A MULTI-NATIONAL manufacturing company has chosen a Toowoomba psychologist to find a senior executive for its south-east Asian branch.

Recruitment and human resources firm JP Smith managing director Jamie Smith was approached by a German company for his expertise in industrial-related psychology.

Mr Smith does not want to name the company for client confidentially reasons but said he was thrilled his expertise was being recognised by international businesses.

Mr Smith flew to Kuala Lumpur to conduct one week of intensive profiling with 10 potential candidates from Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.

"The client was seeking advice on succession planning and its business interests in the south-east Asia region,” Mr Smith said.

"My role is to help them understand their current organisational capabilities and if the suitable candidate is someone already within their large organisation.

"I conducted structured interviews, psychological profiling and evaluations with 10 of their brightest up-and-coming talents.

"Being an international company, the candidates had diverse cultural and language backgrounds so I had to adjust my testing instruments and approaches to accommodate that.

Mr Smith said psychological profiling was of great benefit to businesses because it studied a person's behaviour and not just the raw data from psychometric tests.

It is helpful for recruitment and training but is also used for team and personal development, workforce strategic planning and succession planning.

"Data is great but personal interaction with data is even better,” Mr Smith said.

"An experienced psychologist can better understand a person's attributes, strengths and weaknesses by asking the right questions and observing their responses.

"This is extremely important when recruiting someone to a senior role because those appointments can have momentous implications for business.”

Mr Smith will present his final report and recommendations to the client next month.