Budding Michael Schumachers competing for a place in SEAT Sport UK’s touring car team will undergo comprehensive assessments that analyse behaviour, personality and thinking skills. The drivers are then put through their paces at the Holiday Inn SEAT Cupra Championship, with the winner becoming a fully paid racing driver with SEAT Sport UK in 2005.
New recruits are tested using SHL’s Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ), one of the worlds’ most widely used personality questionnaires which is proven to predict job-related performance. Their profiles are then compared to those of successful drivers like Jason Plato. This not only highlights drivers with potential to win championships, but it also gives important insight into the individual’s risk taking behaviour, how they perform under pressure and their motivations. The detailed psychological profile feeds into a tailored development programme, designed for the driver by Kingswood Consulting, an assessment and development consultancy.
Judith Wardell, managing consultant for Kingswood Consulting who works closely with the drivers commented: “We know from experience that there’s no single personality that spells success on the circuit – we’re not trying to develop clones – but there are certain characteristics that successful drivers share. By using SHL’s personality and ability tests we can spot those that have real potential. We will use the results to develop a tailored support programmes that are designed to maximise drivers’ chances of success.”
Kevin Kerrigan, managing director SHL UK added, “Motor racing is a high-risk sport. When you consider how much is at stake – from the safety of the driver to the prize money – it’s crucial that the team field the best person. But ‘best’ isn’t necessarily the most technically advanced driver; the ‘best’ person must also have the right temperament to really succeed. We’ve already seen football teams borrowing boardroom-techniques for the pitch, with the likes of AC Milan using psychometric assessments, and now we’re seeing it spread to business-savvy motor-racing teams. The use of objective methods to identify characteristics in employees that directly contribute to the success of a company will ultimately boost the performance of the organisation as a whole. Improving the bottom-line is something that should be just as important to a racing team manager as a blue-chip CEO.“
About the Holiday Inn SEAT Cupra Championship
The 2004 Holiday Inn SEAT Cupra Championship sees 18 drivers contest a 12 race series in identical SEAT Sport UK-prepared 250bhp turbocharged Leon Cupra R race cars. Ten of those races form part of the British Touring Car Championship and the final two races take place at a special stand-alone ‘Racing Rivals – Live 2004’ event at Donington Park on Sunday 29th August. A television docu-soap entitled Racing Rivals, presented by Terri Dwyer and Jason Plato, will follow the drivers in the SEAT Cupra Championship and be broadcast later in the year on Channel 4, Motors TV and Bravo. Motors TV will also broadcast each round live, with highlights on ITV1.For more information please visit www.seatsportuk.co.uk
About SHL Group PLC
SHL is the world-leading provider of psychometric assessment and development solutions. The company supports organisations in the selection, recruitment, promotion, succession planning and development of talented people at all levels and across all sectors. Operating in 40 countries and more than 30 languages, the SHL Group devises innovative approaches to help organisations increase productivity and gain competitive advantage through the more effective use of their human capital. SHL has over 5,500 organisations as clients, including many of the Global and Times Top 1000, and is recognised as the foremost provider of objective assessment products in the world.
About Kingswood Consulting
Kingswood specialises in helping teams and organisations create a vision of success and turn this into a reality. Areas of expertise include: Developing business strategies, Designing people management processes, Training and Development, Assessment and Development. Kingswood Consulting works with a wide range of private and public sector businesses. For more information please visit www.kingswoodconsulting.co.uk