There are many methods and approaches companies can take when screening new hires. Major consultancy firms like Deloitte refine the process through psychometric testing, which provides valuable insight into a candidate’s personality.

A company is only as strong as the team that drives it forward. One underperforming member can negatively affect even the most efficient of departments; causing disruptions in communication, group harmony, workflow, and more.

An underperformer may not necessarily be an unmotivated employee, rather, it can be someone who simply does not fit with the company culture, or who doesn’t have the skills or aptitudes necessary for their position. Shrewd hiring, then, is a fundamental part of corporate growth.

Organizations of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 500 companies, have adopted psychometric testing as part of the rigorous assessment process needed to build strong teams of employees with all the right traits and skills.

What Is Psychometric Testing?

Psychometric testing measures capabilities and personality traits that determine candidate-fit for any given position. The tests are developed according to a scientific method, and are designed to be objective and unbiased.

Oftentimes, they’re conducted once recruiters or HR have decided that a candidate has fulfilled all the initial requirements for a position after screening, interviewing, and background checks. The psychometric evaluations provide HR with detailed insights about a candidate’s personality, aptitudes, and skills – critical information to make the final hiring decision.

What Traits and Skills are Measured by Psychometric Tests?

Psychometric tests are often selected with custom-selected questions according to the position that needs to be filled. Not all candidates are tested for the same traits, however tests often include personality questionnaires, situational judgement, critical thinking, numerical reasoning, a variety of abilities, verbal reasoning, and more. They can usually shed light on a candidate’s level of extraversion, social skills, and logical reasoning.

Some of the most commonly conducted tests include:

• Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator
• Work Personality Index
• Strong Inventory Interest Assessment
• Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument Assessment

These assessments (and others) help a company get a better understanding of a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses.

What Kinds of Companies Use Psychometric Testing?

Companies that take hiring seriously often use psychometrics as one part of their highly involved selection process. For example, Deloitte conducts an initial screening, interviews, psychometric testing, and a final interview (among other HR best practices).

No matter the industry, psychometric evaluations benefit nearly everyone – companies that care about selecting and retaining top talent can use it as part of their recruitment process for better results.

How Is Testing Conducted?

Psychometric tests are usually multiple choice format. Often, they’re administered either online, or taken in person in an office setting. Some of the questions involve written scenarios, and evaluate how a candidate would respond in various work situations.

The assessments don’t require any preparation on the part of the testee, however the individual should still be briefed about the process and be given an explanation about why they’re being tested.

Can Anyone Conduct a Psychometric Test?

The short answer is no. A certified psychometric practitioner has undergone considerable training and certification to be able to select the tests that are appropriate for the role, and how results should be assessed.

Some hiring professionals try to find free aptitude tests online, however these are not designed with the same proven method as an official psychometric evaluation, and the quality of the results and analysis will not likely be reliable. A company can benefit by seeking a certified psychometrician or a recruitment firm that offers this service if they want science-backed data.

What Happens After the Test?

Once results have been assessed, it’s recommended that all testees receive some feedback. The tests can reveal strengths and weaknesses that candidates might not have previously been aware of. Even if a candidate is hired based on optimal test results and interviews, tactfully pointing out areas where they can improve can be valuable to them in the long run. 

Psychometric testing is not only beneficial for the hiring process, but for building stronger teams, solving conflicts, and retaining employees. Many organizations continually use testing to evaluate their current employees for executive positions or other advancement opportunities.

How Do Psychometric Tests Add Value to Companies?

Successful companies of all kinds have something in common: they place emphasis on hiring employees with the right aptitudes and personality for the role, and work hard to retain them in the long run. They know that it is extremely costly to replace a good employee, and that high turnover is something to be avoided.

When done correctly, psychometric testing can significantly raise the probability of choosing the right candidate for a job, and retaining them. While these assessments come with a cost, it is less than the cost of having to constantly re-hire employees.

Companies rely on their employees and the expertise they bring to the team, as well as their ability to work well with others. Employees who struggle often do so because they were selected solely based on the quality of their resumé and a face-to-face interview.

While interviews, background checks, and CVs are critical parts of assessing candidates, soft skills and personality aren’t so easily discerned. Psychometric assessment tools are able to give the hiring manager clear and objective information; enabling them to make decisions with more confidence. 

A final takeaway: don’t leave hiring employees to intuition and basic interviews alone! For hiring and retaining top talent, involve an expert who can conduct the right psychometric tests for your needs.

One of the best ways to improve the quality of your new hires is to get scientific when it comes to selecting from among your candidates. The science of candidate selection centers on a branch of industrial psychology known as psychometrics.

Developed and enhanced over the last 100+ years, psychometric testing consistently delivers high return on investment by ensuring that every new hire has the correct personality and aptitudes to be successful in the job in question.

Understanding Personality Fit

Getting a handle on using personality testing to determine job fit is easy: think of a ring announcer and a librarian.

Ring announcers can all read and organize books; librarians can speak into a microphone. Yet, neither is likely to want to switch jobs!

Ring announcers are highly extraverted – they are outgoing and gregarious. Librarians are introverted – they thrive only with substantial alone time and don’t require external stimulation.

If you’re hiring a ring announcer, it can be challenging to determine if your candidate has the requisite personality for success (extraverted). Candidates may put on a brave face in an interview, and interviews are very expensive in terms of recruiter and hiring manager time.

But with a short, simple survey – benchmarked against hundreds of thousands of people – you can sort your ring announcers from your librarians, without any additional work as a recruiter.

Now, instead of conducting 15-20 interviews to fill a role, you can hold 5-6, confident you’re meeting only with candidates primed for success.

Aptitude – What are You Good At?

If personality tests measure “what you’re like,” then aptitude tests measure “what your talents are.”

For example, attention is an aptitude that is critical for both accountants and air traffic controllers. However, accountants don’t often work under extreme time pressure. Air traffic controllers, in contrast, do often make split decisions, and therefore reaction time is a key attribute to look for among candidates.

Each job has specific aptitudes that lead an individual to either succeed or struggle in that role. Because struggling employees are often the first to quit – causing high employee turnover cost – it’s hugely important to hire only those candidates who have the right aptitudes for a particular role.

Michael Tanenbaum is CEO of ConnectCubed. Using the power of big data, ConnectCubed utilizes epistemic gaming technology and psychometric testing to create next-generation pre-employment screening tests.

Use ConnectCubed to assess your candidates within the SmartRecruiters platform. More on the launch of our new Assessment Center.

Why Reference Checks Matter

Without reference checks as part of the hiring process, hiring managers may be able to determine if a candidate can do the job, but they’re left in the dark as to whether or not the candidate actually has done the job in the past. If previous employers learned the hard way about a candidate’s poor performance, find out about their experience, take advantage of it and refuse to repeat history!

Unfortunately, traditional hiring methods interject a lot of subjectivity – like plain old gut instinct – into the process. While our perception of a candidate does have its role in hiring, it can’t be the total basis of a hiring decision. In addition to leading to compliance issues, reliance on gut instinct often leads to the hiring of false positives, or those candidates who are able to charm and embellish their way into a position only to later show their true colors as poor performers.

Automated reference checks solve this issue, offering an additional data point to the hiring decision; one that is based on I/O Psychology and sound science practices.  Naturally, the more data points gathered for a candidate, the more sound our performance predictions are. Consequently, we can improve the quality of our hires.

However, automated reference checking not only provides more data to determine the best drivers of business, but does so with less effort and in less time than traditional reference checking! All it takes is the click of a button and the system takes over, contacting the references with a digital questionnaire and instantly generating comprehensive results for the hiring manager. This allows for decision makers to rely on consistent, relevant information which facilitates a positive collaboration experience and optimal hiring results.

When To Reference Check

 Now that you’re determined to become a smarter recruiter by reference checking, the key question becomes when to reference check.  Should every candidate go through the process?

The reality is that reference checking can be done at any point in the hiring process. At the front end, it can be used to quickly weed out candidates who won’t be able to produce. Doing so will whittle down the large initial applicant pool quickly to a few, strong candidates, further reducing time and inserting a job-relevant metric at the very early stage.  As the diagram below shows, as many as 20 percent of finalists will receive reference checking scores that will essentially disqualify them for the position. Why not find out who those candidates are at the earliest possible point?

That said, the costs associated with leveraging reference checks on the front end may be prohibitive for some business owners. If this is the case, hiring managers can weed through candidates manually on the front end to determine if they can do the job and rely on reference checking to distinguish only between final candidates.

Either option is perfectly acceptable and is typically determined by the hiring company’s individual preference and available resources. That said, reference checking finalists is strongly recommended at a minimum. Doing so will, at best, distinguish between finalists or, at worst, prompt hiring managers to go back to the drawing board. Either way, the result is an improved hiring decision.

How ChequedReference Works

Chequed.com’s predictive talent selection tool, ChequedReference, is an innovative software that leverages I/O psychology through a comprehensive questionnaire. Created in partnership with University at Albany, State University of New York, each survey is tailored to specific competency criteria through job-relevant benchmarks.  What’s more, it can be fully branded for a unique experience!

While old-fashioned, phone based reference checking is often characterized by meandering conversations and an unwillingness to share much more than the HR equivalent of name, rank and serial number, automated reference checking cuts through the smoke. The nature of the questions asked, in combination with the requirement of at least 3 completed surveys to maintain reference provider anonymity, prompts references to offer candid responses.

Finally, the Chequed Quality Indicator ensures that references are who they say they are. Eliminate concerns that you’re speaking with a roommate when you expect to speak with a former supervisor! Built-in metrics generate red flags when questions are answered in a suspicious manner.

In the end, hiring managers are provided with a succinct overview of the candidate as well as a list of relevant interview questions to help drive a structured, job-relevant interview.

Get Smart Today

Reference checking doesn’t have to be a joke. If anything, it’s a generally untapped wealth of knowledge! Forgoing the traditional reference check is understandable, but with the ChequedReference solution, hiring managers have a fast, simple way to investigate a candidate’s history in a way that is completely relevant to the position.

Join the smart revolution and start leveraging the benefits of this filter with your next vacancy. The results are clear: better candidate information, less effort and improved hires. Just imagine the positive impacts on your business, let alone your hiring process.