Psychometric tests are used by some employers during their hiring process to evaluate a candidate better and hopefully find the best person for the position. For employers, psychometric tests can measure a candidate's future performance and hopefully improve employee retention by making successful hiring decisions.
What are Psychometric Tests?
Psychometric tests refer to various tests and tools that measure a candidate's suitability for a position or organization. These tests cover different areas and topics.
Psychometric proficiency tests measure a candidate's abilities and intelligence levels and help examine their suitability related to numerical, verbal, and logical skills to determine the problem-solving and speed of information processing.
Other psychometric assessments examine personality, behavior, and emotional intelligence to see how candidates communicate and their leadership potential.
Why are Psychometric tests used in the hiring process?
Candidates are typically evaluated by looking at their resume or cover letter, conducting an interview (or series of interviews), and assigning them a task or project.
Psychometric recruiting tools provide more detailed and insightful information than these traditional evaluation methods. They can help assess competence and personality and examine aspects such as a person's communication style, emotional intelligence, and behavior, as they are related to the workplace.
These insights allow employers to determine how well you could work within a team, your management style, and your willingness to, for example, follow the rules or take risks. These are all important indicators in determining whether someone is suitable for a job within a particular company.
Additionally, knowledge of psychometric tests provides value long after the initial hiring process. Not only can they reaffirm the caliber of a recruit, but they also provide hiring managers with the information they need to inform future progress interviews and ensure a high degree of job satisfaction and engagement.
How Psychometric Testing Supports Hiring Decisions
Psychometric tests can measure many attributes, including intelligence, critical thinking, motivation, and personality profile. An interview can be quite subjective, and while employers will typically assess skills and experience with reasonable accuracy, there is still a lot left on instinct about aligned values.
It could be argued that psychometric tests provide some "scientific" credibility and objectivity in the recruitment process. Traditionally, these tests took the form of pencil and paper, multiple-choice questions, but more and more are moving towards a digital world.
Some organizations often prefer psychometric testing to select (and then eliminate) large numbers of candidates at the start of a recruitment campaign.
What do they measure?
In terms of personality, the tests can indicate the work style a candidate prefers and how they interact with both his/her environment and his/her colleagues.
The tests are useful for analyzing the most "hidden" traits of an individual. Formal education and experience will not always provide a clear and timely assessment of these personal skills. For example, aptitude tests can help get a better, more realistic, and up-to-date picture of a candidate's skills than a formal training certificate.
Appropriate Assignments apply for those candidates who require reasonable accommodation or when English is not their first language.
Whilst recognizing that these psychometric assessment tools can be a powerful tool for hiring and retaining top talent, they should be conducted by an expert and utilizing the right psychometric test for your needs. Do not forget that only applying a psychometric tool without conducting an interview with the candidate is not the best solution to base your hiring decisions.
Written by: Girish Rohra Chawla
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