Psychometrics or psychometric tests are indispensable tools that have long been associated with senior hires, but lately, we have seen more and more companies use this form of assessment even for hiring freshers.
According to a research by Personnel Today and Network HR Executive Search, 78% of recruiters agree that it is a powerful tool for hiring, so much so that they have become completely ingrained in the recruitment culture.
Many HR managers traditionally relied on factors such as ‘gut feeling’ or just a pre-screening of the resumes to recruiting , which often led to disastrous hiring decisions, low productivity, and money lost in training programs. There have also been cases of resume fraud!
According to an article published in Economic Times, ‘India Inc. seems to be sitting on a fake CV time bomb that is set to explode’. Keeping all this in perspective, psychometrics have gained popularity as a tool to judge a person beyond the capabilities and skills mentioned in the CV, and evaluate their true aptitude for the role.
Let’s dig into the world of psychometric tests and understand why HR managers need to take them seriously!
Why HR Managers Need to Take Psychometrics Seriously!
What are Psychometric Tests?
Psychometric tests help employees reveal their talents, personality and attribute to potential employers.
They aren’t really a novel concept, having been in use since the 20th century. However, they have certainly evolved over the decades to suit the current market and employee skills. These tests are designed to help employers explore three fundamental qualities of an employee – capabilities, aptitude for the job, and the right personality fit.
Generally consisting of a series of timed questions that can range from numerical, logical, or verbal, psychometric tests predict the likelihood of success of the candidate on the job.
Types of Psychometric Tests
Here are a few examples of psychometric tests…
1. Aptitude Tests:
Aptitude tests generally aim to assess a specific or general set of skills, which can vary from the following categories:
- Numerical Reasoning Tests: Used to assess basic mathematical abilities, these tests help recruiters to understand how a candidate interprets data, which may be presented in the form of reports, graphs, or charts.
- Verbal Reasoning Tests: These tests mostly contain detailed written information for the candidate to read, evaluate, and then come up with an informed decision on the same.
- Inductive Reasoning Tests: These require a candidate to identify trends or patterns, typically using diagrammatic representation.
- Logical Reasoning Tests: Employers want to assess a candidate’s decision making i.e. whether they follow a logical route to reach upon a conclusion or not.
6. Skill Tests:
Skill tests enable an employer to understand a candidate’s readiness to learn a new skill to carry out the job duties in a competent manner. For example, the skill test for a job designer’s profile would be to design a basic web page within a designated time limit.
A finance role may require a candidate to design a financial model based on certain parameters. These tests are directly related to the on-the-job requirements of the particular role applied for and can be paper-based or even online.
7. Personality Tests:
Personality tests bring out the candidate’s behaviour in particular situations, helping employers to figure out their suitability to the job. They test a candidate’s overall approach towards work and help determine how well they fit into the organisation and the work culture.
Myers Briggs is one of the most commonly used personality tests. A candidate is assigned a personality type based on their answers. This personality type is then reviewed by the employer to further analyse whether the candidate fits the organisation’s requirements or not.
How Psychometrics Can Help The HR?
We are surrounded by technology and scientific data all around us today, making psychometric testing one important scientific backed element in the world of HR when making important hiring decisions. Here are a few arguments in favour of psychometric testing which fully supports the notion that HR managers should take them very seriously.
1. More Dependable Than a ‘Gut Feeling’:
2019 calls for a better method of making informed hiring decisions, rather than depending on intuition. The cost of a bad hire is huge to companies as the replacement cost can reach up to 150% of an employee’s salary in lost productivity.
With the help of psychometrics, this unnecessary cost can go down tremendously. They bring a level of standardisation and objectivity to the traditional art of recruitment by removing any unconscious bias that might creep in while making selection decisions.
Analysis suggests that using psychometric assessments can improve recruitment outcomes by 24%, in comparison to other traditional recruitment methods like unstructured interviews and resume screening.
2. Measurable Data:
One of the biggest challenges that organisations face is to put a measurable value on human behaviour and its related impact on the company’s bottom line since humans are unpredictable. Today, due to psychometric assessments, it is possible to quantify people-related ROI.
With the help of measurable factors such as core job performance, engagement levels, turnover ratios and commitment, it has become possible for HR departments to position themselves as an effective profit-driving business function.
Psychometric assessments play a great role in assessing candidates at the start, deriving their suitability to the job, with proper scientific and research-backed data.
3. Positive Brand Image:
If an employer hopes to find sensible candidates who fit the company requirements, they should definitely opt for psychometric assessments. In the age of informed decisions taken by job seekers by doing thorough research on the company history and various other parameters before even applying for a job, it is important to use modern tools and methods of recruitment which attracts them.
Research states that candidates often cite that they were satisfied with a company’s recruitment process as the company used an objective approach to assess their capabilities. Psychometrics provide a level playing field where everyone is judged based on pure merit, making it a completely unbiased way to recruit people. This instils a positive brand image in the market, which will only help the company to become the preferred employer brand of most candidates.
4. Easy to Interpret:
Unlike the myth around psychometric tests that they are complex reports that require a specialised degree in understanding human behaviour or psychology, they are in fact quite the opposite. They are easily available online, in easy-to-read, a simplified language with graphics that are easy to interpret. HR managers can confidently make hiring decisions based on understandable data which is easily comprehensible.
In today’s ‘war for talent’, it is important for organisations to hire and retain the right kind of talent. And the most effective way to find the right fit for your organisation is by using objective, unbiased psychometric tests!
