A psychometric test is any assessment that is designed to measure one or more psychological traits. When we talk about “psychometric tests”, we are referring to a specific set of assessments, designed by psychometricians / psychologists to fulfill a very specific purpose.
The psychological traits measured by these assessments are usually integral elements of the human psyche, i.e. cognitive abilities, personality traits, behavioral dispositions, and motivational drives.
Human resources professionals, hiring managers, and occupational psychologists use psychometrics to identify a candidate’s standing on a set of work-relevant psychological.
traits. For example, the research is clear that aptitude tests are very powerful predictors of future job performance. This is because smarter people, amongst other things, learn faster,
retain more information and make better decisions. Similarly, many personality traits also predict future performance in the workplace. As you can imagine, highly conscientious,
resilient, and industrious staff are -more likely to outperform lazy, fragile, and unmotivated staff.
What makes “psychometric tests” particularly relevant in occupational settings, is the fact that these key traits can only be measured psychometrically. Although well-designed,
structured employment interviews are indispensable employee selection tools, they don’t
measure cognitive abilities or personality traits. By leaving these two major determinants of
employee performance to chance, employee without psychometric tests can feel a bit like a lottery. Except in the case of highly physical roles, all the major determinants of employee job performance are psychological, and thus can only be measured psychometrically.
How bright an employee is, how hard working, motivated, resilient, emotionally intelligent, their job-related knowledge, judgement and decision-making skills; are all examples of psychological traits. By omitting assessments which measure these traits, employing organizations are simply leaving it to chance, which makes hiring far riskier than it needs to be. Talk to us and let’s assess new prospective candidates or profile all employees currently at the work. Findings will go a long way in guiding success and career at work
