How do you know you are using the right psychometric test?
15/08/2008
With increasing use of psychometric testing, how do you know you are using
the right test?
There is a considerable range of assessments available and to test comprehensively,
the chances are, you would have to use several which of course makes doing
this expensive and difficult from a management point of view never mind the
demotivation experienced by candidates or staff to ‘not another one’!
But what if there was one that did offer a comprehensive view of an individual.
What would it look like? Many tests examine personality and they can be split
into what is called normative and ipsative tests. Normative tests use an objective
measurement criteria so that individuals can be compared to each other whereas
ipsative tests look at how an individual sees themselves as well as their
perception of how others see them. Clearly normative tests can therefore be
used for recruitment where comparisons are made (choosing the best person
for the job) but ipsative testing is not recommended for this purpose. Ipsative
tests as used by Thomas, McQuaig, Myers Briggs etc do have value eg. when
looking at how person may fit into a team, balancing the various personalities
that comprise it but not in recruitment or selection (for promotion). For
more information on this subject click
here.
OK so we need a normative test but what attributes do we need to look at?
The range of personality traits is considerable but the most relevant are
those that relate most strongly to organizations in both the business and
public sector. These are self-motivation, assertiveness, sociability, manageability,
attitude, decisiveness, an ability to be accommodating (a team person), independence
and level of objective judgement.
The measurement of character and personality are common types of testing but
other types are not. There is an increasing awareness that qualifications
by themselves do not necessarily indicate that a candidate has good verbal
and numerical reasoning skills. Research shows that this alone can account
for up to 50% of an individual’s ability to do a job. Recently in a
survey by the Association of Graduate Recruiters one company indicated that
it is planning to introduce verbal and numerical reasoning tests because "degree
qualifications are not a reliable indicator of this aptitude". In addition
this is not the kind of ability you can question realistically in an interview.
Now we have character and verbal/numeric reasoning as well as of course as
the interview and references. On the subject of the latter, it is always advisable
to attempt to get such references by telephone where you have the opportunity
to gauge written answers that you might receive in a legal reference document
such as ‘his work was satisfactory’. On its own it raises doubts
but if you had the chance to question his/her boss you might find out that
he/she was very good at the job but completely disinterested in it. If you
have a similar job then you have your answer ie. it would be unwise to take
this candidate on. However, if your role is different, you still have unanswered
questions ie. what will happen if the candidate is not interested in what
we are offering even though he/she has demonstrated so far that he/she really
wants it! Research carried out by Greenberg and Greenberg published in the
Harvard Business Review has shown that a knowledge of work interests is directly
proportional to the likelihood of a candidate staying in a job. Not many individuals
really know what genuinely interests them at work but you as a manager responsible
for recruitment or promotion need to know this.
We are beginning to compile quite a list now: character, verbal/numeric reasoning
and what interests people at work. If we are testing for verbal/numeric reasoning
we should also add verbal/numeric ability. The difference is important. Verbal
ability is a knowledge of vocabulary and grammar whereas verbal reasoning
is how you communicate what you want to say, how you put over a point of view,
put your case in other words. Numeric ability is being good with numbers,
a knowledge of maths whereas numeric reasoning is you explain the numbers,
your analysis, why the graph looks the way it does, the significance of certain
numbers over others.
This should give us a pretty good idea of what makes up a person if we measure
all this. But what do we compare all this information to. We have to be able
to compare this information to what the role or job requires. This is called
job fit and probably is the most important part of all. We have all heard
this before but he/she being ‘a good fit for the job’ is absolutely
true. We therefore need to know the same factors for the job in question.
How do we measure this? The immediate boss of the role under examination can
define it in the terms mentioned above but that is incredibly difficult assessing
the various different levels of character, numeracy, interests etc. Perhaps
there is a library of such profiles; we will address that shortly. The best
way is to measure those currently doing the job but doing the job successfully.
This is the best approach; cloning your best people. If you can’t do
this you need access to a library of job profiles so that an initial comparison
can be made and a bespoke profile can be developed from this which can include
the manager’s definition the qualities he/she wants encompassed in the
job.
In conclusion, measuring the following will give you a comprehensive view
of what makes up your candidate or employee:
- Verbal ability and reasoning
- Numeric ability and reasoning
- Personality – 9 character traits
- Work interests
- Job fit matched to the role in question
- And for recruitment, it should be a normative test
Anova have a test that measures all these factors – The
Profile XT.
We also have a library which contains hundreds of profiles if high performers
can’t be used initially as a basis for the job
match or job fit process.
Not only does this assessment cover all these factors, it also includes a
distortion index which measures the
propensity of the candidate or employee to tell the truth.
If you want to try the Profile XT in your organisation we will give you a
free trial to see how it works. Call +44 (0)1491 636300 or mail info@anovacoms.com.