On psychometric tests. Interviewed by AI😄

Welcome to today's discussion on a tool that's gaining traction in the field of human resources. Psychometric testing. Often seen as a way to peer into the minds of job candidates, these tests aim to assess personality traits and cognitive abilities, providing HR with a deeper understanding of potential and existing employees. As companies seek more objective measures to guide hiring and development decisions, the role of psychometric testing in HR continues to grow. Let's kick off our conversation by exploring some of the key benefits psychometric testing provides for HR departments.

Okay, happy to answer some of your questions.

What are some of the biggest benefits you've seen HR departments gain from using psychometric testing? Think about how these tests actually improve their decision making and overall effectiveness.

Well, psychometric testing has been around for a number of years, but in the last few years, online psychometric testing has actually changed the game. So HR departments will find it very useful when they get insights into a person's personality or abilities that it normally would not be able to get in any number of interviews.

So online testing has made it much easier to gather this kind of data. Could you give me an example of a specific personality trait or ability that you've seen online tests reveal and how that insight has actually made a difference in a hiring decision?

Okay, so the way psychometric testing works is a collaboration between software engineers and industrial psychologists who work together for perhaps months on end to design the way questions are asked to get a result without getting into too many details of how they work. Basically, a psychometric test result will show you whether a person who has answered maybe a couple of dozen questions.

Okay, so the psychometric test essentially tells you if someone is a good fit for the role. That's a great starting point, but let's make it even more concrete for our viewers. Can you think of a specific example, maybe a situation where a candidate's test results helped an HR department make a decision they might not have made otherwise?

Absolutely. There are several different types of psychometric tests available. So recently I did a psychometric test for somebody who wanted to hire a salesperson, and that salesperson needed to have certain qualities, certain characteristics, which the psychometric test reveals, whether they have it and to what degree they have.

Sounds like the psychometric testing revealed specific traits that were crucial for success in that sales role. Could you share a bit more about those traits? What were they, and how did the test help the company make a better hiring decision?

Well, in this particular case, of course, the salesperson needed to have those characteristics that are crucial for any salesperson. An example would be, does the person have the ability to empathize with a potential customer. So if salespeople do not know how to empathize, then they are unlikely to get much sales. So that is one quality that we were looking for.

Empathy is definitely key for sales success. So did the psychometric test show that the candidate you were evaluating had a strong ability to empathize, and how did that help the hiring team?

So I just gave one particular element in each of the tests. So there were many, many elements. So many of the candidates were incapable of empathizing. So we pretty much did not consider them. We did not shortlist them.

So the test helped you quickly identify candidates who lacked key traits like empathy, which saved time and resources. It sounds like these like a really valuable tool for HR departments. Now, let's switch gears a bit. We've talked about the benefits of psychometric testing. What are some of the challenges that HR departments might face when implementing psychometric testing? Of course, I was talking about some of the challenges that HR departments might face when implementing psychometric testing.

Oh, that's a good question. And that is a common problem. One of the key things is that psychometric testing relies on competence in the English language. So if a candidate is not very competent in understanding the questions, the results may not be what we're looking for.

So language proficiency can definitely skew the results. What are some ways that HR departments can address this challenge?

Well, now there are companies offering psychometric tests in various languages, and it's most common in English. But if you choose a language which a candidate is most familiar with, then I guess that problem is likely to be resolved.

Offering tests in multiple languages is a great solution. Are there any other challenges that HR departments might face when using psychometric tests? Testing?

Yeah. One of the problems that many psychometric tests.