Selby & Mills

April 2008	Safety report Safety is probably considered the most critical aspect with regard to many operations in industry and business. Working in conjunction with Craig Consulting, who specialise in the provision of services to the Oil & Gas industry, and following extensive research and validation with the support of major employers, we have developed a Safety report designed to identify those with a “Predisposition to work safely”. This is an additional report that can be produced by users of our Assessor questionnaire. The report provides an overall “Safety Index”. This is then followed by an evaluation of the 9 safety competencies from which the index is derived. The Safety Index evaluates whether the person's behaviour is likely to be conducive to an observation of H&S legislation. It also evaluates whether their attitude to H&S may endanger themselves or others. It provides an overall description of the candidate's capability and propensity to maintain appropriate procedures, irrespective of pressures and distractions. The report is designed for use in the Selection, Review and Development of individual members of staff as well as part of an overall Risk Assessment of a unit or organisation. Further information including an example report can be found here. We are making the report available to existing customers for no chargeuntil 1st July 2008. After that time it will be charged at £24.00 per report. If you are not currently using our Assessor questionnaire then please contact us to sample the report without charge.
July 2007	Assessor Two We re-acquired full ownership of Assessor during 2006. Assessor is a valid and reliable psychometric measure which we originally authored, but have not been able to update until we regained ownership. Our newer SMPQ questionnaire overlaps in some areas with Assessor, but does not yet have the same depth of technical data, due to its relative youth. However, it’s reporting framework and competence structure point the way for the future. We have now completed a full technical and user review of both products and all of the options in order to take advantage of the strengths of both questionnaires, while avoiding overlap. We are therefore pleased to announce the availability of Assessor Two which builds on our experience with both questionnaires. The questionnaire is the existing Assessor questionnaire and it is and will continue to be our primary personality measure which we will generally recommend for use. The report structure will use our new framework. This factsheet contains further details of this substantially updated and improved new product. In Summary:- New “World of Work” model of competencies. New report framework Instant reporting Revised and extended norms We have decided to retain a number of the existing reports for the time being, including the Competency reports, in order to ease clients transition to the new product. Existing users of Assessor will not need to adopt Assessor Two, but we believe that these enhancements will be attractive in terms of the improvements they offer in economy, convenience and personal service.
May 2007	Free online Tutorials - Most Frequently asked Questions about Assessment Selby & Mills have pioneered many innovations in the use of assessment over the last 20 years. In the process of this work, our clients have raised many questions which have caused us pause for thought and consideration. Some of them are basic and abiding and the series of no-cost video tutorials we are producing are designed to address and respond to the most frequent of these questions. There are four tutorials currently available and we will add to them regularly over the coming months. Each video clip is 5 to 8 minutes long. To freely view them just click here. We hope you find them interesting and thought-provoking. Please contact us if there is a question you would like answered (we promise to reply) or a topic you would like addressed in a video tutorial.
January 2007	Free Psychometric Training by Distance Learning From today the first two levels of our training, Bronze and Silver, are available as downloadable distance learning materials. Because it is important to us that cost does not inhibit people from undertaking the training, these two courses are completely free of charge. We are keen to ensure that the training undertaken by individuals is appropriate to their intended use of psychometrics. Therefore we have always offered a programme of course modules which enables trainees to progressively increase their understanding and expertise as the range of materials they use has increased. This principle is maintained in our distance learning programmes. While this development will probably not affect the demand for classroom training in test use, we believe the availability of distance learning options will increase the market place for the use of assessment. It is the electronic equivalent of part-time learning and is designed to achieve the same levels of competence as classroom courses. It can, of course, be completed in a concentrated period, if you wish. The attached summary contains brief details of the new courses and the qualification levels required to use our psychometric assessment products. You can find fuller details and start distance learning on our dedicated Pyschometric Training site www.psychtraining.co.uk Our assessment materials are available to appropriately trained and qualified individuals who subscribe to our Code of Ethics. We believe in responsible test use and, to that end, we subscribe to the BPS, CIPD & APA Guidelines on responsible test use, as well as Equal Opportunities, Anti-Discrimination and Data Protection legislation in the UK. We ask all our trainees to sign an ethical undertaking before using our psychometric products.
November 2006	SMPQ upgrades We have just completed a number of upgrades to our SMPQ questionnaire based on work with clients over the last three years. Revised competencies – we have replaced two of the competencies and developed a new ‘World of Work’ framework which should make the selection and use of competencies far easier. New shortened form – we have removed the ‘Ideal’ aspect of the questionnaire to produce a form with 40% less questions and a completion time that can be as low as ten minutes. Revised norms – we have used our database of nearly 15,000 completions to derive a new set of norms and can now produce a range of norms for clients tailored to their usage. Fuller details of these exciting improvements are provided here.
August 2006	Choosing with Care programme launched The Selby & Mills Choosing with Care Programme is designed to help every care provider, who faces a common challenge: how to ensure that arrangements for protecting service users and staff from abuse are effective. This applies to all service users – children, adults and the elderly - and includes the staff and volunteers who care for them. At the heart of this challenge lie the fundamental issues of risk assessment and workforce development. There are 3 components to the Programme which, used together, are designed to ensure the highest standards of Care are in place: - ‘Working with Care – A Guide to protecting the vulnerable from abuse’. Risk Assessment Survey Fair Care Questionnaire For more information click here
January 2006	Assessor acquired. Just before Xmas we concluded an agreement with Penna Consulting to acquire all of the rights to Assessor from them. We authored this important and comprehensive psychometric assessment suite in the late 1980's, and in 1997 Penna acquired it from us. We are particularly pleased about this purchase since it will now enable us to undertake the revisions and improvements that we believe will make this an even better questionnaire delivered by an improved Internet system. Part of this revision will be to ensure that, in combination with SMPQ, we can provide the most thorough and robust psychometric offer available, with our usual competitive pricing.
December 2005	Training Guide for 2006 available. Full details of our training courses during 2006, including costs, are provided in this document which may be downloaded from this site. As you'll see we have retained the highly competitive pricing and course duration policy for 2006.
November 2005	Free distance learning package launched. Our Bronze level training is now available in Distance Learning form at no cost and with no restrictions. This is ideal for those who wish to administer our questionnaires and use competency type materials in a selection or development context but may prefer not to attend a classroom based course. Full details are available on our training website www.psychtraining.co.uk where the programme materials may be downloaded.
September 2005	Candidate Information Access Facility. We have developed a facility which will enable our clients to access information about the candidates who have completed an assessment on their portals. You will be able to see all of the completions and from that list be able to select a candidate and produce reports for that candidate. This facility will probably be of particular value when a large number of candidates are completing over a short period of time and enhances the existing reporting facility which will continue to operate.
August 2005	SMPQ Catering Job Preferences module. We have created an additional Job Preferences module which provides matching occupations in the Catering and Hospitality industries that may be of interest to the Candidate. The existing General Job preferences modules continues to be available but this new module should have greater value to a candidate in these specific industries.
August 2005	SMPQ in French. Our SMPQ questionnaire is now available in French. So if you have the need to assess French speakers they can complete the questionnaire in their native language.
April 2005	Web based 360° Review We are pleased to announce our new web based questionnaire, which examines the same competencies as our SMPQ Personality Questionnaire. We can easily tailor this to client requirements by incorporating additional questions which tackle areas that are of particular concern to the organisation. Indeed our advanced web technology means that we can construct individual questionnaires for clients quickly and effectively. More information with respect to our 360° services can be found on the attached information sheet.
January 2005	Employment Questionnaire available on-line Many clients have expressed interest in a high volume assessment tool which will evaluate staff against the day-to-day job requirements associated with repetitive front-line activities, such as retail, finance, the security and service related sectors. In response, we originally developed the Employment Questionnaire. The latest version of this has been fully updated and is now available on-line. The questionnaire takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete and instantly provides an evaluation of the candidate against ten key job related dimensions.
October 2004	SMPQ additional Feedback Modules. We have added to the modules available in the Feedback report an enhanced Type section, a Relationships section, a Big5 section and a Mental State section which may now be ordered in conjunction with the report modules that were previously available. SMPQ Assessment report fully on-line. The Assessment report is now accessible from the Internet system in the same manner as the feedback report. This means that you can now obtain this report in your own timeframe without us having to manually intervene.
September 2004	SMPQ available in Slovene. Our SMPQ questionnaire is now available in Slovenian. So if you have the need to assess Slovenian speakers they can complete the questionnaire in their native language and you can supply a Feedback report also in Slovenian.
.July 2004	"Successfully Start Your Own Business In Australia" book published. Aversion of this book for those thinking about starting a business has been published taking into account the differences in the tax and legal positions in the United Kingdom and Australia.
April 2004	Appointed by Penna as the sole provider of training in their Assessor questionnaire. We have been appointed by Penna Consulting plc as the sole provider of certification training with respect to the use of their Assessor questionnaire.
March 2004	Counsellor's Guide for the Entrepreneur Questionnaire now available. This Guide is designed to help a consultant to support individuals using the Entrepreneur Questionnaire. It can be downloaded without charge from this site.