By Anuradha Prabhudesai
Unlike facets such as education, skills, experience, appearance and punctuality, behavioral traits and personality of a candidate can be much more difficult to assess during an interview. Hence, psychometric analyses help us gauge certain nuances of human behavior better and help profile traits and characteristics systematically.
Hiring managers today, rely more and more on psychometric tests which are online during their recruitment process to help give a better overall evaluation of a candidate and hopefully secure the best fit for the role. These tests also help gauge the future performance of a candidate and hopefully improve employee retention by making successful hiring decisions.
Here are a few factors that help understand why recruiters must use psychometric tests online in their recruiting.
1. Standardized Information
When candidates are assessed using standardized procedures, they are assessed using the same criteria and compared against reliable market standards. This makes up for neutrality to the process which is sometimes is falsified when sole internal processes are used. A comparison of candidates using various standardization procedures and valid psychometric assessment tools, helps design a complete profile of these individuals.
2. Valid of all Companies
Testing using psychometric measures not necessarily need to be reserved for larger corporations or organizations looking to recruit fresh graduates. Smaller organizations may use such tolls as well, as part of their overall recruitment strategies. It is important to make sure candidates are being tested for the right traits, small and medium organizations might not necessarily tailor tests quite as much as larger organizations. Rather, they can be used to give a more general idea of candidate’s’ abilities and personality.
3. Provides Overall Feedback
Considering recruitment, interviews are synonymous to getting to know the individual in person so as to decide if he fits the organization’s culture. However, it may not be the only time the candidate shows his best qualities. As personality is a subjective matter, candidates can be manipulative or may not be able to signal their strengths during pressurized interview setups. Psychometric assessments gives a benchmark where one can compare results against other candidates profiled for similar roles. Introducing such tests also provide to give recruiters that extra input, thereby creating a wholesome picture of the candidate in question.
4. Saves Time and Money
Recruiting new staff can take up a lot of valuable time and can also prove to be a costly affair, especially if the best talent isn’t found straight away. Psychometric assessments can save employers both time and money as they provide with effective filtering methods. Psychometric tests used early in the application process can quickly identify those people who will best fit your organization both through their abilities and their personality. In this way, psychometric assessments can contribute in more efficient ways of recruitment
5. Painting a True Picture of Candidates
Psychometric assessments can give a very good picture of your candidates – they give an idea of the candidate’s personality, what makes them tick and how they prefer to work in given situations; how they work under pressure, for example, and how they work alone or as part of a team. The very nature of psychometric assessment is that they are difficult to game so the results you get from each test should be true results in that they show you what your candidates are really like in the workplace. This means that you will also know about not only their abilities but how well they are going to get along with other employees within your company.
6. Fair Testing – Nonjudgmental
Standardized approach to recruitment is the sole purpose of recruitment and it is fair for candidates because they go through exactly the same assessments process. Candidates who apply for your job roles might not be getting the same type of interview as the candidates who were interviewed the day before. Psychometric assessments also help candidates to better judge themselves. If you have found their personality really suits your company, however, you might be able to make use of the candidate’s new found strengths elsewhere in the company. In this way, psychometric assessments can be a win-win situation.
7. Flexibility of Usage
Another advantage of psychometric assessments for employers is that they can be slotted in at any time during the application process. Depending upon the size and nature of your organization, they can be used right at the beginning in the form of a fun questionnaire or at various times during the day at assessment centers. Some organizations even run two lots of psychometric assessments, at the beginning and the end of the process, just to compare the results and double check they are employing the right candidate.
8. Measuring Skills and Abilities, Not Just Education
Many organizations still place a lot of emphasis on academic achievement, as well as any previous work experience. This is valuable to a certain extent, however, psychometric assessments can be used to plug a gap in that academic achievements to give you a complete picture of what your candidates are actually capable of in the place of work. Again, on the other side, another advantage of psychometric assessments for employers is that it can reveal to you if a candidate is over qualified for the role they are applying for.
9. Psychometric Assessments and Work Culture
Recruitment is not just about hiring any candidate who has demonstrated they can do the job. Rather, this is obviously a key requirement, you also need to know how well the candidate will fit in with the rest of the team already working for you and how they will operate within your company’s culture. Someone who actually prefers to work alone in a quiet atmosphere, for example, is not going to feel fulfilled or work to their full potential if your company thrives in a fast moving environment which relies heavily on teamwork. Psychometric assessments can help do this both with the personality test and the other tests because you will get an idea of how that person works and what motivates them.
10. Consistency in Recruitment
The biggest advantage that psychometric assessments encourage is – consistency and standardization to hire new candidates. Every candidate is given exactly the same tests and recruiters can use this as a benchmark. Other sides of recruitment and your company’s application process are certainly valid, references are from outside your company and a candidate’s previous workplace might not have had the same values as your own workplace. The previous company might also have been looking for different requirements from their employee.
Psychometrica is an online psychometric test portal / aptitude testing agency promoted by professionals / psychologists with 20 years of experience in the field of psychometric assessments, career counselling, leadership training and coaching. We have a battery of tests that helps assessment of all managerial levels including sales personnel. These tests can be used across industries.
