The topic of the Best Practice Profile (BPP) has already been dealt with intensively in several previous articles. A BPP serves as a comparison. It allows conclusions to be drawn about the candidate's positioning in the individual personality traits and reveals possible areas of development and potential. It shows how the best in an industry are "knitted" and which characteristics are particularly necessary and conducive to success in a job profile. In short, a best-practice profile is a comparison with the best. 

• In this article, we will look at the procedure necessary to create a best practice profile.The creation of a best practice profile consists of five steps: The first step is to identify the most successful employees of a professional group in the company. In order to be able to record these employees, success criteria must be defined. What criteria should be used to select the most successful employees? Which figures are decisive for success? Examples of success criteria are the turnover achieved or the return on investment. Then a best practice group is formed from the most successful employees of the company and the success-relevant and verifiable characteristics are collected. Figure 1.1 shows a table to determine the most successful employees. 

• Next, each selected employee completes an aptitude diagnostic procedure online. This is a self-assessment. The strengths and weaknesses of the participant are found out and pointed out. Some sample questions are shown in Figure 1.2. 

• This is followed by the evaluation of the aptitude diagnostics. The result of the aptitude test shows the different characteristics of the most successful employees. By combining and evaluating all the profiles of the best-practice group, a best-practice profile is created. This profile is also known as the ideal profile. It shows which criteria are unanimously important or unimportant for the participating employees. 

• But also the evaluations of each individual employee are considered and recorded in an individual profile.

• In the last step, the values of the individual profile are compared with the values of the best practice profile. A deviation analysis is carried out. The extent to which the values of both profiles correspond to the individual characteristics is checked. The key criteria are also checked. Attention is paid to whether the key criteria are the same and how high the difference is between the individual and the ideal profile. Figure 1.3 shows an example of a partial evaluation of an aptitude test. 

By mirroring the best practice profile against several comparison profiles, significant changes in the self-assessment to the values of the comparison group can be shown more easily. 

In a structured interview, deviations can be discussed on the basis of the BPP. In addition, the causes for the discernible differences can be clarified through targeted questioning. 

The next article in this series deals with the criteria for goods. What criteria must a good and reputable procedure fulfil? What else should be taken into account? 

About the author

Dr Armin Betz 

After graduating as an automotive engineer and industrial engineer, he began his career in the automotive industry in the areas of sales, development and marketing and also spent a year in Japan with one of the largest automotive suppliers.

He then moved to a world-renowned premium car manufacturer, where he was responsible for product marketing in Japan and South America and marketing strategy in North and South America.

In 1994 he decided to become self-employed and founded a personnel consultancy in Munich, where he has been driving development and expansion for over 20 years. As managing director, his industry focus is naturally on the automotive world as well as mechanical and plant engineering.

With his doctorate in the field of aptitude diagnostics, he ideally rounds off his fields of competence, especially with regard to personnel and management consultancy. The dissertation deals with the identification and proof of typical personality traits of engineers as well as the definition of development areas for a successful professional career.

These are scientifically derived and presented in the book "Eignungsdiagnostik im Praxiseinsatz".

At the same time, his focus is on building networks and cooperation models as well as the continuous further development of systems and processes in HR consulting.

Within the last 20 years in personnel consulting, he has developed several brands that are still successful on the market today.