Why use psychometric assessments and capability testing when hiring?

​Did you know that we can offer psychometric and capability testing during the recruitment process?

Unlike tangible and visual assessments such as education, skills, experience, appearance and punctuality, the behavioural traits, work style and personality of a candidate can be much more difficult to assess during an interview. We all know how costly it is to replace an employee. Employers who choose to undertake assessments as part of the recruitment process make better hiring decisions due to a more comprehensive overall evaluation and approach to their talent hiring process. Often candidates will approach us to ask if they can complete a range of testing to:

• understand their knowledge of specific software or skill or to
• benchmark themselves against industry standards

Testing can give a more objective overview of a candidate's character, strengths, weaknesses and working style. Capability testing has increased over the past few years to ensure the right person for the right job. Agencies are finding that a candidate will only nominate a referee that will give them a good reference. For employers, testing could help to measure the future performance of a candidate and hopefully improve employee retention by making successful and more informed hiring decision.

How psychometric assessments and capability testing aids recruitment decisions

• Psychometric testing can measure a number of attributes including:
• intelligence,
• critical reasoning,
• motivation and
• personality profile.

Capability testing can measure how well candidates know the necessary knowledge, understanding, practical experience, work speed, and strengths and weaknesses to complete the role. At the time of an interview process can be subjective based on a hiring managers personal experience. Employers are able to accurately assess personal skills and experience however, most will make the decision based on gut instinct regarding aligned values, personal interests, and morals. A psychometric and capability test aims to provide measurable, objective data that can give you a better versatile view of a candidate's skills and suitability for a position. Assessments offer scientific, valid reliable and objectivity to the process of recruiting. Testing can provide a fairer, more equal and accurate way of assessing a candidate, as each applicant has been given the same test and testing environment. The answers then become comparable, allowing hiring managers make the decision easier for which candidate is the best fit and reduce the time spent on interviewing IT candidates.

Using testing in large numbers

If you have a large recruitment drive, testing as a way of screening (and subsequently eliminating) large amounts of candidates at the start of a process. Testing can be used as a quick way to identify candidates into a smaller pool, therefore, helping reduce the workload of a hiring manager.The same information can also be used in later stages of the interviewing process.

Benefits of using psychometric and capability testing

• Addressing potential risk within your selection and recruitment process
• Identifying employees who are a good fit with your organisation, culture and the role
• Objectivity and unbiased assessment
• Test are created and assessed by a facilitated by an experienced team and subject matter experts to give accurate assessment
• Recognising critical strengths and highlighting development needs within your talent pool (or yourself)
• Discovering potential within your talent pool for succession management
• Reducing employee turnover.

Keep reading

Interested in learning more about hiring candidates? Read our article on why candidates with high EI should be at the top of your list.