When a candidate’s personality isn’t aligned with the rest of their team – even if they check all the technical boxes – it can spell trouble for the entire company.
From lowering morale to impacting your bottom line, a bad hire can cost you more than you may think – an average of nearly $17,000, according to a CareerBuilder survey.
Think it won’t happen to you? Consider this: 46% of all new hires fail within their first 18 months, and 89% fail for attitudinal reasons, not skills.
Enter psychometric tests for hiring: A recruiting secret weapon to make sure a candidate is the right technical and cultural fit. The right psychometric test (or tests) can provide peace of mind that a hire will mesh well with the rest of the team well before they begin working together.
But which psychometric test will help give you the candidate information you’re looking for? And how do you conduct one? In this blog, we’ll break down everything you need to know about psychometric tests in recruitment.
What is a psychometric test for recruitment?
A candidate’s resume can only show you a small sliver of who they are, and it can’t tell you much about an individual’s behavior, thought process, or soft skills that they’ll need to succeed in their role. That’s where psychometric tests come in.
What is a psychometric test? Simply put, a psychometric test is a standardized assessment that measures various psychological skills and traits to assess an individual’s capabilities, personality, and behaviors. These tests are commonly used in education, clinical settings, and organizational settings.
As an employment tool, psychometric tests are used during the recruiting process to measure a candidate’s abilities, like:
- Skills and aptitude
- Personality traits
- Cognitive abilities
- Emotional intelligence and reasoning, and
- Behavioral tendencies.
These tests are used for hiring – typically as a pre-screening tool – to help identify top candidates. Psychometric tests in recruitment can be sent to candidates automatically when a job application is submitted, and most tests have tracking and monitoring software, making them convenient for the candidate and worry-free for hiring managers.
Why recruiters use psychometric tests for hiring
Simply put, recruiters use psychometric tests to assess a candidate’s suitability for any given role. These tests can help hiring managers better understand a candidate’s skillset, culture fit, work style, and even leadership potential. In fact, psychometric tests are among the most effective tools for predicting future job performance.
There are many times in the recruitment process when administering a psychometric test can be helpful, but they are usually given pre- or post-screening, or pre- or post-interview. In some cases, they are used as a final assessment or post-offer to validate the hiring decision.
When the test is administered depends on why the test is being administered. For example, pre-screening tests may be used to verify a candidate’s aptitude and determine if their skillset matches what the company is looking for or to help identify top candidates from a large pool.
On the other hand, post-screening tests might help determine which candidates should move forward in the next round of interviews. Post-interview assessments may be the final confirmation that the company has found a best-fit hire, or may help differentiate two top candidates to decide who to extend an offer to.
Regardless of when a psychometric test is used, its purpose is to help further assess an applicant’s suitability, and will ultimately help the hiring team make the most informed decision when extending a job offer.
Main types of psychometric tests
There are many different types of psychometric tests that assess various parts of a candidate’s suitability, so it’s important to understand what options are available to determine which will be best for a specific company or specific role. Here are the main types of psychometric tests for recruiting.
1. Aptitude tests
Psychometric aptitude tests, while similar to skill tests, aim to measure a candidate’s natural cognitive abilities rather than learned skills. Questions in an aptitude test are more standardized and generalized than a skill test.
Generally, an individual’s aptitude determines their capacity to learn and perform different skills based on their inherent abilities. Aptitude tests may include problem-solving, pattern recognition, abstract reasoning, and logic-based questions.
These types of tests are typically administered early on in the recruiting process to identify who could succeed, regardless of their experience or specific industry knowledge.
There are many different types of aptitude tests, with several focusing solely on reasoning, which can measure how a candidate responds to different information and stimuli.
1.1 Verbal reasoning tests
Verbal reasoning tests are a type of psychometric test that measures a candidate’s ability to understand written information. Verbal reasoning tests can help assess a candidate’s ability to communicate with clients, colleagues, or customers, and their ability to effectively interpret and respond to written information.
Verbal reasoning tests can be especially helpful for hybrid or remote candidates, since they may have to communicate more through personal messages and emails than in-person.
1.2 Logical reasoning tests
Logical reasoning assessments test a candidate’s pattern recognition, problem-solving, and logic skills. They may include puzzles or sequences for candidates to complete, or ask candidates to draw conclusions based on given information or data.
1.3 Abstract reasoning tests
As you might have guessed, abstract reasoning tests – also known as inductive or non-verbal reasoning tests – measure a candidate’s abstract reasoning skills, like identifying patterns, relationships, or rules between abstract figures such as shapes or symbols. Abstract reasoning also measures spatial awareness, visualization, and cognitive flexibility.
2. Personality tests
Personality tests are in high demand for hiring. They can help uncover core parts of a potential employee’s personality, which in turn can help recruiters visualize how they will get along with colleagues and leaders.
Although face-to-face conversations and interviews can help give a general picture of a candidate’s personality, it can be hard to predict how they’ll act in their day-to-day life, especially with usual workplace stressors like deadlines and disagreements.
Personality tests might uncover dominant traits of an applicant, like extraversion, agreeableness, or altruism, and certain behavior patterns. One key difference of this type of psychometric test is that results are not as objective as skills or aptitude tests, and are just meant to give an overview of a candidate’s general personality, which can help predict how they may approach their work and interact with others.
There are many different personality tests that might revel different parts of a candidate’s personality, such as the OCEAN model, Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and the Sixteen Personality Factor.
3. Emotional intelligence tests
Emotional intelligence (EI) tests are another type of psychometric test for recruiting. Just like it sounds, they measure a candidate’s emotional intelligence – including their ability to recognize emotions, understand them, and act on them in a reasonable way.
Emotional intelligence tests might measure certain skills and traits like:
- Self-awareness
- Emotional regulation
- Empathy
- Conflict resolution
- Social skills.
Recruiters use emotional intelligence tests to identify how a potential employee may respond to interpersonal conflicts, their level of adaptability and resilience, and their overall effectiveness in a collaborative team environment.
4. Situational judgment tests
Situational judgment tests, also called SJTs, are focused on realistic scenarios that are likely to play out in a workplace and can help predict how candidates would likely respond.
SJTs measure skills like judgment, problem-solving, and decision-making under pressure. In an SJT, candidates are given scenarios that involve interpersonal conflict, ethical conflict, or customer interactions, and choose how they would respond. These tests can be especially helpful for leadership roles or customer-facing roles.
For example, some situational judgment tests may present candidates with a question or hypothetical employee concern and have them respond through audio or video to help get a more well-rounded idea of their customer service skills. Learn how to create these tests with the help of Equip’s new video response feature.
5. Workplace motivators assessment
This type of psychometric test assesses what drives and inspires candidates to perform at their very best.
During the application process, the assessment is used to make sure that a candidate’s individual motivators align with the company’s values and culture. Once hired, though, the results can help managers and leaders nurture a new employee to become a motivated high-performer.
Motivators identified might include recognition, autonomy, growth, purpose, or collaboration.
6. Values Assessment
Similar to a motivators assessment, a values assessment is a psychometric test that evaluates a candidate’s personal values and ensure they align with a company’s organizational mission and culture.
Values assessments help uncover a candidate’s personal and professional values, goals, and beliefs.
How to choose the right psychometric test for hiring needs
By now, you have a lot of information about psychometric tests for recruitment – but how do you know which tests will yield the best results?
Here are some steps to help identify which psychometric tests will be the most helpful in your recruiting process:
- Analyze business needs, including budget, skills gaps, and type of roles being recruited.
- Identify what information areas you want to know about candidates and what results you hope to gather from the tests.
- Eliminate assessments that overlap in the same areas or are irrelevant to the job position.
- Sample popular psychometric tests, to get a feel for assessment content and length.
- Once chosen, verify the assessment is accessible and reliable.
Test type | Purpose of test | Roles to be used for | Recruitment stage |
|---|---|---|---|
Aptitude | Assess proficiency in job-related tasks or knowledge | All roles | Pre-interview, interview, post-interview |
Verbal Reasoning | Assess ability to comprehend written information | Administrative, customer service, media | Pre-screening, pre-interview |
Logical Reasoning | Assess ability to analyze information and draw logical conclusions | Engineering, finance, IT, research | Pre-screening, pre-interview |
Abstract Reasoning | Assess cognitive abilities, such as problem-solving and pattern recognition | Technical, design/creative, mathematics | Pre-screening, pre-interview |
Personality | Identify dominant personality traits and predict behavior patterns | Leadership/management, customer service, human resources | Pre-interview, interview |
Emotional Intelligence | Assess ability to understand and appropriately respond to emotions | Leadership/management, customer service, sales, education, healthcare | Pre-screening, pre-interview, interview |
Situational Judgement | Evaluate how candidates will react to work-related scenarios | Leadership/management, customer service, healthcare, emergency services, education | Pre-interview, interview |
Workplace Motivators | Identify a candidate’s individual motivators for doing their best work | All roles | Interview, post-interview |
Values | Identify and categorize a candidate’s core personal and professional values | All roles | Interview, post-interview |
The impact of AI on psychometric tests
Like many other recruiting tools, artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly impacted psychometric tests, from creation to scoring. Here’s how to use AI in psychometric tests.
While the test is being developed, AI – which relies on historical data and learned information – can optimize test questions and the test format. AI programs can verify that questions accurately measure a candidate’s skills, and can even help reduce bias in test questions.
During the test-taking process, AI can adapt a psychometric test as it’s being taken. It can personalize parts of the test, such as the content of questions and difficulty level, in real-time based on a candidate’s response during the test-taking process.
After the test is completed, AI can automatically analyze and score the test, providing predictive insights and complete scoring to the hiring team. These insights can help recruiters pick the best-fit hire.
When using AI in psychometric tests, it’s important to use the AI responsibly and effectively. Recruiters should ensure data is protected and provide disclosure to candidates that AI will be used in the assessment process. There should also always be a human behind the scenes who fact-checks and validates results to ensure they are accurate and free of bias.
Best practices to conduct a psychometric test
Psychometric tests can be a powerful tool when choosing the right candidate for a specific role, but they are only as effective as the team creating and conducting the test.
Here are some best practices to ensure that the psychometric tests you offer candidates will give you the information you need, and make the process as seamless as possible for the candidate.
- Define specific objectives: Lay out what you want the test to tell you before you begin administering it to candidates — the more specific the objectives, the better.
- Offer accommodations when needed: Ensure that the test is accessible and provide a note of accessibility when inviting a candidate to take the test so that accommodations can be made.
- Think like a candidate: Ensure the test you’re asking candidates to take is realistic. An hour-long intensive test isn’t feasible for most, especially in the early stages of the interviewing process, and may drive away top talent.
- Take measures to avoid bias and discrimination: Tests should be administered fairly and questions should be as equitable as possible to ensure that all candidates have an equal opportunity.
- Choose tried-and-true tests: Classic psychometric tests are popular for a reason, and are typically the most reliable and accurate.
- Provide clear instructions to candidates: When sending out an assessment invitation, be sure to provide clear and concise instructions, including important details like if the test is being monitored or any time limits.
- Ensure data is protected: Make sure the test you’re administering and the software that is being used protect candidate data, and share any relevant information about data protection and privacy with candidates.
- Offer space for feedback after the test: Whether it’s at the end of the test or in a follow-up message, encourage open and honest (and confidential!) feedback from candidates.