Conducting Employee Screening Based on Handwriting Analyses
By Jeff Pizzino, APR, Corporate Communications –
Employers use handwriting experts for screening employees.
The way someone writes reveals a great deal about that person, or at least that’s the theory behind graphology, the science of handwriting analysis. HR departments now use graphology with increasing frequency for screening new and current employees.
Screening Employees Overseas
All around Europe, graphologists are used to recruit and screen employees. Particularly common in France, graphology is reportedly used by 4 out of 5 companies. U.S. intelligence agencies, including the NSA and the FBI, currently employ graphologists for recruiting and screening as well.
In the U.K., graphology is just gaining ground. While it dates back to research by Freud and Jung regarding personality profiling, a number of top European psychologists regard it today as a legitimate tool for understanding a person — perhaps even more so than body language.
Indeed, professionals in the industry are reportedly able to detect very early signs of certain mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia. Along with hiring screening and recruitment, graphology is also used to determine how likely certain employees are to work well together on a project.
Reliability, Practicality, and Application
Graphology boasts high accuracy in determining certain personality traits. Despite this accuracy, companies must be cautious before assuming that graphology is the solution for all business needs.
Unfortunately, graphology is limited to examining general characteristics. If a company or organization is concerned with identifying the likelihood of an individual to deceive, or whether or not an individual has already committed fraud, such an exam would not reveal specifics. Also, graphology exams can take several hours for professionals to perform.
Screening with EyeDetect™
Combined with a reliable lie detector test, graphology would help screen employees quickly and accurately before they are hired. EyeDetect™ is a lie detection exam that takes only 30 to 40 minutes and reveals instant results with an average accuracy of 85 percent. This examination is non-intrusive, measuring eye behavior while an individual answers questions on a computer screen. Used together, these two ways of screening new employees or officials would reveal what organizations need to know before taking on someone new.
