Thomas Profiling

Thomas International profiling is a popular tool for many business around the world. They offer personality profiles, aptitude tests, 360 degree feedback and many other tests. This article is focused primarily on the Thomas personality profiling and asks the question, “Is it any good?”

Thomas Profiling PPA

Thomas call their profiling tool the PPA which stands for ‘Personal Profile Analysis’. As with many of the business-oriented personality tools, they use a DISC based test which means their test is based on work done by Dr Marston 60+ years ago. They have over 20 reports available from completing one PPA. That’s a LOT of reporting options! It really is amazing that you can get so many reports from one profile, but then 20 – 80 pages worth of text is the typical level of detail that’s available with much of their competition too.

Thomas Profiling Prices

It’s very difficult trying to obtain prices for the Thomas Profiles since they use consultants extensively. This is where, I believe, one of the main problems starts to appear – when I talk to people about psychometric assessments or personality profiles the very first thing that comes to mind with most people is “It’s going to be expensive!”

This doesn’t have to be the case – in the past, Thomas International would use consultants to perform the personality profile and then interpret the results in person for the company. Since the dawn of the internet, there is no good reason why personality profiles have to be so expensive.

Prices I found were £140 per profile – that’s £140 per person you test! Think for a moment what’s involved with an automated test…

  1. Candidate takes test online – the test takes anything up to 10 minutes and involves little to zero server usage
  2. The server processes the profile and generates the results – this all happens automatically.
  3. The server then sends the profile to the candidate via email or alternatively puts the reports into a nice admin system. There is some small cost here involving storage space.

So where does the £140 per person cost come from? Can you imagine being charged £140 for every document you created in Google Docs? Or being charged £140 for every email you sent? The costs of processing personality profiles are in the same ballpark so why the heavy charge?

I believe the reason is because of how Thomas International’s company has been set up. I have found it difficult to try and deal with them without going through a consultant. These consultants want to earn commission and the entire business model is based around those consultants earning a salary and commission.

From Thomas’ point of view, I guess the consultants make sense – they make sales happen. But what happens if instead you eliminate the consultants altogether and remove them from the process?

Per-person fees for Personality Profiling are no longer acceptable

I mentioned earlier that people think of personality profiling as being expensive. It is Improved Employees mission to change this image. The problem with per-person fees is:

  • Companies test only the short-list of candidates meaning the benefits of personality profiling are missed by most
  • Many companies don’t even bother, meaning modern personality profiling is passing most of us by

What do you think of Thomas Profiling?

We want to hear your opinions. Thomas are one of the biggest providers in the market for personality profiling and in my personal opinion their high fees are ruining the market. You can read more about what improved employees are doing to change the market here, but we’d love to hear your feedback below.

  • What’s the most you’ve paid for Thomas profiling?
  • Do you think the price is worth it?
  • Have you ever avoided profiling individuals because of the cost?
  • Do you get pushy consultants on the phone?
  • Do you feel like you’re getting a good deal?
  • What do you think of the competition? There’s Axiom, PeopleMaps and SHL amongst others – how much do they cost, which are the best and why?
  • If you can find any advertised prices for Thomas Profiling, please publish the link too