What Is Psychometric Testing?
Psychometric testing is a valuable tool that can be used at all stages of the recruitment process. If you are not familiar with psychometric testing, then you are not alone. These tests can be used to test the ‘soft-skills’ a person possesses. This can be particularly useful when hiring new employees, as you gain a greater insight into the potential candidates’ capabilities and traits. Simply speaking, psychometric testing is a measure of the mind.
How Are Psychometric Tests Administered?
Often, psychometric tests come in the form of a questionnaire. This questionnaire can take a matter of minutes to complete, or longer, depending on the depth and span of the questions asked. There are many different options out there, depending on what you wish the psychometric tests to focus on. The majority of psychometric tests are now completed online, in order to allow simple administration. However, they can be administered over the telephone or face to face, depending on the needs of your company.
Throughout your recruitment process candidates could be asked to sit a few different psychometric tests in order to ascertain their abilities and skills in different areas. This is very useful as you are able to learn more about the candidate than you otherwise would from CVs and interviews alone.
What Will Psychometric Tests Measure?
All tests will give you some information on a candidate’s personality, ability and potential attainment. But they can also be specialised in order to give information pertinent to your specific field. The tests can be adapted to include a variety of other measures, such as vocabulary, spatial reasoning, problem solving, numeracy, leadership skills and a whole host of other things.
Can Psychometric Testing Be Used in Other Areas?
Yes, psychometric testing is not only useful during recruitment. In fact, it can be used for many different needs including individual development, group and organisational development and education. As the tests provide a wealth of information about individuals, this can be used to inform how a workplace is structured, how an individual might develop themselves further and they can even provide information on how people learn best, this can be a huge benefit to education.
Summary
Psychometric testing is growing in both relevance and adaptability. It can be used for a variety of different purposes including recruitment. Testing can take place in a variety of different ways and can be adapted to cover information that is particularly relevant to a company. The information provided can give insight into people’s abilities and personality, which is particularly useful during the recruitment process.
About the Author: nikkyvb
Nikky van Bommel is the Marketing Director for Big 5 Assessments and has worked in the Psychometric Testing industry for over 10 years. Nikky is responsible for all marketing and social media for the organisation.