What is DiSC Profiling?

What is DiSC?

DiSC profiling is a form of psychometric profile… which is a fancy way of saying a personality test. This type of personality test is based on the work of William Houlton Marston who was also the creator of Wonder Woman!

DiSC stands for Dominance, Influence, Support and Conscientiousness, we probably have a mix of all four in us but we tend to fit into one or two of the categories most, here’s what they mean:

Dominance

People in this category focus on results, they want to take action quickly and challenge themselves and others around them.

Influence

Here people are motivated by enthusiasm and treasure social interaction, they put great value on social recognition.

Steadiness

People that fall under this one tend to be very supportive, they are usually the anchor of the office and people often rely on them for stability.

Conscientiousness

Those that pop up here favour accuracy and precision most of all. They will use a systematic approach and be averse to impulsive decisions.

What’s the point of it all?

A DiSC profile lets us see how a person would react to certain situations. For example, if we know a person is predominantly an ‘I’ type, they probably won’t want to sit quietly at a desk analysing data all day. Likewise somebody who is a ‘C’ probably wouldn’t want to be thrown into a room full of people and be made to give a sales presentation.

Another very important aspect of the profiling is that it gives us an insight into how different people will respond to each other. Across the four quadrants, communication styles can vary greatly and it’s important to remember not everyone is the same!

DiSC profiling at Headway

Here at Headway we believe that the better we know a candidate the more prepared we are to place them in a job that will suit them. We ask all of our candidates to complete a test so that we can get a better understanding of who they are as a person. Knowledge is power, after all!