Improving employee wellbeing in the workplace is essential in creating a positive working environment. In pursuit of that goal, there are so many methods that experts might implement to conduct employee assessments. Over the years, one has matured and come to the fore: the DISC model. More specifically, Extended DISC.

As one of the most popular human behaviour theories in psychology, the DISC theory of human behaviour stretches back 100 years to Carl Jung and his early work on human behaviour. Since 2004, Talent Tools — a firm based in Brisbane, Australia, has been helping businesses and organisations of all sizes to be more effective using professional, scientifically validated workplace assessments. 

 Talent Tools provides accreditation training, support and wholesale assessment reports — has come to specialise in using the more sophisticated and multi-functional DISC product from Finland, Extended DISC (ED).

So, let's take a closer look at the Extended DISC process. By the end of this article, you'll have a clear picture of the approach Talent Tools uses in implementing the Extended DISC model in the workplace to simultaneously improve employee wellbeing and performance. 

What is Extended DISC?

Building on Jung's ideas, the original DISC model was created by William Moulton Marston around 1928, during his time at Harvard University. The model categorises peoples' behavioural preferences into four basic styles aligning with each of the letters in the acronym: DISC: Dominant, Interactive, Supportive and Conscientious.

Fast forward to 1994, when Jukka Sappinen, an MBA from the Helsinki School of Economics, who'd spent his early professional years consulting clients using psychometric tools, developed a profound understanding of the gap between existing tools and the information he needed to help people and businesses work more effectively and efficiently.

This insight enabled Sappinen to grasp what his clients needed: 

• An instrument (questionnaire) capable of overcoming Social Desirability Bias in its collection of relevant and accurate data
• A set of proprietary algorithms to analyse, calculate and categorise that data
•  An extensive purpose-built database capable of clearly, precisely and accurately articulating the results
• A range of understandable and actionable, integrated report types and formats to present the results appropriately for a wide range of workplace applications.

Sappinen built on the DISC model to create a comprehensive, integrated system capable of analysing and reporting on an individual, team and the whole organisation level, Extended DISC.

The new approach took what was great about the original version of DISC and expanded it horizontally and vertically. The horizontal expansion increases the number of identified styles. Meanwhile, the vertical expansion goes deeper, revealing the respondent's natural unconscious behavioural style, overriding social-desirability bias.

Further, the Extended DISC approach looks at what behavioural changes the respondent feels are necessary to be successful in their current role and environment—even identifying what effect trying to demonstrate the adapted behaviour is having on the individual.

The Owner and Master Trainer at Talent Tools, Sharon Hudson, explains that Extended DISC identifies 160 styles. More importantly, the system has a massive database to draw the results. It selects words, phrases, dot points and sentences independently of each other according to the outcomes identified by the system's algorithms. This means that even if two people have the same profile, there will be variances in the content of their reports.

However, Hudson carefully points out that Extended DISC is not a personality test. Extended DISC is behaviourally focused and developed specifically for the workplace environment. Of course, it has non-work implications and applications. Still, the rigour required of a practical workplace assessment is higher than whole-of-life personality assessments.

Extended DISC was built to a standard that you can confidently use (together with other supporting information) to make meaningful career and HR decisions such as hiring, coaching, development, performance management, leadership and work allocation. As such, it must be behaviourally based and far more accurate and precise than a simple gauge of "personality".

Extended DISC also has built-in quality standards to ensure it does not provide results when the validity or reliability of the respondent's answers is questionable. 

This can occur for many reasons. A couple of examples are the respondent consciously or unconsciously answering as they would prefer to be perceived rather than as they are; or possibly, the respondent is under much stress at the time of completion and is simply incapable of the clear thinking needed to answer with consistency.

Providing results under these circumstances is simply misleading. Unlike simple DISC assessments, which will spit out a report based on random responses,, ded DISC will not deliver results that do not meet its strict validation standards. Instead, you would receive an email indicating that the results were "invalid". There is no charge for invalid results. Usually, a valid response is obtained when the respondent re-takes the questionnaire, and the report is provided.

How the Extended DISC model works 

Previously, standard DISC assessments focused on an individual's conscious behavioural preferences. Today, Extended DISC assesses a person from within. It does this by examining their intrinsic behaviours to get closer to who they, and what internally drives them. This requires a complex questionnaire instrument, structured differently to those of other DISC products on the market.

"Simple versions of DISC often depict how we want others to perceive us rather than our natural selves,"Hudson says, "your Extended DISC report will describe how someone with your profile is typically seen by others -- your "default settings", which we all revert to when we are under stress."

"To give you an idea of the capacity of Extended DISC and its superiority, know that it has 220 million possible text combinations to choose from when choosing what's going into your report. The results are very accurate because the questionnaire is built precisely to get to the natural unconscious behavioural style of the person filling it out and because of the capacity of this database." 

Differences between Extended DISC and standard DISC

The simple DISC tools out there are fine for what they are: helping a person understand that not everyone is the same as them, that there are different styles, what their style is and how their style may interact with the other styles. Extended DISC goes much deeper, not just because it is more carefully and purposefully constructed specifically for the workplace. It is also calibrated with precision to ensure the results' consistency and the data's usefulness.

Extended DISC identifies how a respondent's strengths match their specific job-role requirements and the comfort level of the work environment for the person. Both contribute directly to job satisfaction, wellbeing at work, effectiveness and efficiency. These, in turn, affect performance and productivity at the individual, team and organisational levels.

"Extended DISC also gives the information you need about whether the respondent is feeling good and functioning effectively right now. We can interpret how not being a good job/environmental fit affects the person and identify the cause, enabling rectification," Hudson says. "It can identify this because it has more information about other factors that may influence who the respondent is as an individual, such as their adaptation preferences and timeline compatibility tendencies."

When someone completes their questionnaire, one of the critical perspectives is how their behavioural style and preferences map onto the Extended DISC Diamond, showing their natural flexibility zone and most accessible development zones. This goes far beyond the simple scores of a standard DISC to produce a unique profile shape that reveals a great deal of profound insight into who the participant is and how they feel.

"The size and the relative positions of the data points in each of the two profiles tell us how the respondent is currently feeling, and among other things, what effect their perceived need of adjustment from Profile II to Profile I, is having on the employee."

This information enables us to identify where role or environmental changes will allow employees to more efficiently and easily achieve their performance outcomes. We use "job-crafting" to modify how tasks and processes are completed so that employees can apply their natural work preferences and use their strengths to achieve the outcomes. Maybe not doing it in quite the same way that works for other or previous employees.

We use “job-crafting” to modify how tasks and processes are completed so that the employee can apply their own natural work preferences and use their strengths to achieve their individual and team outcomes. This not only improves productivity, it boosts job satisfaction and wellbeing.

The Talent Tools Extended DISC method 

When you come to Talent Tools, and if, Extended DISC is found to be the most appropriate tool for your needs, the next step is an email that gives you an overview of what the process entails. If you continue, you'll receive a link to an online Extended DISC questionnaire and simple instructions.

When you are ready, it's time to undertake the questionnaire. Remarkably it is only 24 questions, but once you go through it, you'll understand how subtle and incisive the tool can be in such a short time.

Hudson is careful to state that Extended DISC is neither a "test" in which you can achieve a high score nor an "exam" that you can pass or fail. Whatever your results, they are perfect for you. The challenge is optimising your capability and improving your workplace. 

"Answer as honestly as you can; the tool does the rest. It's set up with strong quality controls: the set of responses must meet a certain standard of consistency and statistical validity before they can be used to generate the report. The more accurately your answers reflect you, the more useful the report will be to you.

Extended DISC is Talent Tools' most versatile and popular talent tool; however, they have other tools more specific to specialist issues or areas of interest. One of Sharon's favourites is Strengthscope, drawing on the science of positive psychology and work-based strengths; this tool from the UK is an uplifting performance-enhancing experience whether it is used at the individual, team or organisation level; and particularly when applied as a leadership strategy. Over the "COVID Years," Emotional Intelligence has become very popular; this is easily linked to the uptake in Workplace Wellbeing and improving people's experience of life at work.

"If you want to concentrate on "Becoming Conflict Competent", ask about Conflict Dynamics Profile. If you want to become more entrepreneurial, I will use the Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile," Hudson says.

"Really, it is a case of knowing why you are thinking of using a talent tool and what outcomes you are seeking, then we can recommend the right tool and customise the approach for you."

Contact Talent Tools today 

For Talent Tools, Hudson has seen Extended DISC become ever more widely accepted as an essential element in workplace assessments that have real-world effectiveness in improving employees' wellbeing. If it sounds like your workplace could benefit from improving performance at the same time as employee wellbeing, then perhaps it is time to think about Extended DISC. 

For more information, contact Talent Tools today on 0416 010 701 or 1800 768 569.

Originally Posted: https://www.talenttools.com.au/blog/extended-disc-to-improve-employee-wellbeing