What are psychometric tests?

Psychometric tests are structured assessments that aim to objectively scope aspects of an individual’s mental competency, or aspects of their personality. Indeed, the word ‘psychometric’ comes from the Greek words for mental (psyche) and measurement (metron).

There are many different types of psychometric assessment available to employers. Psychometric assessments essentially fall into two groups. There are those that measure a person’s ability to understand the written word, or their ability to reason with figures, or to follow directions precisely. And then there are personality tests, assessing everything from motivation to values, from personality inclinations to working inclinations.

Within psychology, personality is defined as those aspects of a person that are considered relatively stable and enduring and therefore can be evaluated using a test. These aspects, which almagamate to make us unique, also allow us to distinguish ourselves from other people and enable a comparison between individuals. Personality is not seen as something we possess but instead how we connect to the environment and the world around us.

Largely all accredited psychometrics that seek to measure aspects of personality, and many assessments of ability, are conceived by Occupational Psychologists. This is because assessments need to be designed carefully to make sure that they are fair to all applicants undertaking them.

Why do people take psychometric tests?

There are typically two principle uses for psychometric testing in the workplace: selection and development.

Psychometric testing is employed during the recruitment stage to support the organisation to make the best choice in choosing the most appropriate applicants, or to assist decision-making when choosing candidates for advancement. During selection for recruitment, psychometric tests should not be used in isolation. They represent just one approach that employers can use in the selection process.

Psychometric testing can be very valuable during the recruitment of an individual as they can assist in identifying personalities/values/abilities, which are known to contribute to success in the job. For example, measures of cognitive ability are correlated with success in a managerial position. Such measures can be considerably more predictive than other selection methods such as the unstructured interview.

One of the most frequent problems with using psychometric tests during the recruitment process is that tests are often used, but hiring managers often do not understand what the results mean in terms of whether the results should contribute to a yes/no outcome or not. For this reason, when conceiving a recruitment process which uses psychometric tests, it is always good practice to seek the guidance of an Occupational Psychologist who can recommend how the results should be used. An occupational psychologist can also advise on ethical test use, including how to explain the use of psychometric tests and good practice around how to provide feedback to candidates.

Psychometrics can be very powerful when used for personal development. Common uses include psychometric testing when you are making a life-changing career choice. Understanding more about your personality and values can be extremely informative when trying to identify what occupation and type of company will bring out the best in you. Psychometrics are also extremely useful in the context of team development. It can be useful to have a framework and language to explore commonalities and differences between team members and how this can impact positively and negatively on day-to-day working relationships.