Choosing a candidate to hire is a nerve-wracking process for many employers. While a generic interview will offer insights into a candidate, employers might fall into the trap of hiring a candidate whose behaviour, attitudes, reasoning, personality, and work ethic don’t match what they initially claim.
What to Know About Psychometric Tests for Employers
Choosing a candidate to hire is a nerve-wracking process for many employers. While a generic interview will offer insights into a candidate, employers might fall into the trap of hiring a candidate whose behaviour, attitudes, reasoning, personality, and work ethic don’t match what they initially claim.
Psychometric testing is vital for any employer seeking a way to test a candidate’s qualifications. While you may know the benefits of psychometric testing, you must know how to prepare a psychometric test for your employees. When executed correctly, your unique psychometric test will show you which candidates will thrive in your workplace and are unsuitable for the position.
Types of Psychometric Tests and Examples
Psychometric tests fall into two more significant categories, each with its subcategories. The main categories for psychometric tests are personality tests and aptitude tests.
Personality Tests
In a personality test, employers measure different aspects of a candidate’s personality to see their suitability for the position. Employers will often look for behaviours indicating a candidate is enthusiastic about the position and motivated to do the job.
Personality tests are essential because they help employers look at a candidate’s intrinsic personality with questions regarding how the individual thinks, feels, and behaves. These tests are typically in the range of 50 to 200 questions.
Examples of some questions you may find on a personality psychometric test include:
- I prefer working in a team environment: a) agree, b) strongly agree, c) disagree, d) strongly disagree
- I am easily overwhelmed when things don’t go according to plan: a) agree, b) strongly agree, c) disagree, d) strongly disagree
- I am outgoing and make friends easily: a) agree, b) strongly agree, c) disagree, d) strongly disagree
- I forgive people easily: a) agree, b) strongly agree, c) disagree, d) strongly disagree
- I am confident in my skills and do not make accidents at work: a) agree, b) strongly agree, c) disagree, d) strongly disagree
Aptitude Tests
Aptitude tests focus on identifying a candidate’s overall intellectual abilities and performance. Aptitude tests are always multiple choice with absolute right and wrong answers and follow a strict time limit, whereas personality tests usually have no time limit.
Aptitude tests also have numerous subcategories to test a candidate’s intelligence. These categories get into job-related specifics, meaning that you will use some combination of aptitude tests depending on your industry or specific tasks of a role. The subcategories for aptitude tests fall into these topics:
- Verbal ability tests involving critical reasoning. A passage is followed by “true,” “false,” or “cannot say” multiple choice options.
- Numerical ability tests typically consist of mathematical problems
- Abstract and diagrammatic reasoning tests, where a candidate selects answers after analysing a logical sequence of diagrams
- Spatial ability tests, where candidates show their ability to visualise how objects are positioned, shaped, and related to other objects
- Mechanical reasoning tests are used for technical jobs and analysing moving systems
- Fault diagnosis tests, which depict two or more diagrams where candidates must identify any existing faults in technical systems
- Data checking tests, which assess the candidate’s ability to identify and correct errors in data sets
- Concentration tests assess how candidates process and strategically work through information with minimal mistakes
- Work sample tests, which test a candidate’s ability to perform the typical tasks for the position through role plays, writing, or on-hand experience
What Should a Psychometric Test Entail?
A practical psychometric test will contain questions about your industry and work environment. This test aims to make a conclusive assessment of how suited a candidate is to the job.
Psychometric tests contain various questions, all gathering information about a candidate’s specific knowledge, skills, behaviours, personality, and attitudes. Psychometric tests contain questions to explore each candidate’s communication style, emotional intelligence, and workplace patterns.
All psychometric tests must be:
- Objective and not based on the employer’s values and beliefs
- Standardised and taken in a controlled setting
- Reliable, minimising and quantifying any intrinsic errors
- Predictive, making assessments of how a candidate will perform in the future
- Non-discriminatory, with no disadvantages based on one’s gender, culture, ethnicity, etc.
How to Compile Psychometric Tests
Building your psychometric test is a sure-fire way to offer candidates tests that will truly show their ability to perform well in the workplace. As you determine how to build psychometrics tests, remember that questions should tailor to your industry and job roles.
To create a psychometric test, determine the outcome you hope to measure in candidates. Once you have decided, you must determine questions to help you reach that outcome.
While personality psychometric tests are similar across different industries, aptitude tests are most successful when you base the questions on specific subcategories of testing, such as data, concentration, or fault diagnosis tests.
Use a combination of questions with a “right” and “wrong” answer paired with open-ended questions that allow the candidate to show their thinking process and knowledge of the job. Determine the scale by which you will measure a candidate’s overall performance on the exam.
Remember to stay objective as you are building a psychometric test. Consider asking an objective party, such as an expert from a recruiting agency, to review your test and identify any possible biases.
Consulting with experts before implementing psychometric testing into your hiring process is essential to maintain the integrity of your testing and make decisions that are fair and unbiased. Additionally, expert advice when creating a psychometric test is valuable to ensure that your test is dependable and accurate with no misinformation.
How WellsGray Can Help
Psychometric tests, when done correctly, will offer employers and hiring managers vital insights into how candidates are likely to perform on the job. However, many employers may struggle to create a test that is unbiased and thorough. To address this issue, employers and hiring managers can use services from recruitment agencies like WellsGray.
WellsGray is Melbourne’s top recruitment agency and helps employers find suitable candidates and craft an effective hiring process. Employers and hiring managers can contact WellsGray today to learn more about psychometric testing.
