Psychometric tests: What are the benefits?
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Did you know, approximately 75% of Fortune 500 companies utilise Psychometric Testing as a part of their recruitment process? Is this something that you really want your company to miss out on? We don’t think so!
Psychometric Tests (sometimes called Aptitude Tests) can form the basis of many business-altering decisions surrounding recruitment and employee development. However, acting on the information collected by these tests without fully understanding it can lead to serious misjudgements being made.
Here at Tazio, a large majority of our clients have harnessed the power of Psychometric Testing throughout their recruitment strategies. Whether you are hiring for graduates, volume recruitment or early careers, these tests are an invaluable tool for taking a deeper dive into your candidates and employees.
Thankfully, understanding whether Psychometric Tests are the right tool for you doesn’t have to be difficult. Thanks to the knowledge of our Tazio experts, this blog will help you to understand what a Psychometric Test is and whether it’s the right tool for you.
What is psychometric testing?
Many employers believe that a Psychometric Test can prove as the perfect tool for evaluating a candidate's psychological traits, abilities and behaviours. Providing a great understanding of their suitability for a role.
Subsequently, Psychometric Tests have become extremely popular in modern-day recruitment, helping recruiters to gain an understanding of candidate personalities and make more informed hiring decisions.
Typically consisting of a series of questions or tasks that a candidate must complete, these tests help to paint a picture of an individual's characteristics. Thanks to the assistance of many occupational psychologists and the like, Psychometric Tests are designed to be reliable and valid.
Psychometric Testing dates back to sometime in the 1900s when psychologists first started to use tests to measure intelligence and aptitude. In more modern settings, Psychometric Testing has expanded to include a broad range of assessments, including personality tests, motivation assessments, and more. From an employer perspective, these tests are a widely accepted and valued tool for making informed, data-driven hiring decisions.
What are the benefits of psychometric testing?
From an employer's perspective, there are many advantages to incorporating Psychometric Testing into their recruitment strategy. For those that are on the fence and are still unsure of the usefulness of these tests, Tazio has identified some of the key benefits below:
Improved hiring decisions
Psychometric Tests can offer critical insights into job candidates' personalities, abilities, and motivations, aiding employers in making informed hiring decisions during recruitment. With this level of insight available, identifying the best performers for your specific job roles becomes easier. It can also allow you to find candidates that align with your business goals, objectives, culture, and values.
Increased employee performance
In addition to being a valuable tool for acquiring new talent, Psychometric Testing is also useful for the development and training of incumbent employees. These tests offer a wonderful way of understanding employee strengths, weaknesses, and interests, allowing organisations to create a unique personal development plan for that individual. Subsequently, you'll see an improvement in employee morale, drive better work performance, and increase overall employee satisfaction.
Better understanding of employees and job candidates
Psychometric Testing can help paint a complete picture of a candidate or employee's specific characteristics. In many scenarios, this information can be extremely beneficial for employers, current employees, and aspiring candidates. From an employer's perspective, this information can be used to make data-driven hiring decisions, saving them time and money. Whereas from a candidate or employee perspective it can be used to identify specific areas of personal development.
Further from these specific benefits, Psychometric Testing is considered commonplace in various industries such as finance, technology and more. In many instances, organisations utilising Psychometric analysis have improved their hiring outcomes by up to 24%.
So, what does this mean? It means that top companies around the world value the insight that Psychometric Testing brings to the table. Mainly because it allows them to make more informed decisions about their hiring and current employee development.
By providing a deeper understanding of personality, abilities, and motivations, Psychometric Testing can support improved performance and increased satisfaction.
What can you learn from psychometric assessments?
As discussed in previous sections of this blog, the things you can learn from Psychometric Tests are endless. They provide a wealth of knowledge surrounding an individual's personality traits, skills and abilities, interests, and motivations. All invaluable information for an employer looking to bring in fresh talent and for a candidate looking to learn more about themselves.
Personality traits
One of the most critical pieces of information you can collect through a Psychometric test is personality traits. Some of the most commonly assessed traits during these tests are emotional intelligence, assertiveness, and openness.
Dependent on how the candidates have scored in these traits, you will be able to determine their projected behaviour in various job-related situations. Providing you, the employer, with an understanding of their potential success in your role.
Skills and abilities
If you're looking to identify your candidates or employees' immediate skills and abilities, then Psychometric Tests are a must. Grasping a better understanding of these skills and abilities can provide a great indication of an individual's potential and highlight how likely they are to succeed in your role. Some of the most common skills and abilities tested for during Psychometric Assessments include; problem-solving, critical thinking and attention to detail.
Interests and motivations
Another key detail assessed within many Psychometric Tests is interests and motivations. For many employers, the data collected from this section of the assessment process can predict a candidate's preferred work style, communication preferences and future career aspirations. Understanding these interests and motivations is critical for employers as they can help to match employees and candidates to roles that will provide them with the greatest level of job satisfaction and success.
When should psychometric tests be used?
As we've now established the benefits that Psychometric Tests can provide, it is now time to determine when to use them. There are several scenarios in a business context in which Psychometric Tests can be used to your benefit.
Hiring new talent with psychometric tests
The most common use of these assessments is for recruitment purposes. As we've shown, employers can utilise Psychometric Tests to assist in the screening of candidates at an early stage by helping to identify those most suited to their roles. This is extremely beneficial as it can improve the accuracy of your hiring, minimise staff turnover and reduce the costs associated with recruitment in the long term.
Using psychometric tests to spur employee development
In addition to the recruitment of new staff, Psychometric Tests can also be introduced to help identify development for current employees. If you conduct regular performance development reviews in your business, these tests will help pinpoint areas of improvement in staff. Often this may include suggested training or extra support for your team to perform at the best level possible. In many circumstances, it may be beneficial to develop tailored development plans for specific individuals.
Similarly to employee development, Psychometric Tests can also be used for personal development and to evaluate self-awareness.
What psychometric tests are available at Tazio?
There are two types of Psychometric Tests available to Tazio customers, aptitude tests and personality tests. Intrinsically different from each other, both test types utilise psychological principles to evaluate distinct aspects of an individual.
Aptitude tests
An aptitude or ability test is a type of Psychometric Assessment that measures an individual's natural ability or potential to perform specific tasks or activities. Typically assessing skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking and attention to detail. This testing style usually incorporates elements such as:
- Verbal or Numerical reasoning tests
- Spatial reasoning tests
- Diagrammatic reasoning tests
- Abstract reasoning tests
Aptitude Tests can be particularly useful for employers who are looking to recruit individuals for specific roles or who are seeking to develop their existing workforce.
Personality tests
On the flip side, personality testing is a type of Psychometric Assessment that evaluates an individual based on their traits, characteristics, and behaviours. The objective of personality testing is to provide insight into an individual's unique personality.
Personality tests typically assess a candidate's traits, including; extroversion, emotional stability, openness, agreeableness, creativity and more. This can include features such as:
Situational judgement tests
Situational Judgement Tests (SJT) are another familiar Psychometric Assessment used to evaluate a candidate's decision-making skills. These tests present candidates with realistic work-related scenarios and typically ask them to choose the best and worst course of action. SJTs can be particularly useful for evaluating candidates for managerial or leadership positions requiring strong problem-solving and decision-making skills.
Are psychometric tests beneficial for recruitment?
In summary, yes, Tazio believes that Psychometric Testing is a great asset to any recruitment strategy. They present a plethora of benefits to employers, helping them to make more informed decisions when it comes to their recruitment or development of incumbent staff.
Overall, Psychometric Testing is a fantastic way to increase your understanding of a person and more effectively predict how they might perform in a particular role. The insights you gain can also be used to determine skills gaps, cultural fit, and compatibility with the demands of the job.
Get in touch to learn more
Tazio works with the leading Psychometric Assessment providers Saville Assessment, Hogan and Arctic Shores and has integrated their aptitude tests and personality questionnaires directly into our platform.
If you’d like to learn more about how our Psychometric Testing Tools can help you make better hiring decisions, contact one of our friendly experts by using the details below.
02922 331 888
Tazio also offers a variety of other recruitment tools that can be used alongside or in combination with our Psychometric Assessments. Visit the links below to learn more about them:
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