It is true that psychometric tests can be of great help in recruiting, managing staff but employers should have knowledge about proper practical and legal issues. You know there is nothing that is free from flaws in this world. Everything has something or the other that you have to be conscious about.
Employers make use of various instruments in assessing potential candidates, such as reviewing resumes, performing reference checks and also conducting interviews. The review process goes on for current employees via performance evaluations, 360 degree feedback systems and even also internal job competitions. You know there are different employers who have taken this process a step ahead by introducing psychometric testing in their work place. Certainly there are benefits of psychometric assessment test and nobody can deny it.
For your information, this procedure of psychometric includes using formal tests that examines the personality profiles and aptitudes of staff members or possible employees. The aim of psychometric testing in the offices or workplace is to cater objective information about the personality, behaviour and capabilities of a person that allows the employer to make more effective and proper choices. Certainly Psychometric Assessment helps the recruiters and employers to make a more firm decision. In a general sense, there are four ways in which recruiter can use psychometric testing:
Recruiting and promotion
- Screening: By getting job applicants finish some type of psychometric testing as part of application process, the recruiter or employer can make use of the outcome of the test as one aspect to consider in making a choice about who to pick for consideration. It could be advantageous when tackling with a large number of applications, such as responses to entry-level positions that you did advertise vastly.
- Then Selection: Psychometric testing can even be employed later in the recruiting process to distinguish among applicants that have been shortlisted for a designation. For executive and managerial -level positions, this could include a more complete, multi-stage testing process.
Assessment and development
- Informational: Employers or recruiters may encourage employees to take psychometric tests to improve their awareness both with regard to their own personality kind and how they could differ from colleagues having other personality kinds. It can be the base for a team-building exercise, as a way to improve communication between employees, and to address combat in the workplace.
- Decision-making: Alternatively, recruiters can make use of psychometric testing to help make decisions related to employees that might have an impact on their role in the company or business. For example, the testing might indicate that particular employees have an aptitude for particular types of work or for even those of leadership designations.
Though psychometric testing is vastly used in a diversity of industries, there are a number of issues that an employer must take into consideration when deciding whether to implement this in the workplace? After all, it is always better to be aware than to be sorry later on.
Some of the possible concerns can be practical. Like, there are plenty of kinds of psychometric tests available, and a recruiter will require devoting significant time and resources to picking the tests that best satisfies its particular needs. Once a specific set of tests has been picked, care should be taken to ensure that the test is properly managed. Finally, over-dependence on psychometric testing at the expenditure of different other methods of assessment might also result in the unintentional screening out of organization candidates. Moreover, apart from practical concerns, there can also be legal issues that a recruiter must take into consideration:
Privacy factor
By its very nature, psychometric tests can involve the collection of personal information related to a person. It is specifically in the instance of psychological or personality tests. The personal information or data that is attained may be believed to be highly sensitive. Similarly, it is vital to take into consideration the privacy rights of the staff members or potential employees who are taking the tests. In that respect, an employer must clearly identify the reasons for collecting the information and make sure that the information gathered link up to those purposes. Proper consents have to be gathered before the tests are managed, and the information that is taken must only be used in accordance with the specific consents. It would, for example, be inappropriate for an employer to get an employee’s consent to carry out a psychometric test in the pretext of a team-building exercise and then, unbeknownst to the employee or staff member, use the results of that test to make decisions about which employees to promote. Finally, information or any data that is got must be protected to ensure that it is not improperly accessed or changed.
It is absolutely important that the employers considering psychometric testing do their due diligence. Any kind of test that is used should be on the basis of trustworthy research and should be in a position to endure scrutiny from a human rights perspective. The application of the test must be done in a fare manner and sensibly and has to take into account privacy concerns.
Is it worth going for this Psychometric test?
Remember some sort of precautions have to be taken in every area of work or testing but other than this, this psychometric test is the best thing you can do to your recruitment procedure. You can have a recruitment program that is professional, help you see inside the mind of candidates and get the best information about the candidates you are examining. Moreover, you cannot deny the fact that psychometric tests are absolutely impartial because these are pre-designed and the recruiters have no influence on them. Moreover, whoever performs well in the tests get the better scores.
Conclusion
Thus, since you know a lot about psychometric test now, make sure that you go for this test and use it for recruitment. You can find a test that suits your needs and use it for various recruitment programs without buying it again and again.