Illustrait: Common Questions
Updated
by
Amy Thomas
Illustrait is a competency-based personality assessment that measures how well a candidate’s behavioral traits and workplace preferences align with the specific competencies required for success in a given role. It is a short, adaptive, and job-relevant assessment that draws from a framework of 38 workplace competencies. Unlike traditional personality tests, Illustrait focuses specifically on workplace behavior, helping you identify candidates who are more likely to be comfortable, productive, and successful in the role.
General
What does Illustrait measure?
llustrait is a highly targeted, customisable and job-relevant measure of a candidate's personality traits, that helps organizations identify candidates who have the attributes required to be comfortable in a role, perform well, and stay longer.
It measures a candidate's competency potential for a specific role. Every role has specific competency requirements - that is, the traits, abilities and dispositions that form the basis of successful performance in a role. Almost every role requires a level of cognitive aptitude - the ability to think critically, solve problems and learn new information, and we know that this ability underpins successful performance in most roles.
In a similar way, each role has specific personality traits and dispositions that underlie successful performance. Effective salespeople are likely to enjoy selling, providing customer service, directing and coordinating, and consulting and advising. A strong manager could be someone who naturally prefers developing and coaching others, directing and coordinating, motivating and inspiring, managing change, with a strategic mindset.
Illustrait gives you a simple, targeted way to measure the specific competencies that are required to succeed in a particular role. You can either use our recommendations (based on the O*NET task requirements of a role), or you can choose your own competencies from our framework of 38 unique competencies to reflect your own unique role requirements.
It measures a candidate's competency potential for a specific role. Every role has specific competency requirements - that is, the traits, abilities and dispositions that form the basis of successful performance in a role. Almost every role requires a level of cognitive aptitude - the ability to think critically, solve problems and learn new information, and we know that this ability underpins successful performance in most roles.
In a similar way, each role has specific personality traits and dispositions that underlie successful performance. Effective salespeople are likely to enjoy selling, providing customer service, directing and coordinating, and consulting and advising. A strong manager could be someone who naturally prefers developing and coaching others, directing and coordinating, motivating and inspiring, managing change, with a strategic mindset.
Illustrait gives you a simple, targeted way to measure the specific competencies that are required to succeed in a particular role. You can either use our recommendations (based on the O*NET task requirements of a role), or you can choose your own competencies from our framework of 38 unique competencies to reflect your own unique role requirements.
Where can I go to learn more?
Here is our guide to Illustrait.
How to create and use competency sets.
If you have any additional questions about Illustrait please feel free to reach out to your Customer Success Manager or our Support Team for advice and assistance.
How to create and use competency sets.
If you have any additional questions about Illustrait please feel free to reach out to your Customer Success Manager or our Support Team for advice and assistance.
Workplace Competencies
What is Criteria's competency framework?
We've developed a framework that describes the broad groups of competencies required for successful performance across jobs.
For each group, there are a number of different individual competencies, with a total of 38 unique competencies. For any role, you can choose (or, in the case of Illustrait, we can recommend) the competencies required for successful performance.
For each group, there are a number of different individual competencies, with a total of 38 unique competencies. For any role, you can choose (or, in the case of Illustrait, we can recommend) the competencies required for successful performance.
How were the competencies developed?
Illustrait draws from a framework of 38 workplace competencies, developed by Criteria’s I/O Psychology team based on analysis of over 900 O*NET jobs.
The Occupational Information Network or O*Net is the United States' main source of occupational information. See their website for more information.
The US Department of Labor regularly collects task statements for the 900+ jobs listed in the O*NET database. It's an extensive, credible and well-regarded source of job requirements with over 19,000 unique task statements.
The Occupational Information Network or O*Net is the United States' main source of occupational information. See their website for more information.
The US Department of Labor regularly collects task statements for the 900+ jobs listed in the O*NET database. It's an extensive, credible and well-regarded source of job requirements with over 19,000 unique task statements.
Why do competencies matter?
They provide a common framework and language for role requirements throughout an organization, including:
Recruitment and selection
✅ Learning & development
✅ Career & succession planning
✅ Organizational change
Organizations classified as "best in class" in their category are 32% more likely than all other organizations to use a competency framework across all talent management processes (Aberdeen group).
Competency potential means measuring whether someone has the stable traits, abilities and dispositions to perform well/ be effective in a role. Many of our tests measure this, including Illustrait.
Recruitment and selection
✅ Learning & development
✅ Career & succession planning
✅ Organizational change
Organizations classified as "best in class" in their category are 32% more likely than all other organizations to use a competency framework across all talent management processes (Aberdeen group).
Competency potential means measuring whether someone has the stable traits, abilities and dispositions to perform well/ be effective in a role. Many of our tests measure this, including Illustrait.
Technical and Setup
My candidate has completed Illustrait before but when I try to reuse their results they are invited to complete the test. Why?
The reuse assessment results function will copy your candidate's results from an earlier invitation to the current one if both the following conditions are met:
✅ The exact email address is used for both invitations and
✅ The candidate completed the same version of the same assessment.
If the Illustrait competency set used for each invitation is different, then the two assessments are considered different, so your candidate will be asked to complete Illustrait again. For example, below are the competency sets for two invitations for the same candidate. As the second competency set has different competencies from the first set, the re-use results function will not work for the second invitation.
Competency set for first Illustrait invitation
*️⃣ Motivating and inspiring
*️⃣ Effective communication
*️⃣ Networking and building relationships
*️⃣ Resilience and self-confidence
Competency set for second Illustrait invitation
*️⃣ Motivating and inspiring
*️⃣ Effective communication
*️⃣ Networking and building relationships
*️⃣ Persuading and influencing
Note that candidates will be presented with all the relevant questions for the whole competency set. The re-use results function does not copy across the candidate's results for the competencies they have completed before asking them to complete the competencies they have not previously done. Instead, the candidate is invited to complete the new competency set as a whole unit.
✅ The exact email address is used for both invitations and
✅ The candidate completed the same version of the same assessment.
If the Illustrait competency set used for each invitation is different, then the two assessments are considered different, so your candidate will be asked to complete Illustrait again. For example, below are the competency sets for two invitations for the same candidate. As the second competency set has different competencies from the first set, the re-use results function will not work for the second invitation.
Competency set for first Illustrait invitation
*️⃣ Motivating and inspiring
*️⃣ Effective communication
*️⃣ Networking and building relationships
*️⃣ Resilience and self-confidence
Competency set for second Illustrait invitation
*️⃣ Motivating and inspiring
*️⃣ Effective communication
*️⃣ Networking and building relationships
*️⃣ Persuading and influencing
Note that candidates will be presented with all the relevant questions for the whole competency set. The re-use results function does not copy across the candidate's results for the competencies they have completed before asking them to complete the competencies they have not previously done. Instead, the candidate is invited to complete the new competency set as a whole unit.
My candidate has completed Illustrait but I can't view the report.
If your candidate has completed Illustrait - their invitation is marked as Completed in your Criteria account - but you cannot view the Score Report, it may be that a competency set is not selected in the Job Settings.
Once the competency set has been selected, you will need to invite the candidate to complete the assessment again. This is because the questions associated with each competency are different; if no competencies have been selected, the platform will not know which questions to ask the candidate.
Once the competency set has been selected, you will need to invite the candidate to complete the assessment again. This is because the questions associated with each competency are different; if no competencies have been selected, the platform will not know which questions to ask the candidate.
I invited candidates to complete Illustrait but didn't add the competency set. Do I need to re-invite the candidates?
If your candidate has not yet started the Illustrait assessment, you can add the competency set to the test battery in the Job Settings. When your candidates login to complete their assessments, the platform will ask the relevant questions for the competencies selected.
