ORS Assessment Practice
A short behavioural questionnaire used for leadership and communication work at an Irish engineering consultancy. What it asks, what it reports, and what it is not
What the evidence says
ORS is an Irish engineering and building consultancy, working across building surveying, civil and structural engineering, fire safety, project management and health and safety, from offices in Ireland. Thomas International publishes a case study on ORS naming the Behaviour assessment, used in leadership and communication work.
Read that framing carefully, because it tells you the register of the exercise. This is not a gate in front of a graduate engineering role. It is an instrument a professional services firm uses to talk about how its people work with each other and with clients.
The format, exactly
Twenty-four items, each showing four adjectives. In each set you choose the word most like you and the word least like you, which gives 48 selections from 96 words. It is not timed, Thomas advertises it at under eight minutes, and it runs on any device.
Thomas states there is no correct behavioural style and that the assessment measures your natural preferences. There is no score at the end and nothing to revise, which is why any page promising you PPA answers is selling something that does not exist.
Three graphs, and why the third one exists
- Work Mask.Built from your twenty-four “most like me” selections. The behaviour you believe the job calls for.
- Behaviour Under Pressure.Built from the “least like me” selections. Where you go instinctively when a project is behind and a client is unhappy.
- Self Image. The first minus the second, which is why it can run negative. It is a measure of how much adjustment you are making, not a third personality.
The four DISC factors are Dominance, a response to power, Influence, a response to people, Steadiness, a response to pace, and Compliance, a response to policy. Both ends of each are described neutrally by the publisher.
Why consultancies use behavioural profiles
An engineering consultancy sells expertise through people. The technical work is assessed by qualifications, chartership and portfolio; what is not visible on a CV is how someone behaves in a difficult client meeting, how they hand over between disciplines, and whether they escalate a problem early or sit on it.
A behavioural profile is a shorthand for that conversation. It does not answer the question, but it gives two people a shared vocabulary to have it in, which is exactly the use a leadership and communication context implies. Treating it as a personality exam misreads what the firm is doing with it.
Practical notes for sitting it
Answer as your working self
The adjectives are about behaviour at work. The person who runs the site meeting, not the person at home on Sunday.
Expect sets that do not fit
Some sets will feel like all four words describe you, and some like none do. Thomas warns about this itself. It is the mechanism, not a fault in the test or in you. Pick the closest and keep moving.
First instinct wins
There is no timer and also no reward for deliberating. Adjective judgements degrade with overthinking, and twenty-four sets of second-guessing produces a profile that is neither honest nor strategic.
Ask for the debrief
In a firm using the instrument for leadership and communication work, a conversation about the result is the normal outcome rather than a favour. It is also the only part of this with any lasting value to you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this instead of a technical interview?
No. Nothing in a DISC questionnaire measures structural design, fire safety competence or surveying. The behavioural instrument sits alongside the technical assessment and replaces none of it.
What if my profile is wrong about me?
Say so. Thomas reports are written to be discussed, and disagreeing with a graph is a normal and useful conversation. It is a much better position than agreeing with a profile you engineered.
Will ORS also use the Thomas aptitude test?
The case study names the Behaviour assessment only. Thomas also sells the Aptitude assessment, the GIA, which is a timed five-task battery requiring a desktop and a mouse. If your invitation mentions a timed test, that is the one, and it is a different preparation problem.
Is this used in Ireland only?
Thomas tags this case study to ORS in Ireland, which is where the described work happens. Thomas itself operates in over sixty countries, so nothing here is specific to the Irish market beyond the employer.
Practise the format
Our Thomas practice hub runs the PPA the way Thomas builds it and shows all three graphs afterwards, so the report your interviewer refers to is not the first one you have seen.