The modern age brought tremendous changes in how we deal with the world. Advancements in technology shaped our lives drastically that even decisions need to be justified and backed up by data. Such is also true in the hiring process, a key element in any industry that has always been traditional, where hiring managers heavily relied on gut feel when making hiring decisions. Psychometric testing is changing the recruitment landscape as it is designed to help hiring managers gauge mental ability, personality, and even future performance of a candidate with standardized and elaborate sets of questions.
Psychometric testing “measures” the mind and employers who use it in their recruitment efforts are helping themselves create an overall assessment of a candidate’s behavioral well-being. Unlike areas like education, skills, and experience, it’s much difficult to evaluate an individual’s underlying characteristics through bodily and verbal cues without the risk of misinterpretation.
Using psychometric tests in recruitment is revolutionary for several reasons:
- Recruiters can misjudge applicants.
For one, recruiters aren’t always the best judges of character even though Human Resources is a highly-specialized field. Solely relying on insights based on one-on-one interviews has a potential to be tainted with bias and subjectivity—factors that could affect making the right hiring decisions.
- Some candidates are “all talk”.
There are candidates that will be more than willing to tell you what you want to hear but are not able to deliver what they preach from the interview during real workplace scenarios. On the other hand, there are also cases where candidates who aren’t as communicative in interviews but could very well be great assets to the company.
- Psychometric testing is fair and objective.
Psychometric testing puts all candidates on an even playing field since they are being evaluated using the same standardized process across multiple scenarios. It helps remove the unconscious bias that comes along with selective decisions.
- Results are measurable.
Candidates’ behaviors and their impact on the company in the long run are hard to quantify straight off the bat. But with data collection efforts like psychometrics, pre-employment assessment can be simple and verifiable. The recruitment results can also be correlated other variables such as core job performance, turnover percentage, and employee engagement whose outcomes can help make successful HR-related decisions.
- Standardization saves time & money.
Not only are psychometric tests used to determine if a candidate has the appropriate talent and skill set for the job, as well as his or her work style, they also help companies filter through volumes of applicants objectively and quickly. They streamline the hiring process to make way for a faster and more accurate decision-making. All these will reduce the resources spent on interviewing people, and associated costs from making bad hires. These tests will also improve the quality of your hires; will reduce ramp-up time and turnover that all will in turn net greater productivity.
In the era of big data and data analytics, psychometric testing is essentially a part of modern best practice recruitment. Companies that are looking to attract and retain the best talents should definitely take advantage of this method to help them maintaining a competitive edge.
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