Invalid Result

JakeKing

What does it mean when an assessment result comes back as invalid? And what should I do if this happens?

Lindelwa Ndzimande

Hi Jake,

About 1-2% of profiles come back with an invalid result. At the top-level this means that the scoring system hasn’t identified any meaningful patterns in a person’s responses.

There are a number of reasons for why a profile might come back as invalid:

1)The candidate may have over-thought their responses to each question.

2)The candidate may have answered randomly - this is a possibility if they were sceptical about the use of the assessment.

3)The candidate may not have a stable reference to think about their behaviours e.g. if they are in-between jobs, going through a period of change this might make it harder for them to identify the adjectives that they feel best describe them.

It is important to remember that an invalid profile does not mean that the candidate did anything wrong or purposefully tried to work around the assessment. It is also important to remind the candidate of how the assessment will be used and make it very clear that no decisions are made based on assessment outcomes alone. I would also ask them about the context they were thinking of when they completed the assessment – was it appropriate/relevant?

If a profile returns an invalid result twice, we would not recommend profiling for a third time. Other methods should be used to assess behavioural style.