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In the fast-changing job market, the emphasis on soft skills has become essential.
Employers recognize that technical expertise alone is no longer enough in the face of accelerating technology and skills obsolescence, as a significant proportion of tasks are set to be automated by AI. These far-reaching changes will require increasingly complex skills. They increasingly value candidates who possess a versatile set of soft skills, including communication, openness, flexibility, autonomy and, more generally, adaptability.
As organisations align their recruitment strategies with the importance of these skills, the need for reliable tools to assess and develop soft skills has never been greater. If traditional personality assessments are proving inadequate, particularly for assessing soft skills in a comprehensive way, it may be wise to explore other methodologies.
Having delved into the distinctions between Rising Up and prominent personality tests such as MBTI, DISC, HEXACO, Sosie, and Big Five, let's now pivot our focus to another renowned psychometric assessment: the Saville Assessment.
Saville Assessment was founded by Professor Peter Saville in 1974.
Peter Francis Saville was a British chartered occupational psychologist specialising in psychometrics, personality and talent management. He co-founded Saville and Holdsworth Ltd in 1977.
In SHL, Peter developed the Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ) and the first commercial Big 5 Personality measure.
It wasn't until 2004 that he founded his second company, Saville Consulting Group, now Saville Assessment.
Saville is a psychometric assessment widely used by recruitment professionals to help employers better understand an individual's character or personality, how he or she behaves in a given position, and how he or she handles various work situations.
When it comes to Saville Assessment, you're most likely to hear about Saville Wave Test Styles. Be aware that it's the one most often cited, as it's one of the essential components of the assessment tool.
Saville Wave Test Styles is one of the most widely used tools in the Saville assessment suite, partly because, as Saville explains, of its robust design and its applicability to a variety of HR functions.
The hiring company may decide to use the Saville Wave tests at any time during the employment process. Prior to shortlisting, during the official interview stage, or at the assessment centre, you can be required to complete it.
Now let's get into the details of the Saville Wave.
These tests consists of 7 different “Wave Strengths Questionnaires”, each tailored to particular positions and jobs:
Each of the questionnaires takes 15-20 minutes on average. The test is available online in more than 30 languages.
Now let's get into the details of these questionnaires, especially the first one, the Saville Wave Professional Style.
Saville Wave Professional Style, which stands out in several respects:
Firstly, it's a psychometric assessment tool, providing detailed information on an individual's personality and behaviour at work.
To help you understand what kind of questions are asked, here are a few examples:
The questionnaire is presented in blocks of six statements, which you must rate on a nine-point scale from 1 - “Strongly disagree” to 9 - “Strongly agree”. You must answer each statement to move on to the next page.
If you give the same score to two or more statements, they may be presented to you again. You will then be asked to indicate which statement is most like you and which is least like you, as shown in the image below:
Behavioral styles. This test lasts an average of 35 minutes and is longer than other Saville tests, which last between 15 and 20 minutes.
something very different about the Saville test is that it evaluates, not like other tests such as the Big 5 or SOSIE according to personality traits, but according to 4 precise themes, namely:
Each of these themes is divided into twelve more specific parts, themselves divided into 36 dimensions.
The reason for having so many dimensions is to provide the finest possible analysis of personality traits and behaviours at work. After all, many recruiters want to know as much as possible about an individual's ability to fit in with the company's culture and job requirements.
Based on these dimensions, facets are created to provide even more detailed information.
Once the psychometric assessment has been completed, the test results are either sent to the recruiter who will contact the candidate to discuss them, or candidates may receive a detailed report describing their professional style profile.
These reports can take several forms, as shown below.
These reports typically include an analysis of various dimensions such as communication style, decision-making approach, leadership tendencies and interpersonal preferences.
According to Saville, it offers personalized feedback on how candidates can adapt their behaviors to thrive in different work environments and collaborate effectively with colleagues.
What's more, they say candidates often receive advice on how to build on their strengths to improve performance and address weaknesses or areas for improvement. With this knowledge, candidates can make informed career decisions, hone their professional skills and maximize their contribution to the workplace.
In short, the Saville Wave Professional Style assessment, according to Saville, enables individuals to become more aware of their personality traits in order to better navigate today's professional world.
To better understand the particularities of the Saville Wave professional test, let's compare it to other well-known tests used in the corporate world: the BIG 5.
The Saville Wave Professional Styles offers a more detailed and complex assessment with several levels of analysis (groups, dimensions and facets), providing a better understanding of specific behaviors and traits linked to professional performance.
The Big Five, on the other hand, offers a broader overview of personality, with five main dimensions, each encompassing several facets. It is simpler and easier to administer, but its analysis is less detailed.
The Saville Wave Professional Styles is designed for specific HR applications, such as recruitment, leadership development and talent management, and offers actionable information aligned with professional competencies.
As for the Big Five, it is widely used in academic research and general personality assessment, making it a reliable tool for understanding general personality traits, but less specific to job-related skills.
However, as we have seen, the Big 5 has limitations in the specific assessment of soft-skills, and we will also see how the Saville test is also subject to these constraints.
While the Saville Wave Professional is useful for assessing personality traits and preferences in the workplace, we will argue here that it may not be sufficient for a comprehensive assessment of soft skills. Here the 3 limits :
One of its limitations is that it focuses primarily on the observable behaviours of individuals, notably their preferences in professional contexts, rather than directly accessing the level of soft-skills competency for a given task. This is because soft skills are not innate personality traits, but competencies linked to our cognitive and emotional capacities.
These skills are nurtured by our professional and personal experiences, and according to this, soft-skills levels will vary.
In fact, it's important to remember that soft skills encompass a wide range of abilities such as communication, influencing, planning, emotional intelligence, problem-solving, adaptability and teamwork, all of which are essential for success in today's professional world.
However, the Saville Wave assessment may not adequately capture these soft skill levels, as it primarily assesses observable preferences rather than underlying skill levels.
Skills are often based on complex interpersonal dynamics, such as an individual's ability to adapt to different situations.
The Saville Wave Professional is a standardised assessment that asks individuals whether they agree or disagree with a particular preference.
However, soft skills assessments generally require more complex and contextualised evaluation methods, such as situational judgement tests, behavioural simulations or indirect, not just declarative, measures, in order to provide a complete understanding of an individual's soft skills.
If we consider the test from the perspective of both the employee and the employer, a huge gap becomes apparent.
Imagine taking a test, receiving your results, identifying your strengths and weaknesses, and then what? You're given simple recommendations and suggested books to improve your abilities. Does this feel like enough? Do you believe that merely reading these recommendations will lead to better success at work?
Personally, I find that I need to practise, take action, and integrate changes into my routine to truly improve my weaknesses, and I believe many others feel the same.
This leads us to say that Soft Skill Scan, which tailors its training based on the skills you lack or need to enrich, is far superior to simply testing and providing an overview, as Saville does.
This is why training always competes with recruitment; it actively improves individuals and has a lasting impact beyond a mere recruitment process.
As a result, while the Saville Wave Work Style Assessment offers valuable insights into certain aspects of workplace behaviour, it may not provide precise results on an individual's level of soft skills competency, making it necessary to use other assessment methods.
This is where the Soft Skill Scan comes in!
Unlike “hard skills”, which are precise, taught, and measurable, “soft skills” are often elusive and difficult to measure.
At Rising Up, a team of cognitive researchers created the first validated scientific assessment of soft skills from scratch.
The Soft Skill Scan offers a comprehensive assessment platform that allows, for example, career managers to access their students' current soft skills gaps.
With reports that are both concise, educational teams can accurately identify the areas where intervention and support are most needed, ensuring that no soft skills gap goes unnoticed or overlooked.
This tool will allow the client, school directors for example, to visualise immediately the soft skills of their students and adopt a strategic approach, which itself involves building a tailor-made strategy using the competency framework.
In short, the Soft Skill Scan is not only a testing tool, it is a catalyst for transforming education and development.
While both assessment tools share the aim of evaluating individuals' capabilities, they differ in their breadth of assessment factors, assessment methods employed, and testing approaches.
While the Saville Wave Professional Test offers a broad overview of individuals' characteristics and capabilities, it does not specifically target the assessment of soft skills.
On the other hand, Rising Up's Soft Skill Scan provides a focused assessment of key soft skills that are crucial to master in the workplace. This includes skills such as communication, teamwork, adaptability, collaborative skills, problem-solving, emotional intelligence, and leadership abilities...
The Soft Skill Scan is designed to delve deeply into these areas, posing the question: what is this person’s potential for development in each area?
In assessing individuals, the Saville Wave Professional Test suite adopts a methodical approach. Utilizing self-report questionnaires and online assessments, it employs a blend of Likert-type scales and forced-choice questions.
In contrast, Rising Up's Soft Skill Scan offers a dynamic evaluation experience. Utilizing Soft Skill quiz, videos, and interactive games, it provides an engaging assessment process that never feels exhaustive.
This approach fosters a more authentic and immersive training experience.
In the realm of soft skills assessment, the transition from the Saville Wave Professional Test to Rising Up's Soft Skill Scan represents a shift in focus from expert-led interpretation to user empowerment through automatization.
While the Saville Wave Test necessitates expert coaching for result comprehension due to its intricate analysis, Rising Up's Soft Skill Scan takes a revolutionary approach.
Our product is designed to be self-sufficient, this means that there is NO NEED for specialised knowledge or guidance in interpreting results. We've simplified the reporting process, ensuring that individuals from all backgrounds can easily understand their soft skill proficiency.
This emphasis on user-friendly accessibility not only sets Rising Up apart but also democratises soft skills assessment, making it accessible and valuable for everyone striving to enrich their professional capabilities autonomously.
In the realm of assessing individuals' capabilities for the job market, workplace, education… It's essential to choose a tool that not only provides insightful analysis but also offers a pathway for growth and development.
Unlike its counterparts, the Soft Skill Scan dives deep into the realm of soft skills, offering a comprehensive evaluation of soft skills like communication, teamwork, adaptability, problem-solving, emotional intelligence, and leadership abilities.
Its dynamic evaluation experience, employing quizzes, videos, and interactive games, ensures engagement without feeling exhaustive, fostering an immersive learning journey.
If you are a manager, career or educational manager or school director in higher education, you should definitely try our tools.
Send us a message 📩 to hello@risinguparis.com and we'll organize a 15-minute demo for you within a week.
Warning: The Soft Skill Scan does not intend to replicate or replace the Saville Wave Professional Test because the two tests follow different methodologies, while providing different value. Both tests help individuals become aware of their talents, strengths, and what makes them unique. Rising Up does not challenge or diminish the value of these tests and encourages individuals to take both assessments. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at hello@risinguparis.com
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