Growing up in a small town in South Germany, I learned very early what it means to work in “sales.” My uncle occasionally took me with him on his various sales tours. Can you guess what we sold? Eggs and other agricultural products “produced” on his farm. His clients loved the fact that we went on tour together, and they spoiled his little helper with sweets or even a few cents. As a teenager, I had different jobs like selling sports shoes or working as a waitress.
My most significant influence came from my parents. They tried their hand at various business ideas until they found their passion: e-mail marketing. Their company was one of the first companies in Europe that acted as a full-service marketing agency, specializing in delivering custom advertising e-mails tailored to individual recipients. Their entrepreneurial spirit jumped over to me. My first job after studying Business Administration was a combination of sales and recruiting. After working six years for a very well-known international recruiting agency, where I learned so much about national and international recruiting, I decided to open my own international operating recruiting agency called people-s-place in 2014.
What is people-s-place GmbH?
Operating internationally, people-s-place offers clients the opportunity to optimize the probability that the desired personnel can be found effectively within a short time. We see ourselves as a valuable resource and knowledge hub when (additional) actions are required to find the best personnel. Clients and candidates can count on us.
The numbers speak for us:
- We operate internationally.
- Our dropout rate of placed candidates is below 2.5 % since our foundation.
- We have placed candidates in 24 different languages.
- We have placed more than 600 candidates across Europe.
- The fields we mainly recruit in are: IT, Medical & Pharma, Engineering, Logistics, Technical Support, Customer Service, Sales, Finance, Languages.
- Our motto: Excellence …is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well! - John W. Gardner
DISC for Human Resources
The first time I heard about the DISC assessment was 13 years ago during the application process with my first employer. The company used the DISC personality test as a part of its hiring process. A considerable part of my first role consisted of sales tasks, so my employer used a Sales Performance Benchmark with the DISC profile to map the company’s requirements for working in sales. I loved the DISC assessment tool from the first touchpoint, and it has accompanied my work as a recruiter in various ways since.
The DISC assessment is a tool used in many different aspects in the field of Human Resources. I am the CEO and hiring manager of the company, so I use the DISC personality test in addition to phone, Skype, and personal interviews when I want to hire a new employee. We are a small team that works very closely together, and diverse company culture is vital to us. Using the DISC test for our internal hires and having an evaluation talk with the applicants is an excellent opportunity to get to know them and spend some extra time together. In addition, I can also see how the applicants react when we speak about their DISC profile.
Moreover, we use the DISC assessment results for our individual talks that take place regularly. Each individual talk is very valuable for a superior or manager. Employees do not want to come to work; they want to make an impact. Using the personality profile to talk about each individual’s DISC personality type means that a manager or superior will have the chance to exchange, communicate, and debate with the employee on an individual basis. They have the opportunity to help the employee reflect on their work style and personality, which enables them to grow.
The DISC assessment is also an excellent tool for team building in the workplace. Your team gets to know each DISC style of all coworkers. Having more knowledge about your coworkers can help avoid conflicts within the group as you become more sensitive toward one another. It can enhance collaborative working and productivity and can increase the manager or superior’s leadership skills.
It is best if you use the DISC assessment tool at regular intervals in the workplace. For example, we use it for our employees before getting promoted or during challenging situations for a momentary snapshot.
The most important fact of using the DISC personality assessment for Human Resources is that you enhance the quality of communication within your company, whether you use it individually or with a team. Communication is often overstretched or underrated. I am convinced that the DISC assessment can help employees stay longer in your company as you detect a feeling for each employee and their individual needs. Rehiring and retraining are very cost-intensive. It is essential in Human Resources to understand that the employees represent the company. Therefore, you should do everything you can to assist your employees in working and engaging in a positive working environment.
As we constantly hire interns and working students on our team, I use the DISC assessment as a mentoring tool as well. People need to know who they are and learn about their strengths and blind spots at the beginning of their careers. Our interns and working students get good information about themselves out of the DISC personality profile, which helps them do a proper self-reflection.
Our clients also profit from the use of the DISC assessment. When we talk with clients about their hiring needs, they often mention what kind of “personality” and character attributes they wish to have from the new employee. We offer our clients DISC assessments for potential candidates for the roles they have to fill. As a result, they can see what personality style a candidate is either by the DISC report alone or with an added DISC benchmark for a specific role. By doing this, our clients can get the chance to get to know the candidates from a different point of view, and they can also ask questions depending on the DISC assessment results. I can only repeat myself by saying that it is essential to hire well-fitting candidates to avoid a bad atmosphere within the team culture and prevent additional investment in rehiring and retraining.
