Psychometric Assessment Q&A
Kirsten Halcrow
Founder Emigrate 2 USA | Co-Founder/ Director Encapsulate Consulting I Founding Member Lekker Network
WHAT IS A PSYCHOMETRIC ASSESSMENT?
A psychometric test is an assessment tool to objectively assess the traits, aptitude, behavioural style, mental ability, cognitive skills, and other aspects of an applicant's personality.
A psychometric assessment can be used to ascertain job suitability in an organisation and various employee-related strategies, such as high-potential identification, leadership development and employee engagement.
These tests can be used at every stage of the employee career cycle to make crucial talent management decisions and personal development goals.
HOW ACCURATE IS PSYCHOMETRIC TESTING?
Psychometric tests can be very reliable and accurate when used properly.
Good assessments are properly researched, take years of development and needs to pass an extremely stringent validation process proving that they predict the outcomes that they do.
Psychometrics also need to be used by qualified professionals who administer them correctly; using the proper tests for the role and then reading and analysing the results carefully and accurately.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS?
Broadly speaking we can classify psychometric tests into 2 categories, personality and aptitude/ cognitive ability.
Personality assessment tools uncover aspects of a candidate’s personality, such as traits, behaviour, interpersonal skills, etc. They help understand a candidates personality, interests, and values, which assists in determining if somebody is suitable for a particular role.
Cognitive assessments measure mental, problem-solving and critical thinking skills. There are several available aptitude tests, such as numerical/ verbal tests, inductive/deductive reasoning and situational tests, etc.
WHAT KINDS OF JOBS CAN YOU USE PSYCHOMETRICS FOR?
Psychometric testing can be used across roles in different disciplines, levels, and industries.
These assessments provide insights into an applicants’ competency and cultural fit, so, any entity that wants to conduct recruitment, selection and development processes based on this data can use psychometric assessments.
These tests are used in recruiting candidates from entry-level to executive-level roles and can have application across recruitment, training, promotion, leadership development, etc.
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CAN PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS BE CHEATED?
The answer is no--- if you are using proper tools and processes!
These days many assessments are conducted remotely, using various technologies to support the process like Teams, Anydesk, Skype, Webcams to monitor and regulate the process.
Further, many psychometric personality tests are actually difficult to cheat as there are no right or wrong answers. And, many of the tests have built in lie measures that assess consistency with which a candidate answers or manipulates.
CAN PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS ASSESS A CANDIDATES INTEGRITY?
There are psychometric tests that have been developed to help organisations profile employees based on their level of integrity.
These assessments focus on identifying prospective employees and individuals who tend to exhibit counterproductive work behaviour.
These tests assess an applicant's tendency to be honest, trustworthy, and dependable. A lack of integrity is associated with such counterproductive behaviours as theft, violence, sabotage, disciplinary problems, and absenteeism.
HOW LONG DO PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS TAKE?
Psychometric tests can vary from 10 minutes to an hour. It all depends on the type of assessment and the purpose for which they are being done.
An assessment process or battery is a range of assessments covering various dimensions like cognition, ability, personality, integrity etc, can take a few hours to a whole day.
The time invested in the assessment process can have a high correlation to the value and insights gained from it.
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Encapsulate which means “to express the essential features of (something) succinctly”, was founded with the vision to partner businesses to make informed recruitment decisions by knowing the essential features of a job applicant. We aim to encapsulate various measures of the head, hands and heart utilising scientifically proven tools to give our clients a clear understanding of who they are employing.
www.encapsulate.co.za