At Mission Critical Psychological Services, we have refined our ability to identify the personality profiles that are successful in hostile environments through nearly 10,000 face-to-face candidate interviews. We offer two levels of screening for assessing candidates’ psychological fitness for duty: the online Hostile Mission Assessment and the face-to-face Hostile Mission Evaluation. Before reviewing candidates, we gain a thorough understanding of the working conditions, expectations, potential problems, and challenges of the positions for which candidates are interviewing. We also provide Hostile Mission Readiness Training as part of our pre-mission orientation programs.
Hostile Mission Assessment (HMA)
Designed by MCPS specifically for people working in challenging environments, the Hostile Mission Assessment, or HMA, is a multiple-choice test that can be administered from any location with web access. It takes approximately 40 minutes to complete and serves as a basic screening of psychological fitness. Specifically, it measures:
- Flexibility & Adaptability
- Cultural Sensitivity
- Judgment
- Ethics & Integrity
- Attitudes Toward Authority
Hostile Mission Evaluation (HME)
For more comprehensive evaluations of psychological fitness, MCPS offers the Hostile Mission Evaluation (HME), which is an intensive one-on-one evaluation with a doctoral-level psychologist trained in the MCPS methodology. The HME follows a proven blueprint of specific questions designed to elicit answers useful in predicting candidates’ on-the-job behavior. Our conversational approach allows candidates to be open and revealing. We tailor questions and determine appropriate benchmarks for particular positions. After the one-on-one interviews, a team of MCPS psychologists provides peer review of marginal candidates. The HME offers a deeper evaluation of the areas assessed in the HMA, which we recommend that all candidates complete first, and it also evaluates:
- Intellectual Functioning
- Problem-Solving Ability
- Work Ethic
- Safety Awareness
- Stress Management
- Nonviolent Predisposition
- Emotional Stability
- Substance Abuse
- Sabotage Potential
Hostile Mission Readiness Training
Both in individual and group settings as part of pre-mission orientation programs, MCPS helps employees psychologically prepare for jobs in hostile environments. Our training programs, which are customized to address specific jobs and specifc hostile environments, can include lectures, question and answer sessions, and interactive role-playing. We typically address the following areas:
- Adapting to a foreign, hostile environment
- Managing the daily stress associated with living and working in a hostile environment
- Maintaining relationships at home
- Coping with traumatic events
- Identifying problems with co-workers and providing support