This blog is the final post of our Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice series offered this Fall.

Creativity. The word scares me a little bit. I don’t think I am a creative type on a daily basis. Sure, I come up with some great ideas sometimes but when I think of the meaning of creative, I don’t see my picture beside it in the dictionary. I can’t draw and I can’t picture myself working in a truly, in your face type of creative role. I am more of a process person, an organization person who likes documentation a whole lot (could be my background in HR perhaps?) and who likes to help businesses link their marketing strategies to their employee success.

So, when @BonniToronto sent me the following Buzzfeed link for a job applicant test trying to filter for creativity, I couldn’t resist. I had to see if I was creative enough to work for 88 Creative. As an HR person, my first instinct was to condemn the idea because we cannot hire people based on a 5 minute quiz nor can we measure the level of their creativity (or lack thereof). First of all, some of the options did not include anything I would have chosen and that is not fair. (maybe I am so uber creative that my answers are not the norm?). After completing the quiz my result was this:

“You got: Are you from Mars? So weird, but you might fit in with us, given a little coaching.”

Initially I was a bit offended, I must say. But then I “removed my HR hat” (as my husband often recommends) and looked at this quiz from the outside. I think this quiz was supposed to be fun, and perhaps I should look at it as such. From this perspective, I completed the quiz a few more times, giving different answers just to see the results. If the goal of this quiz was to create a buzz about 88 Creative then I think they were definitely successful. I don’t think they were aiming to hire the most creative individuals based on this short quiz…as was discussed in their blog that followed their quiz posting. Please click here to read it…

In some jobs it is a necessity to be creative and the creativity that is exhibited is obvious (logos, business ideas, new product designs, etc.). Sometimes creativity is required to solve complex problems and sometimes creativity is revealed in the way we help companies to maintain a solid, happy, productive workforce. How do you measure creativity at your workplace or is it something that you feel cannot be measured? I say no way, no how.

But what do I know, after all I am apparently from Mars.