Psychometric FAQ's.
What are psychometric assessments?
Psychometric assessments are questionnaires which can be administered online or by paper and pencil. They provide insight into a person's aptitudes, abilities personality and work style. This can aid organisations with the selection and development of individuals. They can also improve organisational effectiveness and add value to outplacement processes. Leadership development, teambuilding and organisational change can also be enhanced with the use of carefully considered Psychometrics.
Psychometrics can be used to assess:
- Personality: understanding how someone will tend to behave and what their style strengths, talents and weaknesses might be.
- Ability: assessing how individuals will perform when solving problems or reasoning with verbal or numerical information.
- Motivation: what motivates your people and what you can do to get the best from them
- Career interests: helping individuals to identify the types of work to which someone would be suited
- 360° feedback: gather feedback on an individual's performance, work style or behaviours from a range of people who work with the candidate (from juniors to superiors).
This information can be used to help individuals to focus on how best to utilise their strengths and which areas need awareness raising or development.
Why use Psychometric Assessments?
Psychometrics provide an objective, valid and reliable method of predicting performance to:
- Improve individual and interpersonal effectiveness
- Enhance teamwork and organisational performance
- Improve staff performance, morale and retention
- Make sound selection decisions
When used effectively, they also increase the transparency, speed and quality of line management decisions about people, ensuring that best practices are more readily transferred from HR processes into action.
It seems strange to measure personality!...Why is this done?
It does seem strange to think that personality can be measured. Often measurement takes the form of comparing a respondents' performance or answers with the answers of a sample group to determine how well they have done relative to an appropriate and representative sample group.
Psychometric Assessment is a fair, objective and reliable assessment method which is not subject to the prejudices which can colour the interview process.
What should I do if I'm asked to complete a personality questionnaire?
Try not to worry or ponder too much over each question. Be as honest as you can and the result will be more likely to accurately represent the way you see yourself. There's no point trying to skew the result as some Psychometric questionnaires will pick up whether you have answered in a way which may have distorted the result. Also, if you were to answer in a manner you thought might win you the job, you might get it completely wrong as you may not be aware of exactly what the organisation is looking for. or you may be offered a role which may not suit you at all!
Can psychometrics be used with people with disabilities?
Yes. Following discussion about the particular challenges someone faces, it can be straightforward to make reasonable adjustments to the assessment process in order to ensure no one is disadvantaged.
Braille versions of some questionnaires can also be provided.
