What is a Psychometric Assessment?
Psychometric assessment increases the power of predicting potential success and tenure within a role.
This yields significant financial benefits to the client organisation through reduced training costs, reduced turnover and replacement costs.
Psychometric assessment provides unique and objective information to contribute to the often difficult process of making selection or promotion decisions.
Ability Assessments
What are Psychometric Ability or Aptitude Assessments?
Ability or Aptitude Assessments measure an applicant’s capacity in particular areas. There is no possibility for a pass or fail, but rather candidates’ scores are compared to the scores of a sample of people drawn from an appropriate population, such as an Australian Management sample. The areas most commonly assessed by ability or Aptitude Assessments include:
- Verbal reasoning
- Numerical reasoning
- Conceptual reasoning
However, other more specialist areas that may be assessed include:
- Mechanical reasoning
- Sales preferences
- Customer contact aptitude
- Diagrammatic reasoning
- Spelling and grammar
- Decision making
- Computer and office skill
- Spatial reasoning
- Perceptual speed
- Various other types of tests
Ability Tests have been shown to have a high predictive validity for job performance (refer validity of present techniques section below). They can be a valuable aid to assessing the best candidate for a job.
Ability Tests give the employer a very good idea of how the candidate has performed compared to other groups of people.
What are Psychometric Behaviour Style or Personality Questionnaires?
A Psychometric Assessment also consists of Behaviour Style or Personality Questionnaires. These questionnaires ask people to assess their own preference for behaviour in certain situations and can provide useful information relating to a person’s motivation and general behaviour style. Research has demonstrated the importance of personality assessment in predicting ‘on-the-job’ performance and career success.
When are they likely to be useful for recruitment?
Behaviour Style and Personality Questionnaires can provide useful and objective information about the likely job fit in light of the relevant Competencies established for a particular role. Remember that success in a particular job role can be determined by the ability to perform the job, as assessed by Ability Assessments, in combination with the necessary Behaviour Style or temperament required to cope with the other demands of the job. For this reason, Behaviour Style Questionnaires are often used in conjunction with Ability Assessments.
Furthermore, the information provided by Behaviour Style Questionnaires can be useful in determining the ‘team fit’. Often requirements for good ‘team fit’ will include an individual’s Behaviour Style, personality, or temperament.