities. Robert Hartman’s goal (the creator of the profile) was to give scientific and mathematical accuracy to arenas of human existence often understood only in platitudes and vague clichés. The Hartman Value Profile is a unique assessment instrument that can help organizations in the following, critical areas:

	The enhancement of vital, workforce issues such as hiring and promotion – with the goal of reducing turnover;
	The establishment of essential baselines that can help drive succession planning processes and management/leadership development processes;
	The construction of self-conscious work units, i.e. understanding, building on strengths, improving weaknesses, and encouraging stronger synergy and cooperation in presently existing teams on every level of the organization; and,
	The growth and development of individual employees.

The Hartman Value Profile is also unique in the sense that it is not the same kind of instrument as most of the profiling and assessment instruments available to organizations in the current workplace. Because of this uniqueness, the Hartman Profile can be used alongside other assessment instruments or instead of those instruments. Simply stated, the Hartman Profile is NOT:

	An IQ/rational intelligence profile. It may be possible to get people who would do exceptionally well on an IQ test – people who are very “book smart” – but people who have little “good sense,” “common sense,” or – on a good day – a bit of wisdom. The Hartman Profile is more about “good sense.”
	An emotional balance profile. While the correlation studies between the Hartman Profile and the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) – perhaps the best-known psychological/psychiatric profile – has been very strong, the primary intent of the Hartman Profile is not to measure the possibility of psychological dysfunction.
	A personality inventory/test. Well over 90% of the profiling instruments used today are “personality inventories.” The idea behind this type of assessment instrument is that certain personality types or certain character traits will result in certain kinds of competency (or lack thereof) in the workplace. In fact, people are able to overcome very real personality traits or limitations and do their work in an excellent fashion.

The Hartman Profile IS a values profile with an intent on assessing a person’s value system. A person’s value system is not something that a person has; rather, our value system is who we are – it drives our attitude, behavior and performance. This value system evolves across our lives, is influenced by every event and person who touches our lives, and becomes the “lens” through which we meet the world, formulate choices, and make decisions. Values signify what ultimately matters in life.

A value system is manifested in our day-to-day lives by the judgments we make, the way in which we assess and evaluate, the way we “size things up,” the way we “figure things out,” the way we “weigh things out.” One of the most significant actions that a human being performs takes place when we observe something happening, evaluate what is happening in terms of all of our previous experiences, and decide what course of action and response we will take.

HARTMAN APPLICATIONS

The “Golden Equation” relating to the use of the Hartman Value Profile is as follows:

Good skill sets + Good judgment = Greater Potential of Excellence

If the employment practices of an organization can assure that the best skill sets available have been sought and found, the Hartman Value Profile can help determine whether, and to what degree, a person has good judgment. In almost any scenario imaginable, good judgment will be the determining factor in how skill sets are used in the workplace.

The Hartman Value Profile is not a “canned” profiling instrument in which scores from an individual organization are used in relationship to a million-item database that is pushed off on the uniqueness of an organization. The Hartman processes are driven by what constitutes success and successful employees in a local environment. In particular, the profile is used in many capacities as the following examples show:

	Hiring		Innovation focus
	Leadership/Management competencies		Six Sigma focus
	Customer Service focus		Individual Growth
	Risk Management analysis		Understanding employee’s challenges
	Understanding/Improving Team performance

FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS

The value of the Hartman Profile can be defined in many ways. Usually of most importance to organizations is its business value. In particular, this value is recognized economically by reducing turnover and organizationally by improving decision-making and problem-solving judgment. The Hartman processes are designed to the used without dependency on external consultants. “Train-the-trainer” methods are used to give a level of internal expertise that carries the overall process forward. Software arrangements are made so that organizations have full availability of the processing materials within their own human resources and training/development offices.

Costs associated with the use of the Hartman processes are conservative compared to immediate savings and the overall impact on an organization. At the present time, replacement costs associated with new employment is usually computed at 1.5 times the pay associated with any specific job. In most instances, the overall, annual cost of the Hartman program is less than the replacement costs of only one employee. All of the other applications of the Profile as thus “the icing on the cake.”

CONCLUSION

Many organizations have “value statements,” “vision statements,” and “mission statements.” Often, such statements are wonderful ideas and reveal honorable intent on the part of the organization. The Hartman Value Profile allows an organization to quantify and measure these “value statements.” That which can be measured can be advanced strategically and monitored intelligently. The Hartman instrument can be integrated, with high value, into almost every workplace agenda being advanced by an organization.

In his powerfully insightful book, Good To Great, Jim Collins introduces what he calls “the metaphor of the bus.” In this decisive illustration, Collins makes three points:

	“It matters what your bus looks like.” That is, the quality of the physical environment of work and the technology found there do make a difference.
	“It matters where your bus is going.” That is, planning, establishing strategies, and visions for the future of an organization play a critical role.
	“Most significantly, it matters who is on the bus!” That is, get the right person in the right place – the person who “fits,” and every other factor of importance – what the bus looks like or where it is going – will almost take care of itself.

The processes associated with the Hartman Value Profile are uniquely equipped to help organizations find clarity in understanding who is on the bus!