Psychometric testing has been globally recognised for its ability to accurately assess the attributes that are the constructs of an individual. Infact, psychometric assessment was used in World War I, and in Ancient China!
Before we dive into the benefits of the psychometric assessment’s, let’s begin with the; what, why and how.
Here we go. PSYCHOMETRIC ASSESSMENTS.
Psychometric assessment is an assessment of an individuals personality, intelligence and skills. During a the recruitment of a candidate, recruiters will utilise psychometric assessment in; their application, as an extra step in their interview process, or following an interview to make a final decision.
Psychometric assessment helps predict potential employee’s; job performance, work ethic, reasoning, skill level and potential in the business. It also assists the recruiter, or HR personnel, in determining whether the candidate is a cultural fit.
On a basic level, psychometric assessments are helpful to recruiters and HR as it measures a candidates capabilities, potential in the position and for the business, as well as whether the candidate is the correct cultural fit for the business environment.
There are four methods to test psychometric assessment, which you can read about in depth here.To briefly mention them, there is the questionnaire method, the test method, the reactor’s judgement method and MyRecruitment+’s AI video-based method. This feature is new to MyRecruitment+ so if you want to learn about how it works and what it offers you you’ll find some useful information alongside good-looking graphics here.
Now that we have the what, why, and how out of the way, let’s dive into the five key benefits of implementing psychometric assessment during recruitment!
Anyone with a Facebook account or access to cable knows that COVID19 has heavily impacted the economy on a global scale. In Australia, we’ve reached an unemployment rate of 7.1%, and in America the unemployment rate is 11.1%.
Therefore, recruiters can expect to see a greater amount of candidates applying for listed jobs. The influx in applications makes it difficult for recruiters to sort through the resumes & cover letters to source the most suitable candidates for the jobs. Especially without any assistance from video interviews…. How is the recruiter going to determine which candidate will be the best cultural fit and has the necessary experience and hard skills?
Simple, a psychometric assessment. If the recruiter determines the required soft and hard skills for the particular role, and makes psychometric assessments mandatory for all that apply, the recruiter will have the ability to easily assess the candidates against one scale. Then they can split up the applications into two piles; “suitable” and “not suitable”.
This requires minimal time and effort from the recruiter and maximises the available candidate insights.
THIS is arguable one of the greatest benefits psychometric assessment offers any recruiter and company. It’s terrible to admit, but even worse to ignore – unconscious bias does exist and unfortunately is every recruiters downfall.
Maybe you’ve had a bad experience with someone that has the same name as a candidate…. or you’ve had an encounter with a person who made you feel small and insignificant who looks similar to a candidate..
Whatever the rationale is there’s always unconscious bias in recruitment. It’s impossible NOT to have unconscious bias, we’re human and over the course of our lives we develop schemas based on our experiences. True fact.
It’s about recognising that we display unconscious bias and implementing strategies that prevent it affecting a big decision, such as hiring a new employee.
Psychometric assessment accurately displays a person’s capability and personality, therefore eliminating any assumptions a recruiter may create as the candidate is assessed based on behavioural science and not the recruiters previous experiences.
This provides candidates with the opportunity to accurately express themselves and creates a level playing field for all applicants. Each is given the same opportunity and assessed against the same rubric (which is recruiter-set required soft skills and hard skills).
Tying in with benefit #2, psychometric assessments are based on the same criteria! Meaning the report developed for each candidate is scientific, and reliable. Candidates are assessed against the EXACT SAME questions.
A psychometric assessment has negative connotations, but in actuality they’re extremely useful to recruiters AND candidates.
Why?
Because they provide scientific evidence that proves a recruiters decision was based on facts and not based on assumptions.
This is crucial for businesses with super specific roles, and is also useful for candidates as if they have concerns regarding whether they were or weren’t given a fair chance…they can view the research conducted by the recruiter and feel comfortable with the decision made by the business.
Adding the extra step of adding a psychometric assessment to your recruitment process may significantly assist you in the long run in regards to saving money and time spent on hiring new employees. How?
Psychometric assessment methods are relatively inexpensive and ensure the correct selection of the candidate that is of the greatest suitability for your listed job, therefore eliminating the possibility of incurring the repeated recruitment expense (which is waaaay too commonly incurred).
As well as being cost-efficient, it’s also time efficient! As mentioned in benefit #1, psychometric assessments enable recruiters to screen large pools of candidates at once. However, as well as this, it also provides recruiters with the most appropriate candidates from the beginning of the recruitment process, therefore removing the candidates that would have taken time to phone screen and interview and then resulted in an unsuccessful application.
For example, instead of reviewing 15 plausible candidates, conducting phone screening tasks and interviews (roughly 1 hour long)… you only have to phone screen and interview 6 candidates as the recruiter is better informed into who they are and what type of employee they will be from the initial recruitment stage!
Therefore, reducing recruitment costs and time consumed by recruitment tasks!
The outcomes from benefit #1,2,3, and 4 collaboratively increase the success in filled roles. Hurrah!!
The job positions you fill are filled with the BEST CANDIDATES for the role! Therefore, they will be the best choice in regards to positively influencing the success of the company!
Their skills and personality is best suited to your company… therefore their job satisfaction will be higher, which leads to higher employee engagement and motivation, which we all know is crucial to a businesses success.
This also influences employee retention and progression. Overall, it’s a big win for the candidate and the company….. (a recruitment miracle, if you will)
There you have it, the top #5 benefits of psychometric assessments!
If you want to read more about the capabilities psychometric assessments can provide you, visit here.
Work smarter, and not harder!