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More employers are asking “What’s Psychometric Testing, and why should we consider it?” This form of career testing is a critical element in employee recruitment strategies.
Bringing in a new employee is a risk, and always has been. Sometimes the risk is necessary - when the expansion of capability needs to happen to meet increased demand. Employers always wonder if they have the right person for the job, or if they have a compatible attitude, or are capable of learning new skills readily and easily. Psychometric testing can give those answers.
Test Intentions
Answering those questions about a new hire is a critical data point that may slip past resumes and interviews. The wrong hire can cost the business more than twice what they’re paying him in salary in missed sales opportunities or production failures. Psychometric testing offers ways to get the answers to these questions. While it’s not a replacement for the traditional interview and resume process, it’s a good supplement to it. They’re batteries of standardized tests that have been in use for nearly a century, with continual refinements.
Types of Psychometric Tests
Everyone’s heard of the result of the most common psychometric test. It’s the IQ score, and comes from school psychologists and a lot of internet exams. The IQ exam is derived from the Stanford-Binet test, and that’s been in use for almost a century since it was first put in as part of the immigration requirements at Ellis Island. It’s been the subject of much controversy because of putative racist biases in the test. It’s not the controversy that makes it impractical, it’s the time it takes to administer (anywhere from three hours and more). However, IQ scores are one of the best overall predictors (along with ambition and willingness to work) for generalized success in business and employment.
The most commonly used psychometric test in the business world is the Wonderlic exam, and it’s fairly famous because of the weight the NFL puts on it at the NFL Player Scouting Combine in March. It has a scale from 1 to 50, and measures the ability of a testee to make inferences from sets of data. It’s also used in just about every financial organization in the US as a screening test for potential candidates, most of whom require a score of at least 24 (roughly corresponding to an IQ of 114) to get accepted. More and more staffing agencies are requiring the Wonderlic as well.
Where’s The Market For Psychometric Testing?
The primary appeal of psychometric testing, beyond the ability to weed out unsuitable candidates before hiring, is to find out which applicants can reason, draw inferences from limited data, and have mental flexibility. People with those abilities, in abstract reasoning, are strongly in demand in the modern economy, where it’s necessary to be able to reason carefully and quickly.
Other Types Of Tests
Psychometric tests cover the gamut from the more widely known (IQ and its analogs) to social stress tests, to boredom thresholds. A lot of police departments use a type of psychometric test that’s geared to measure stress responses, which can be critical in predicting how someone will react in an emergency.
Another kind of test that gets used is the basic personality test; whether someone is an introvert or extrovert, whether they’re self driven or motivated by the approval of others. These personality inventories are useful for determining how a candidate will ‘fit in’ to a given team environment.
About the Author:
In today’s economic environment, it makes perfect business sense to find the most cost effective way to recruit exceptional employees. Businesses can rely upon the experience and resources of a dedicated recruitment company, to find them suitable employees. Visit Gibson Recruitment online to see how we can make a difference to your recruitment process.
