Psychometric TestingEver recruited the ‘perfect' candidate, only to find out once they join you that they're not quite as good as you thought?
The high performing sales person who can't manage their time?
The IT support technician who can't keep track of multiple jobs?
The manager who can't delegate?
An important additional tool to interviewing is psychometric assessment. This is a bit of a jargon term which basically means ability tests and personality questionnaires. Personality questionnaires are designed to assess the candidate's preferred style of behaviour at work, their ‘team fit' and their leadership potential.
Ability tests can be used to assess anything from the candidate's numeracy and verbal reasoning skills, to their level of accuracy on data entry and their suitability for customer services roles.
In addition, many assessment tools put the candidate's results in the context of the performance in the same test by members of a comparison group such as other managers or graduates, letting you know how they really shape up.
The technology involved in psychometric assessment has also developed over the years. Where once most tests were ‘pencil and paper', and conducted in a supervised environment, many are now accessible online in the comfort of the candidates' own home. The questionnaires have also been specifically designed to make them difficult for candidates to fake.
Obviously caution needs to be exercised in the choice of psychometric assessment tools. They should only be used by trained practitioners and be recognised by a professional body such as the British Psychological Society. A good test provider should be able to give you information on the validity of the test and its suitability for the skills or personality traits you're trying to assess.
Psychometric tools cannot give you the whole answer in isolation, any more than interviews can, but they can give you valuable additional information on the candidate. It's a bit like a jigsaw puzzle really; the more pieces of information you can build up on the candidate, the better picture you get at the end.
At Picasso HR we have qualified staff who can organise and run the whole recruitment & selection process for you, from:
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Getting the right person for a job can have a major impact on your business.
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