Psychological Consultancy Ltd (PCL) was Hogan’s very first international distributor. Based in the United Kingdom, PCL has a robust portfolio of psychometric assessments and consulting expertise and supports clients globally. The team pride themselves on their work to enhance talent acquisition, talent development, and engagement decisions and empower individuals, teams, and organizations.

About the Team

Founded in 1992, PCL quickly became one of the U.K.’s leading evidence-based assessment solution providers. Inspired by Hogan’s mission to reunite assessment practices with personality research, CEO Geoff Trickey and Chief Psychologist Gillian Hyde worked closely with the Drs. Robert and Joyce Hogan to trigger an exciting period of innovation with the publication of the U.K. edition of the Hogan Personality Inventory in 1997, followed shortly by the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory and Hogan Development Survey in 1998. Hogan assessments were not very well known in the U.K. at the time, so PCL helped to secure speaking opportunities for the Hogans at prominent U.K. conferences. PCL also submitted the Hogan instruments for review by the British Psychological Society.

Both Trickey and Hyde are leading psychologists in personality research, and PCL’s team of highly qualified consultant psychologists have enjoyed this close working relationship with Hogan Assessment Systems for nearly 25 years. As one of the world’s most experienced HDS users, Hyde has a particular interest in the dark side and is currently focusing her research on challenging biases and assumptions about personality.

Challenging Assumptions About Personality: The Bright Side of Neuroticism

All too often, research into personality and performance at work consigns neurotics to the scrap heap of undesirable candidates or employees. But neuroticism is a normally distributed characteristic, so this negative categorization applies to a substantial proportion of the available talent pool. Hyde is interested in switching the focus from the downsides associated with neurotic personalities to the potential advantages of this characteristic, and in creating awareness of the types of jobs or roles that might make the best use of these talents. She has identified five key positive characteristics associated with neuroticism and is exploring themes for ideal jobs or work environments that bring out the best in neurotics.

To learn more, you can check out her episode on Hogan’s Science of Personality podcast.

Hogan is proud to officially announce the addition of PACE Institute of Management (PACE) as the 44^th member of the Hogan International Distributor Network.

Based in Vietnam, PACE is highly respected for its work toward developing leaders at all levels and is well known for a global ecosystem of management within eight affiliated schools, six member companies, and 10 global partners. The company joins the network with more than 20 years of experience in corporate training and consulting.

“We are happy to have a long-term partnership with Hogan in talent assessments,” said Dr. Gian Tu Trung, chair of PACE Institute of Management. “Hogan will further enrich PACE’s global ecosystem of management. With Hogan’s talent assessments, we will empower leaders and organizations in Vietnam in their talent acquisition and talent development more effectively.”

PACE’s mission is to develop high-performing leaders and professionals to benefit businesses and society. To achieve its mission, PACE focuses on the following areas: (1) PACE training; (2) PACE consulting; (3) PACE books; (4) PACE research; and (5) PACE seminars. We are so happy to have PACE join us in using Hogan assessments for developing leaders and professionals in Vietnam.

“We are looking forward to the partnership with PACE and the opportunity to develop and grow the Hogan market in Vietnam,” said Darin Nei, PhD, Hogan’s director of international distributors and product. “We’ve seen a big increase in talent assessments across several markets in Asia. We expect this trend to continue as organizations strive toward globalization in the new world of work. Having a robust distributor network with local partners such as PACE allows Hogan to meet the needs of clients now and into the future, no matter where they are located.”

Ever since ThreeFish Consulting became an authorized Hogan distributor in India in 2016, ThreeFish has successfully focused its efforts on people and organizational capability consulting. ThreeFish takes great pride in applying behavioral science to its approaches in helping people and organizations operate at their true potential.

ThreeFish Consulting has made a great impact in India with Hogan Assessments Certification workshops, with 959 participants certified to date and a strong network of Hogan certification graduates. The International Coaching Federation has approved ThreeFish’s Hogan Assessments Certification Workshops for 15 CCEUs (Continued Coach Education Units).

Additionally, ThreeFish has developed a robust ecosystem in India and is positioned as a thought leader in the market, serving global and Indian clients and multinational consulting firms. ThreeFish understands the importance of psychometrics for use in selection and development of talent in India and is a leader in research and client solutions in their market. ThreeFish also works with other Hogan distributors and independent practitioners for expanding Hogan’s reach and impact in India.

About the CEO

Pradnya Parasher, PhD, is an accomplished human resources and leadership development executive with 25-plus years of experience in strategic HR, talent management, and executive assessment and coaching. Dr. Parasher brings broad experience across varied industries and deep understanding of workplace behavior and organizational dynamics to her work. She has provided hundreds of feedback sessions to leaders on Hogan and ensures that scientific rigor is applied to all Hogan solutions across client deliveries. Pragmatic and results focused, she believes in human potential for transformation.

She is coauthor of the book, The Secret Life of Organizations: Invisible Rules of Success for the Young Indian Professional, which gives an insider view of what makes organizations tick and helps young professionals take the smart path to the top. She earned her PhD in industrial-organizational psychology from the University of South Florida, and she is a member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and a life member of the National HRD Network in India

Distributor Q&A:

1. How did you first hear of Hogan and what sold you on it?

I first heard about Hogan in 2010 when I was working at a large US Technology company where I was running a global leadership assessment and development program.  Hogan’s research base, framework of socio-analytic theory and comprehensiveness of the assessment mode – Bright side, Dark side and Inside of the person – convinced me about adopting Hogan assessments in my work.

2. How do you predict the India market to change following the COVID-19 pandemic?

We see steady and continued investment in leadership assessment and development in India. Succession planning and assessing leadership potential for future growth are key priorities for many of our clients, where Hogan insights are being leveraged.

3. Throughout your time of working with Hogan, what is the best client success story that you can share?

There are many success stories. The one that we take most pride in is where our client, a large, Indian multi-national agro-business, used Hogan insights to assess their global leadership talent pool and then used the data for focused leadership development using coaching.

The year 2021 marks Awair’s seventh as a Hogan distributor. During this time, the company has experienced rapid organizational growth and success. After focusing on the Italian market for the first two years, Awair expanded into Spain and France, adding to its already diverse and impressive portfolio of clients and services.

Awair was founded in 2012 by a group of partners, each with 20-plus years of experience in the industry and a clear vision of creating a one-stop shop for personality assessments in the Italian market. Since then, Awair has sold more than 60,000 reports and certified more than 925 individuals. 

Adaptability, strong leadership, and a lot of enthusiasm led Awair to where they are today and will carry them into the future. With all the knowledge and experience the Awair partners and consultants possess, they’ve become a major thought leader in the market, and with their focus on innovation and excellence, they’ve created an exciting virtual platform to support clients in adapting to the future of work.

Distributor Q&A

Italy was hit hard by COVID-19 — how did you manage to adapt quickly to the new circumstances?

What has become clear since the early stages of the pandemic is that a new kind of leadership is needed to navigate the challenges and uncertainties of the current business environment. We realized that if we wanted to continue to help organizations discover and develop leadership talent, particularly at the speed that is necessary today, we needed to radically rethink our assessment processes and development tools. We have developed a new competency frameworkthat reflects the new leadership challenges, particularly concerning critical thinking, humility, and agile execution.

We have created a digital assessment and development platform that supports a more immersive and engaging experience, mirroring the new “phygital” (i.e., physical and digital) way of life. And we have expanded our development portfolio with a series of virtual workshops aligned with the new leadership framework. This pandemic certainly has been challenging, both from a business and human perspective, but it has also granted us an incredible opportunity to pause and think, be creative, rekindle our passion for the work we do, renew our sense of purpose, and strengthen the ties that bind us together at Awair.   

Was there a valuable lesson learned from expanding into Spain and France?

The most important lesson, if there was ever any doubt, is that the key factors in success are people and collaboration. Our intention, from the very start, was not to have separate Italian, French, and Spanish teams, but rather one distributed team of like-minded, engaged individuals, who work together beyond national boundaries. In a team of 23 people, we have seven nationalities, with people living in seven different cities. Working virtually had been a reality for us even before the pandemic. It’s complicated sometimes, but it’s also extremely enriching.

The other lesson we’ve learned is that it takes time to get people onboard, and that we need to invest a lot of time and energy in getting people up to speed with products and services. In this respect, the resources provided by Hogan, the trainings, the daily support from the distributors’ network, and the constant flow of information from the data science team, are invaluable.

The third lesson concerns the importance of marketing and communication in establishing credibility and brand awareness in the market. This is the area where we need to focus now. We have taken some steps in this direction, but there’s still a lot to be done.  

Tell us a little more about the technological innovations you’ve been focusing on.

AVA, the digital platform we have been developing, is a virtual environment for talent assessment and leadership development. Primarily AVA is a holistic assessment environment where all key dimensions of current and future performance — from potential to readiness, from career aspirations to leadership experiences — can be evaluated to spark an honest, meaningful conversation about talent between all parties involved.

Secondarily, AVA is a virtual space where you can build custom development journeys, combining different types of learning experiences like building blocks: individual coaching, virtual workshops and events, curated content, or other resources.

Finally, AVA is a dynamic database that stores and organizes relevant talent information to provide HR professionals and leaders with an objective “big picture” of available talent and support them in executing and fine-tuning their people strategy.

Specializing in assessment and development of individuals, teams, and organizations, A&D Resources is an authorized distributor of Hogan’s personality assessment solutions in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. A&D Resources also provides consulting services at an executive level to global enterprises.

Recently, A&D Resources announced a merger with Summit Consulting, one of Denmark’s leading business psychology consulting firms. Specializing in organizational and leadership development, Summit Consulting describes itself as “the most business-driven psychologists and the most empathetic management consultants.”

“With this merger, we have created one of the largest business psychology firms in Denmark and Europe, strongly focused on developing leaders and organizations by means of leader assessment and organizational and leadership development,” said Karsten Søderberg, who was previously managing director at Summit Consulting and is now group CEO.

In addition to Søderberg having taken on the role of CEO, Lone Aggernæs Thornberg has become managing director at Summit Consulting, and Charlotte Søderberg has joined A&D Resources as managing director.

A&D Resources and Summit Consulting have had a close working relationship for many years since Summit Consulting uses Hogan’s personality assessments for a large proportion of its consultancy services for personal and team development programs, as well as for larger-scale development programs for companies in Denmark and abroad. The merger of the two companies will give A&D’s clients, partners, and resellers access to an even broader range of the industry’s best and most experienced business psychology consultants in the fields of organizational and leadership development.

“This merger marks the transition from a close, long-term collaboration between A&D Resources and Summit Consulting to a consolidated global business psychology consultancy, with the industry’s best consultants and specialists in Hogan assessments and organizational and leadership development gathered in a single organization,” said Joan Jakobsen, founder of A&D Resources.

Both companies will retain their names and addresses, and all employees will remain in their current positions, keeping their current clients. This means that the consultants or contacts clients have had up to now will continue to advise and serve them in the same professional manner as always.

“We are excited to work with the combined Summit and A&D Resources teams,” said now-former Hogan CEO Scott Gregory. “The merger is a combination of two highly respected and complementary firms with a resulting global reach. We all share strong values about client service, science-based assessments, leadership development, and business growth. We welcome the combined firm into the Hogan family and look forward to many more years of productive partnership.”

In celebration of this merger, we at Hogan want to pay tribute to Joan Jakobsen and Flemming Honore, who worked tirelessly over the past 19 years to create the A&D Resources we know today. Joan, alongside her team, has created a powerhouse in the Nordic and Benelux regions, and this merger will propel them further into a bright future. For Joan and Flemming, their future plans include a nice glass of wine in the south of France and research collaborations.

Of course, we must also credit the A&D team, a group of individuals with high regard for quality services, customer service, and scientific rigor, for their extra efforts during this merger. Scott Gregory speaks for everyone at Hogan when he says, “We have always been proud to have the team at A&D as the face of Hogan in the markets they serve. They have been and continue to be respected experts in all things Hogan and have become trusted advisors to their many clients. It is our pleasure to continue our relationship with A&D’s world-class team.”

Peter Berry Consultancy, also known as PBC, is an authorized distributor of Hogan’s personality assessment solutions in Australia and the author of several products, including the Hogan 360° suite and the High Performing Team Assessment. PBC is also coauthor of the Hogan Safety Climate Survey.

Founded by managing director Peter Berry in 1990, PBC has grown into a leading global provider of human capital consulting services. PBC is a multidisciplinary global consulting firm with more than 30 years of experience in the delivery of best-practice solutions aimed at maximizing the potential and behavior of individuals, teams, leaders, and organizations.

PBC provides customer-focused, evidence-based people solutions that enable organizations to select the right people, develop key talent, build better teams, drive leadership capability, and enhance organizational performance. From offices in Sydney and Melbourne, PBC employs highly skilled, experienced consultants with backgrounds in psychology, business consulting, and human resources to support clients both locally and globally.

Research Contributions

PBC proudly applies an extensive collection of research, case studies, and thought leadership in developing solutions for clients. PBC’s expertise and insight into both local and global leadership is highlighted in recent work:

• What the Best Leaders Look Like – Research shows that the best leaders tend to be achievement focused, strategic, and inspiring, with high emotional competence. Leaders need to focus on improving their workload management and their ability to challenge poor performance.
• Leader Personality and Performance Differences in the Public Versus Private Sector – Understanding what differentiates leaders can be useful for selection and development. This white paper summarizes research that examines similarities and differences in the personality and multirater performance reviews of executives and managers within the Australian public and private sectors.
• Gender Differences in Australian Leadership – There has been a growing interest in understanding the similarities and differences between leaders of different genders. Insights in this area can have implications for the selection and development of leadership talent and leaders’ subsequent performance at the individual, team, and organizational levels.

For more details on these and other research topics, please visit peterberry.com.au/resources.

NSW Government in Australia has won top ranking in the Australian Financial Review’s 2021 Top 100 Graduate Employer List – an achievement that has been six years in the making. Peter Berry Consultancy’s (PBC) role in supporting NSW Government to attract talented new graduates has focused on designing and implementing the selection program, encouraging diversity , and identifying future leaders, in line with the NSW Premier’s priority to build and maintain a world class public service.

Since it started in 2016, the program has grown significantly and applications have largely increased year on year. From just 25 graduates in 2016 to 147 graduates in 2021, the program has seen over 800 graduates join NSW Government in just five years. In 2016 the NSW Government Graduate Program came in at 60 in the AFR 2021 Top 100 Graduate Employer List and has experienced an astonishing increase in popularity, demonstrated by the steady climb in its ranking in that time to top the list in 2021.

Innovative and best-practice techniques for screening and assessing potential graduates have played a key role in attracting the best and brightest graduate talent to NSW Government. In designing and implementing a selection process, PBC ensured that it met all relevant legislative requirements; provided a positive and equitable candidate experience; reflected the work skills required of NSW Government graduates; and used best practice evidence-based approaches to volume selection.

In the initial design phase of the selection program, PBC consulted extensively with the organization and relevant stakeholders to develop a process that includes:

• Use of valid and reliable assessments including cognitive, personality and situational judgement
• Use of online technologies to capture data efficiently and enhance the candidate experience
• Consulting with other organizations to ensure equity, fairness, and inclusiveness in the process
• Customization to reflect contemporary public sector issues
• Knowledge transfer by training NSW Government assessors in best-practice capability-based assessment techniques

PBC has applied a continuous improvement approach during the five years it has supported the NSW Government Graduate Program, ensuring it attracts diverse candidates that best meet the requirements and values sought by NSW Government. This included a transition to full virtual delivery in 2020 in response to COVID-19.

Effective employee assessment and selection can have a significant impact on your organization’s performance, ensuring higher productivity, better team effectiveness, a more cohesive workplace culture and improved staff retention. To find out how PBC can help your organization select the right people, develop key talent, build better teams, drive leadership capability and enhance business performance visit our website.

About Peter Berry Consultancy (PBC)

PBC is a multidisciplinary global consulting firm with 30 years’ experience in the delivery of solutions aimed at maximizing the potential of individuals, teams, leaders and organizations. We undertake research to support our evidence-based solutions and have a network of partners and distributors globally.

PBC is the Australian distributor of Hogan Assessments and the author of a range of diagnostics including the Hogan 360 suite, High Performing Team Assessment (HPTA), Agile Suite and co-author of the Hogan Safety Climate Survey.

W: www.peterberry.com.au

E: info@peterberry.com.au

Ph: +61 2 8918 0888

Since 2004, Advanced People Strategies (APS) has been an authorized Hogan distributor and provider of leadership and organizational development in the United Kingdom. Having certified more than 4,200 clients in the Hogan personality assessments and provided around 83,000 reports, APS is a key distributor for Hogan.

About the Advanced People Strategies Team

Founded by Chris Humphreys in 2003, the company’s name reflects the team’s ongoing aspiration to be a trusted partner to clients. APS strives to provide the best tools and techniques that can visibly improve people skills and organizational capabilities. All senior consultants have experience working in various industry sectors, which helps them better understand and support client needs.

To promote awareness of Hogan, the IT and Learning & Development teams use the latest virtual skills development technology to provide online meeting simulations and facilitator-led learning sessions for remote and office-based participants all over the world. Development needs identified by Hogan’s assessments and real-world simulation assessments are quickly translated to learnable tools and techniques through facilitated learning and skills practice sessions online. These tools allow organizations to maximize value by investing in targeted skills development.

We asked the APS team a few questions to help you learn more about their important work in the UK market.

Where have you seen the most growth in the UK market?

Executive recruitment firms have been a key sector showing interest in Hogan tools. The quality of Hogan assessments helps recruiters add real depth for their clients in understanding their candidates as part of the selection process. In a difficult market, using Hogan tools has supported these organizations as they expand their range of services and focus on leadership and executive team development activities to differentiate themselves.

What is the number-one lesson you’ve learned from responding to the COVID-19 crisis?

Agility is key. Being able to adapt to changing circumstances is critical to both our mental health and business continuity. The UK has had to cope with uncertainty from Brexit, government elections, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Turning on the news can have such a negative effect. In times of crisis, real leaders emerge to offer hope and inspiration. They are often humble and dismissive of their impact, but they make a difference.  

What are you most excited to see happen in 2021?

Being able to meet clients and colleagues face-to-face. We believe we are stepping into a paradigm shift regarding the nature of work. As many people and organizations have been forced to work from home for so long, benefits are emerging. Office requirements, business travel, and support for supply chains will change. Leaders have a lot to do and consider, and their selection and development is more critical than ever.

Two decades ago, Robert Hogan, PhD, approached Rosta Benák, an emerging Czech I/O psychologist, about laying the foundation of online personality assessment in Central Europe using the solutions of Hogan Assessments. Thanks to their professional relationship, Assessment Systems was founded. The enthusiasm and professionalism of the Assessment Systems team, combined with a glocal* approach to business and HR consulting, made Assessment Systems the market leader in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Assessment Systems has since earned the long-lasting trust of many satisfied regional and global clients and has become a key player in HR consultancy in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) regions.

*Note: “Glocal” is not a typo; it is a global approach with local adaptation.

“Assessment Systems has been our partner in our top management team development, along with our strategic talent management projects, over the last years. They always demonstrated responsible and professional approach with high-quality standards and confidentiality. We highly value the level of client service and engagement, along with high prudence of all of their people.”

—E.L. Pacyna

Deputy Department Director

Head of L&D and Assessment Department of HR Policy

Norilskyi Nikel

Started in the Czech Republic, the Assessment Systems team grew continuously, opening international offices with local staff in Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Poland, Russia, and Kazakhstan. Currently more than 60 consultants who speak 14 different languages work together to help their clients with talent management. In 2020 alone, Assessment Systems served more than 900 satisfied corporate clients globally, accommodating clients’ needs and helping them navigate changing circumstances caused by the global pandemic.  

“What our clients like the most about Hogan Assessments is that it works! And it works better than anything else out there.”

—Rostislav Benák

Chairman of the Board

“It is amazing and priceless to get such a deep and precise analyses of a personality that allows to develop people and make science-based HR decisions that helps companies reach their strategic goals with fewer mistakes!”

—Aleksey Buryachenko

Managing Partner Russia, Kazakhstan, and CIS

“If you would like to understand the full complexity and nature of someone’s personality, call Hogan. This is the only assessment that is able to show us the controversial nature of people. As one of our clients said: Hogan is so precise as if someone installed cameras in their office and I got the recording.”

—Gábor Füzér

Country Manager, Hungary

Client Case Study: From a Local Project to International Business

Let’s have a look at how it all works in practice with an example of a successful project. It all started when a team at a global management consulting company was looking for a soft-skills development project that would take into account the individuality of each participant. The client was not interested in yet another generic soft-skills training session.

There was no doubt that involving Hogan and working with each participant’s personality assessment results on an individual level would offer what the client desired — and the project was a success. Positive feedback quickly spread to other teams, and Assessment Systems soon started delivering additional training sessions for other multinational teams at all organizational levels. Consultants in or from Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, and Serbia delivered the trainings first for international groups, then later in the local languages for local teams. The sessions covered a big variety of topics, including leadership skills.

Every individual who joined the trainings learned how personality shapes success at work and strategies for individual development. The client liked the “know thyself” style of the trainings so much that they decided to organize a certification workshop for their HR professionals, expanding the use of the Hogan personality assessments to other in-house projects.

Searching for a localized, global solution in the CEE and CIS regions? Contact Assessment Systems.

Founded in 2002, Optimal Consulting Group has been a Hogan distributor since 2006. Headquartered in Singapore, Optimal has physical presence in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo, and serves the Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Japan markets. Optimal focuses on using Hogan to predict talent and leadership potential, for developmental interventions, and for successful team engagement.

Having sold 65,000 Hogan reports and certified 2,500 Hogan users to date, Optimal is a key distributor for Hogan in the Asia-Pacific region. Clients range across the public and private sectors and include local and foreign multinational corporations. Optimal helps them use Hogan for selection and promotion, succession planning and readiness, and predicting developmental gaps.

About the CEO

Wan Leng has served as Optimal’s chief executive officer since 2002. Educated in Kuala Lumpur and London, she gained rich consulting experience at Deloitte and Mercer Consulting before joining Dell as Asia-Pacific director, covering 10 countries, and later becoming global vice president for American President Lines, covering 50-plus countries.

As leader of Optimal, Wan Leng aspires to mentor Asia’s future social, economic, and political leaders. To date, she has assessed, coached, and mentored thousands of professionals and leaders, cultivated the potential of organizations and individuals for greater business success, and earned the respect and trust of top management in many leading organizations. A recognized expert in the HR industry, she frequently serves in an advisory capacity to boards, CEOs, and top HR professionals.

Her philosophy in life is “Be balanced: Work smart, play hard. Enjoy the moment, live the future. Optimize earnings, maximize giving. Embrace diversity, preserve identity. Be good to others, be good to yourself.”

Distributor Q&A

What do you think will be the fastest-growing industries in Asia over the next 12 to 24 months?

1. Healthcare: medical devices and technology, and health and well-being services
2. Technology: AI, smart robots, and assistive technologies
3. Gaming: game-focused platforms and e-sports
4. E-commerce logistics: online B2C
5. Energy: renewable energy    
6. Food: farming and manufacturing

How do you see the lasting impact of COVID-19 in your markets? When do you expect full recovery will happen?

We are still in transit to our new era, as 2021 will pretty much the same as 2020. Assuming the vaccines curb the spread of COVID-19 by Q3 2021, we will begin to see the end of this transit period by end 2021. Hopefully by Q1 2022 we will be in a new era.    

What should we expect from leaders in Asia in the coming decade?

In the last two decades, Asia has experienced high economic growth, low birth rates, and a quickly growing aging population. In the next decade, we will see younger leaders who have been fast-tracked into their roles. They will be highly ambitious (contrary to common belief), competitive, tech-savvy leaders, preferring to work as part of a team while pursuing individual goals (collective individualism). They are an information-overload and big data–driven generation and are likely to ditch social media (watch out, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn). They are also expected to be innovative and communicative. Above all, those who will stand out are those who are purposeful and have the right perspectives and priorities.