Psychometrics: There be wizards, dragons and just occasionally, exceptional science.

Few pieces of corporate sorcery, exercise business minds quite like Psychometrics. Particularly when we talk about personality instruments.  People tend to either swear by them, or swear at them. The former is never apt. Good personality tools are useful, but not infallible, business guides. Bad instruments though can steer you down a very dark path.

Let's start with the bad bits, because if thresholds aren't met, you really had better not go any further. There are more than teddy bears having picnics out there.

Dark and Dangerous

It is sad but most Psychometric Personality Instruments are rubbish. They are as effective as sugar scalpels and potentially as dangerous to organizational health.

There is an easy way to tell. If a tool isn't recognized by either the British Psychological Society (BPS) or the American Psychological Association (APA), take its peddler and simply apply your shoe leather buttockwards. Don't waste your time with it. Expense is no guarantee of anything except how big a mug somebody wants to be. Even then...

Limited Scope: Tools will not fully capture complex human behaviours or predict job performance accurately. The best personality tools (e.g., SHL's OPQ) account for about 24% of what makes somebody tick. This is still shatteringly good when you think that a standard job interview uncovers about 2.5% of the variance of somebody's character, but it is still hardly an infallible figure.

 For interest, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) - the world 's favourite personality tool and approved by the BPS and the APA - accounts for about 9% of personality variance. Nine percent. So, the next time somebody suggests designing an office based on personality types, tell them not to be so bloody ridiculous.

Potential Bias: Over-reliance on tests can perpetuate biases and overlook diverse talents.  Tools can only report what they find. If you are looking for extravert, aggressive salespeople, this is what you can find, and the majority of these people will probably be male. Instruments won't say "Are you sure? The best predictive trait for sales success is conscientiousness." They will just leave you to it.

Misinterpretation Risks: Results can be misinterpreted or overemphasized, leading to flawed decisions.  A personality instruments will give you an indication as to personality, not an underwritten guarantee.  On this point, only use trait instruments for recruitment. Type indicators - type indicators give you a badge, such as "I'm an INTJ, or, a Shaper, or, a green starfish riding a quadbike...," etc. - are insufficiently reliable for recruitment.

Tools are guides only. Use them for questions, not for decisions. Good instruments are a terrific part of an overall picture. Which leads us to...

Science and Sorcery

Objective Insights: Psychometric instruments can provide standardized, objective data on personality traits. This will help to reduce mistakes in both recruitment and development scenarios. 

Self-Awareness: Good tools enhance self-awareness amongst colleagues. This can boost personal development and even assist conflict resolution though increased personal insight. 

Cost and Time Efficiency: Administering instruments is generally cost efficient, less time-consuming and more effective than other methods of personality assessment.  Previous dependence on "Which three people, fictitious or real, would you invite to...", or "Where in the world would you most like..." can be consigned to cleansing fire.

A couple of things to close. There is no such thing as a personality test. There are no right or wrong answers, what you have is a personality instrument.  There are psychometric tests, but these weigh ability, which is a different thing.

Finally, yes, of course you can fiddle the answers, no matter what somebody tells you. So NEVER recruit on the strength of a personality tool. Again, use them for insight and for really probing questions. Then they can be terrific.

I hope this helps. If you want to know more about any aspect of improving your organization's assessment, development and recruitment, let me know. I am good at this stuff.

Thanks for reading, C

Happy Hallowe'en