How is PI different from DISC profiling?

While both PI and DISC have similar origins and are based on the 1928 book “The Emotions of Normal People” by William Marston, PI is scientifically validated to be used for hiring as well as for the entire employee lifecycle, in an intuitive, dynamic software tool.

DISC is predominantly aimed at helping people better communicate and manage others. And on the website of the worldwide top provider of DISC, Everything DISC, it clearly states, “DISC is not recommended for pre-employment because it does not measure a specific skill, aptitude or factor specific to any position.”

On the other hand, PI was built specifically for workplace application, including recruitment. It was not developed to be an academic measure of personality, but instead to be a focused subset of granular personality scales that were most relevant to performance in the workplace.

Gaining insight into why someone behaves the way they do at work is one thing. Scientifically establishing in which roles a person will thrive (because it meets their behavioural drives) is a whole other level.

Whether hiring, planning for succession, or coaching, PI always starts with job fit. Using the PI job assessment, the behavioural demands of the job are identified using the easy-to-use and intuitive PI Job Assessment. This highly verified component of the software is what gives PI the edge over all other “personality” type tests.

It allows us to scientifically measure alignment between job and candidate.

Major differences between PI and DISC, at a glance:

• The DISC profile assessment takes a minimum of 20 minutes, which means that some people (particularly candidates) baulk before they even get to the full application stage. The PI Behavioural Assessment takes 5-6 minutes but is scientifically no less accurate.

• DISC profiling is not designed to be used for hiring. PI was developed to enable the entire employee lifecycle, including recruitment.

• Accurately predicting a new hire’s on-the-job success is essential and the best predictor of job performance is “g” – or cognitive ability. PI’s Cognitive Assessment measures “g.” “G” tells us how quickly a person can learn and adapt on the job. DISC does not provide an assessment that measures cognitive ability.

• DISC consultants predominantly report sellers. PI offers intuitive software that provides its clients with dynamic, actionable insights around team dynamics, building workplace relationships, and coaching. A full-time team of researchers and scientists ensures that the software constantly evolves.