Psychometric testing: the pro's and con's

Many employers are using psychometric testing to measure the ability, aptitude and personality of the candidates in their selection process.

If executed properly they are a great filtering mechanism at the early stage of the recruitment process, creating a level playing field to compare candidate’s strengths regardless of their background. They can be used to understand a range of things about a candidate from their numerical and written abilities, how they judge situations and operate to assessing their personality and how they will fit into your company culture. We use them at Cast UK when hiring internally and lots of our clients are utilising testing in their selection process too to provide additional depth to a candidate’s profile. Before you build psychometrics into your recruitment process it’s worth considering the positive and the negatives: 

Pro’s

1. Provide a deeper insight into character and personality of candidates helps to assess whether they will fit within the team and are aligned with the culture of your company.
2. Gain a greater understanding of the candidate’s suitability for the position and prevent situations where a candidate shines at interview but can’t back this up with strong performance in the role.
3. Unusual or unexpected results can provide points to expand further upon in interview; the candidate might have interesting reasoning behind their responses.

Con’s

1. Psychometric tests usually need to be delivered by someone who can administer and interpret them which can be costly and even more expensive to do as one off. The cost of carrying out testing should be weighed against the value of the role and how useful the results will be in the selection decision.
2. There is no guarantee of accuracy with this type of testing. In an interview or assessment situation candidates might let nerves or anxiety get the better of them, consequently their results may not be a true representation of their abilities or character.
3. Job seekers may be motivated to tell you what you want to hear and be tempted to give the answer that they ‘think’ is right answer, rather than their genuine answer.

If you are going to use psychometric testing as part of your recruitment process they can be great as an additional insight into the candidate when combined with the entire recruitment process including interview answers, role play exercises, culture fit and reference checks. You could also use the support of your recruitment provider to facilitate the testing, at Cast UK we offer psychometric testing as an additional service to our clients. Get in touch today on 0161 825 0825 or find out more about our services here.