Saffron Building Society Thomas Assessment Practice

About Saffron's use of Thomas

Saffron Building Society is a mutual lender based in Saffron Walden, Essex. Thomas International publishes a case study naming two instruments: the Behaviour assessment (PPA) and the Emotional Intelligence assessment (TEIQue), used for culture and development work.

Both of those are unusual choices for a sift and normal ones for development, which tells you what to expect. Neither instrument has right answers, neither produces a score, and Thomas says TEIQue in particular should only be administered by an accredited expert who can interpret the results properly. If you have been sent one of these, you are being understood rather than filtered.

The Behaviour assessment (PPA)

Twenty-four items, each showing four adjectives. From each set you pick the word most like you and the word least like you: 48 selections from 96 words in total. It is not timed, Thomas advertises it as taking under eight minutes, and it works on any device.

The output is three graphs across four DISC factors rather than a score:

• Work Mask, how you present yourself at work, from your “most like me” choices.
• Behaviour Under Pressure, the instinctive style you fall back on, from your “least like me” choices.
• Self Image, the first minus the second, which is why it can run negative.

The factors are Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance, and Thomas describes both ends of each neutrally. In a customer-facing mutual, high Steadiness and high Compliance are as valuable as high Dominance, so there is no shape to aim for.

The Emotional Intelligence assessment (TEIQue)

A long trait emotional intelligence questionnaire, 153 items on the full form, each rated from 1, completely disagree, to 7, completely agree. It is not timed and typically takes 20 to 30 minutes.

The important thing to understand about TEIQue is what kind of instrument it is. It measures trait emotional intelligence, which is a set of self-perceptions, not an ability. Thomas's own research psychologist describes it as a trait-based model and contrasts it with ability-based emotional intelligence measures, which are a different family of instrument entirely. There is no emotion to correctly identify and no answer to get right.

The items feed 15 facets, thirteen of which roll up into four factors: Well-being, Self-Control, Emotionality and Sociability, plus a global trait EI score. Thomas's own marketing groups the output differently, so the headings on a real report may not match those four exactly.

How to approach two instruments with no answers

Answer honestly, because the alternative is worse for you

In a culture and development context the profile feeds a conversation about how you work with people who already work with you. An idealised profile makes that conversation useless, and on the PPA it tends to show up anyway: the third graph is the gap between the presented profile and the instinctive one, so an engineered work mask produces exactly that gap.

Use the whole of the seven-point scale

On a long self-report, answering 4 to everything produces a completely flat profile that nobody can interpret, including you. There is no score to protect, so the honest extremes are safe.

Practise the format so the length does not surprise you

The real gain from practising a questionnaire is knowing what it feels like. Twenty-four forced-choice sets and then a long agreement-scale questionnaire is a different experience from an aptitude test, and going in cold is how people end up rushing the second half.

Saffron role families

Customer and branch

• Branch and customer service roles
• Mortgage and savings advisers
• Contact centre

Head office

• Lending, underwriting and credit risk
• Finance and treasury
• Risk and compliance
• IT, marketing and people teams

Practise the exact tests

Our Thomas practice hub has both the PPA and a shortened TEIQue built to the real 15-facet, four-factor structure, alongside the GIA aptitude battery in case your process includes one.