Psychometric Testing… A Useful Tool When Recruiting?

A lot has changed over the last couple of years, and we are all still adapting to ‘new’ ways of working following the Covid pandemic. One of the biggest changes has been the dramatic increase in the number of people working from home, which has many benefits to both individuals and businesses alike, but also presents certain challenges.

Working from home doesn’t suit everyone’s personality or ability, and one of the most changeling factors a manager can face is how can they effectively oversee their team, monitor working patterns, and assess individual performance.  The growing remote/hybrid working patterns mean that a manager really has to know their team, trust that they are working effectively, and understand how to support them to maximise productivity.  When you’ve worked with someone for years, you will know their qualities, but how do you know this with new employees, after all you’ve only met them for a short period of time during the interview scenario?  Building relationships takes time, years even!

Building this relationship takes time, and with new working patterns in mind, some employers have changed their interview process to include psychometric testing to establish a better understanding of a candidate as a person, not just their skills and education.  These assessments aren’t designed to be ‘right or wrong’ tests, but rather a tool that can give an honest summary of a candidate’s approach to certain situations, with a view to seeing how they will work best and cope with various tasks and challenges. 

At Select.je we have a psychometric personality questionnaire as part of our online assessment package.  Candidates are required to answer questions to gauge their behaviour/response to a variety of scenarios, and the results are then summarised in an easy-to-read, detailed feedback which can be used either as a standalone survey or alongside other assessments to give you the clearest picture possible of an individual. 

The assessments focus on what is called ‘the Big 10’, which considers well established areas of adult personality, as follows:

• Connecting - warm and friendly in social settings, seeks out the company of others
• Leading - leads social interactions, enjoys responsibility & influencing others
• Trust - compassionate to people in need, empathises with the feelings of others
• Complex Thinking - creative, enjoys complex ideas & intellectual challenge
• Challenging - challenges authority and tradition. Comfortable with conflict
• Change - open to new ideas and changes, stimulated by variety and innovation
• Goal Focus - effectively executes plans, accomplishes most goals they set
• Order - has an organised manner, structured and methodical approach to work
• Emotional Expression - experiences mood swings, irritability and negative feelings
• Inner Belief - tendency to feel confident and free from worry about own ability

The results are measured against norm groups created from assessing thousands of individuals around the country, and expertise from occupational psychometricians. This allows recruiting companies to increase the scope of coverage to really gain an in-depth analysis of a candidate, which can prove a really useful tool in the recruitment process.

Interested?  Give us a call 88 88 66 or drop us an email hello@select.je to find out more about how you can use our online assessment tool to help you with your interview process!