Psychometric Testing: Importance in Hiring Decision
I am always an advocate in the use of psychometric testing in the field of recruitment. Nowadays, we need a more scientific approach in how we come up with a hiring decision that is objective enough to find the right fit applicant. I believe that in recruiting, we can not rely on our gut feelings and the interaction of the interviewer and the job seekers. We need to explore the dynamics of the personality and the skills of the applicant to match with the needs of the job.
Looking for the right candidate is not easy. You need to look deeper into the applicants' profile. You need to assess his intelligence, his skills, ability and his personality. The interview can not and will not give us a more objective assessment of the applicant. That is why I strongly suggest the application of psychometric test in making hiring decisions.
Psychometrics applies the concept, theories and techniques in psychological measurement. As such psychometric testing involves the assessment of intelligence, skills assessment, personality profiling and more. Employing standardized psychometric tests is very important to provide objective data of an applicants profile as compared to the subjective data we can gather from the job interview and our gut feelings.
GUT VS. SCIENCEBased on my experience, I don't start the job interview without the result of the psychometric tests. The reason, during the course of my interview with the applicant, I validate the result of the psychometric test as I go on with the job interview. I use it to gauge the applicant from the moment he steps in the interview room until the interview is done. His responses are validated to his test results. And in most cases, the questions I asked is designed to validate the test result.
Employing standardized test can eliminate conscious and unconscious biases. Hiring the wrong people can be very costly and time consuming. It can exhaust the recruitment team and will have a negative impact on most companies as they are so particular with the ROI. I always remember a good mentor of mine says that as Recruiters and Hiring Managers, making bad hiring decisions is a cost and at all times should be avoided.
TO BUY OR TO OUTSOURCE PSYCHOMETRIC TESTINGIn past few years, most companies purchase their own sets of psychometric test materials. And as such, each recruitment team needs to have somebody who is well-versed in the administration and interpretation of psychological test. Some hire Psychometricians for their team.
But gone are the days when you have to be traditional when it comes to employing the use of standardized test as we can outsource them nowadays. You don't need to hire Psychometricians or you don't need a degree in Psychology to do all these. There are many psychometric test providers. They will provide an easy to use and understand a psychometric report that contains all the data needed to assess a candidate.
Assess your recruitment teams' need for a buying or outsourcing. There are some psychometric tests that are not practical buying them as they are seldom or rarely used. Instead, they can be outsourced and thus, economical to the company.
BEST PRACTICEThe use of psychometric testing is a modern and for me best practice a recruitment team should employ. The data can be used not just in selection but as well as talent management, assessment of work environment, employee engagement, career planning and succession and can be utilized to understand the organizational culture as well.
In recruitment, we need to eliminate the subjective part of it which in most cases often produces bad results. Psychometric testing can help you lessen or if not eliminate totally making poor hiring decisions.
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