Have you ever wondered how some candidates seem to have great skills but don’t pan out when they become managers? Or how some managers don’t seem to fit in once they’re hired? What you need is a psychometric assessment to help you make the right decision.

Psychometric tests have been around for years but not many businesses or HR personnel use them, despite their benefits.

For years, companies have struggled with hiring senior-level employees and managers. Some come from referrals or similar job roles with stellar CVs. Some are even promoted from within the company. But once they take on the new role, the ship starts sinking.

Why is that? And how can using psychometric assessments for recruitment & selection help businesses overcome these pitfalls?

Let’s find out.

What is a psychometric assessment in recruitment and selection?

A psychometric test, known as a psychometric assessment or pre-hiring assessment, is a type of assessment test that helps companies and HR personnel understand the personality traits of a potential candidate.

These traits can include a candidate’s mindset, strengths, weaknesses, blind spots, skills, abilities, attitude, or even their potential for certain jobs.

A psychometric test can help companies measure and understand the capabilities a potential candidate or even current employee brings to the table.

This can include determining or getting a look at a candidate’s critical thinking skills and their ability to judge and take the reins of a situation or business.

In most cases, a candidate takes the psychometric assessment once HR determines they may be a good fit for an open position in their company.

In other words, after HR have vetted the candidate and completed their screening and interview process.

Psychometric assessments help companies “identify the extent to which candidates’ personality and cognitive abilities match those required to perform the role,” explains the Institute of Psychometric Coaching in Australia.

It adds that “Employers use the information collected from the psychometric test to identify the hidden aspects of candidates that are difficult to extract from a face-to-face interview.”

When the psychometric assessment is given differs from one company and industry to another. In some situations, the candidate may take a technical test first, depending on the field they’re applying to. And when they pass, they’re given the assessment.

This type of testing helps managers explore the rest of the candidate’s personality and see if it fits with their company and existing team members.

According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), their personality test has been used by around 80% of Fortune 500 companies and by as much as 89% of Fortune 100 companies.

Different types of psychometric assessments

Generally, a psychometric test is a part of the recruitment process. A business will ask you to take a psychometric test to determine if you’re a good fit for their company or not.

There are many pre-hiring assessments out there but they all fall under three main types:

1) Aptitude tests:

These tests measure a candidate’s intellectual abilities and their reasoning. They tend to be timed, involve multiple-choice questions, and candidates need to answer them quickly but accurately.

2) Behavioral tests:

These tests offer insights into personality traits and how people behave in certain situations. HR personnel and hiring managers look at this to see how this may or may not affect certain aspects of the business, including collaborating with other team members.

Behavioral pre-hiring tests are also known as personality tests and can come in various forms including personality questionnaires, situational judgement tests, or leadership tests.

3) Assessment centers:

These are human interaction-based tests, where psychologists or assessors use exercises to conduct tests and job-related simulations.

You can also read about the types of psychometric tests.

Advantages of Psychometric assessments for recruitment and selection

So how does a psychometric test help HR personnel and hiring managers with recruitment and talent management?

For starters, these tests help companies remain objective about the candidates they hire by relying on the data in front of them.

Here are 10 benefits of using psychometric assessments for recruitment & selection

1. Better company-fit/avoiding bad hires

Understanding the ins and outs of candidate and their personality traits helps companies determine if this candidate is a good fit for their company and culture.

This means they can avoid bad hires or rather candidates who may do well on technical tests but may not perform well as leaders or within a team.

2. Reduce turnover

A candidate who is a good fit for a company will enjoy working there and isn’t likely to jump ship soon.

In other words, companies that use psychometric testing as part of the hiring process can reduce their employee turnover rates. According to Nick Davis, director and business psychologist at Davis Associates, training a new employee to reach full productivity can take up to 28 weeks, or six months. In addition, there is a steep cost to companies that struggle with higher turnover rates.

“High employee turnover can also have a negative impact on staff morale and engagement levels. Companies should aim to minimize turnover by making the right hiring decision in the first place,” Davis explains, noting that using psychometric tests can help companies reduce turnover.

3. Highlight candidates’ skills and focus on strengths

A psychometric assessment works both ways. It helps hiring managers know the strengths and weaknesses of new candidates and accordingly focus on those strengths.

At the same time, candidates who are privy to the results of their pre-hiring tests can uncover those same strengths and weaknesses and learn to work on those weaknesses.

4. Better managerial hiring

One of the top reasons companies use psychometric assessments is to hire better and more capable managers and leaders.

By looking at the results of the psychometric test, a CEO or HR director can clearly and easily determine if a potential candidate will support the business and the available team.

The test helps them uncover the candidate’s leadership skills, how they perform within a team, and their decision-making abilities.

5. Succession planning

In many cases, a business will prefer to promote an existing employee rather than hire a new manager. A psychometric test tells them if this current employee would be a good fit for that managerial role or not.

Just because a candidate knows the job or how to get it right may not always be the best manager. For one thing, many employees lack the ability to lead teams and train new comers.

A psychometric test highlights candidates’ abilities – or lack of them – early on. It also saves the company time and money in the recruitment process and avoids hasty or unsuitable decision-making.

6. Identifying leaders

A major benefit of pre-hiring tests is knowing who the leaders are. This may apply to managers or senior candidates or any other candidates you give the psychometric assessments to.

By knowing which candidates can do well as leaders in your company, you can decide who you want to promote or move to other departments to lead your teams.

This saves time and cost when hiring new personnel.

7. More science, less instinct

When it comes to recruitment, many hiring managers have to rely on their gut feeling when hiring new candidates. While instincts tend to prove true in many cases, it’s still a possibility that the gut feeling isn’t right.

Using psychometric evaluations removes this gut-feeling issue and offers detailed, scientific information that hiring managers can better rely on.

8. Unbiased

One of the main benefits is that a psychometric test ensures hiring isn’t a biased process. It keeps the hiring process as objective as possible.

9. Save time across the recruitment process

No business doesn’t want to save time or money, especially when recruiting new candidates. The recruitment process is generally a tedious and long process.

But using pre-hiring assessments can reduce the time and cost associated with new hires. For starters, the assessments already tell you which of your current candidates would make better managers and leaders within your organization.

In addition, they tell you these people’s strengths, which you can use to help them develop and accordingly help your business grow.

10. Measuring emotional intelligence

Using pre-hiring tests helps companies understand and measure candidates’ emotional intelligence. This helps them understand how these people can work within teams and how well they communicate with others.

People who lack emotional intelligence tend to be insensitive, have poor coping skills, and don’t mingle well with others. They also tend to blame others for their problems.

This results in a bad work environment that may prompt other team members to leave the company, resulting in a new hiring process.

You can also read about psychometric tests for students.

When to Use Psychometric Assessments for Recruitment & Selection

Now that we’ve uncovered the many benefits of using pre-hiring tests, it’s important to discuss when to use them.

Let’s be clear. Psychometric testing isn’t for everyone or for all businesses. In fact, it’s not recommended that you get junior candidates or hires to do a psychometric test.

That’s not all. The psychometric test is a tool to help businesses make better hires. It’s not the only tool.

At Tawzef, we recommend using psychometric assessments once you have several candidates that you believe are a good fit for your company. At this point, you have screened the candidates’ resumes and you’re relying on your instinct following a face-to-face interview and a technical test.

These assessments not only comes in to confirm or deny your instincts, but also to offer a more scientific approach to the qualities this candidate offers. It gives the HR team and hiring manager insights into the candidate’s personality and whether or not they fit within the company and its culture.

Next Steps

Many companies are now shifting to using psychometric or pre-hiring tests to make better-informed decisions within their recruitment process.

Companies that are looking to hire and retain talented candidates can make use of psychometric assessments to avoid biases and understand their candidates better.

If you want to offer psychometric assessments to your managers and include them as part of your hiring process, then get in touch with Tawzef for Recruitment and HR Consultancy.

Tawzef will show you how to understand how psychometric tests work and how to get the most out of them.