What Do Psychometrics Measure?
Psychometrics refers to measuring one's mental attributes, including behavior, performance, and thinking methods. Organizations typically use this tool to hire the best candidates and make accurate and fair decisions to promote their existing staff members. Psychometrics in HR and L&D can take various forms, including questionnaires, standardized tests, and even serious games that aim to test people's intelligence, decision-making abilities, aptitude, and overall personality. Also, hiring and developing professionals can give an accurate sense of one's willingness to learn, their agility, and how open they are to engaging in teamwork. Therefore, they can understand how much their employees have evolved and whether the candidates fit their company's culture. These tests can also show how happy employees are in their positions and their learning needs, pushing companies to work harder and keep their workforce enthused.
The Main Concepts Of Psychometrics
Psychometrics depends on three fundamentals: reliability, validity, and fairness. For a measurement to be reliable, the results generated for the same person or group of people who retake the test must be similar. Also, the conditions should be consistent. There are ways a company can test the reliability of their measurements, including test-retest, parallel forms, and internal consistency. Regarding the first option, examinees are given the same test but on different dates. On the other hand, parallel form reliability offers two variations of the same test to a group and then compares the results. So, after the reliability has been tested, organizations must assess the validity of their psychometrics. The content, criteria, and construct should all be accurate to the test's goals and measure what it was created to measure. Lastly, a test must be fair to all individuals, regardless of their background and characteristics. Companies must avoid any form of bias due to cultural differences and ensure a fair assessment of every person's attributes.
The Benefits Of Psychometrics In HR And L&D
Improve Performance
Even long-tenured employees can sometimes experience a decrease in interest and production in their positions. Maybe they are left all alone without guidance, or they have become too comfortable with their day-to-day tasks. This is where psychometric testing comes into play. It measures the level of engagement employees have and the difficulties they face. Therefore, companies can offer assistance through coaching and training. For example, a team member may feel stagnant in their position and feel the need to climb the corporate ladder. Management must listen to their needs and offer them personalized training to help them elevate their knowledge and position.
Better Decision Making
Research suggests that hiring professionals based solely on their resumes through a structured interview has a very low success rate. On the other hand, an interview accompanied by a psychometric assessment and reference checks can be extremely valuable. These tests can accurately predict someone's future job performance since they identify their cognitive abilities, emotional intelligence, and personality features. Consequently, HR managers hire the best fit for the position and company culture, reducing their turnover rates. Moreover, managers proceed with fair and deserving promotions of existing employees. Just because someone is good at their current position does not mean that they are fit for a higher role. A psychometric test shows whether they can take a leap or not.
Interview Independence
Traditional interviews can't assure hiring managers of the right fit for the job. When psychometric assessments are implemented in the early stages of the recruitment process, managers can filter candidates and proceed with interviewing those with true potential. So, the tests offer a satisfying level of independence to hiring managers, who don't have to be involved every single step of the way. Also, they can compare every candidate's test results with older employees' assessments and get a clearer picture of one's professional trajectory and whether they can be effective in their future position.
Cost-Effectiveness And Time-Saving
In traditional hiring processes, HR managers would spend days, if not weeks, going through applications to decide which applicants they would arrange interviews with. However, this method can often prove dysfunctional since prior working experience tells a very limited story. On the contrary, psychometrics in HR and L&D offer a more detailed analysis of each candidate and their projected performance. Therefore, recruiters spend a lot less time interviewing and going through resumes. Also, companies avoid hiring the wrong candidate and improve retention rates, saving resources on training and rehiring.
Reduce Bias
Interviewers often reject candidates without allowing them to showcase their abilities solely based on their personal biases. However, psychometric assessments are unbiased and allow each professional to demonstrate their strengths. The parameters are very clear and don't take into consideration a participant's background and characteristics. While, unfortunately, bias can still play a role later on in the hiring process, at least all applicants are given a fair chance to show their abilities and be considered for a position. Even if an HR manager is unconsciously biased, seeing someone's potential may help them reconsider their beliefs and refute their misconceptions.
Challenges Psychometrics In HR And L&D May Present
These tests often assume all candidates derive from the same background and have the same norms, values, and ways of thinking. Yet, this assumption excludes people who may be ideal for a position but whose cultural attributes differ. To solve this, companies must provide translations for their tests and ask psychometric providers to consider various cultural aspects. Additionally, ethical considerations arise since psychometrics uses and controls personal data. Users must be fully informed about how their data is processed, and companies must use it only for the intended purpose. Moreover, some tests are already available online, and candidates can retake them until they get the results a company requires. To avoid that, organizations should ask for customization of their assessments so applicants can't retake a test. Even if they can retake it, the questions must be randomized and not in the same order. Lastly, professionals who assess test results must be adequately trained to translate them properly. So, companies must invest in their training to mitigate the risk of misjudgment.
Conclusion
Psychometrics in HR and L&D can be an invaluable tool in assessing candidates' and employees' skillsets and cognitive attributes. Still, they should not be used blindly and without any additional processes. Combining different methods and tests gives management a holistic view of each professional, their compatibility with company culture, and their readiness for promotion. Organizations may also utilize the strengths of AI software to analyze the data collected through testing and ensure fair and valid results and decision making.
