Did you know that we can offer psychometric and capability testing during the recruitment process?

Unlike tangible and visual assessment such as education, skills, experience, appearance and punctuality, the behavioural traits, work style and personality of a candidate can be much more difficult to assess during an interview.

We all know how costly it is to replace an employee and employers who choose to undertake assessments as part of the recruitment process, make better hiring decisions due to a more comprehensive overall evaluation and a strategic approach to their talent acquisition process.

Often candidates will approach us to ask if they can complete a range of capability testing to understand their knowledge of specific software or a skill or to benchmark themselves against industry standards.

There has always been questions asked over the value of psychometric assessments and capability testing, however those who use it believe that it can give a more objective overview of a candidate’s character, strengths, weaknesses and working style. Typically, a candidate will only nominate a referee that will give them a good reference therefore the use of testing has increased over the past few years to ensure the right person for the right job.

For employers, testing could help to measure the future performance of a candidate and hopefully improve employee retention by making successful and a more informed hiring decision.

How psychometric assessments and capability testing aids recruitment decisions

Psychometric testing can measure a number of attributes including intelligence, critical reasoning, motivation and personality profile. Capability testing can measure how well candidates know the necessary knowledge, understanding, practical experience, work speed, and strengths and weaknesses within the discipline in order to complete the role.

An interview process can be fairly subjective based on personal experience at the time. Employers tend to be able to assess personal skills and experience fairly accurately however they will make the decision based on gut instinct regarding aligned values, personal interests and morals.

A psychometric and capability test aims to provide measurable, objective data that can give you a better versatile view of a candidate’s skills and suitability for a position. Assessments offer scientific, valid reliable and objectivity to the process of recruiting. Testing can provide a fairer, more equal and accurate way of assessing a candidate, as each applicant has been give the same test and testing environment. The answers then becomes comparable, allowing hiring managers to make the decision easier for which candidate is the best fit and reduce the time spent on interviewing candidates.

If you have a large recruitment drive, testing as a way of screening (and subsequently eliminating) large amounts of candidates at the start of a process. Testing can be used as a quick way to identify candidates into a smaller pool therefore helping reduce the workload of a hiring manager. The same information can also be used in later stages of the interviewing process.

Benefits at of using psychometric and capability testing

  • Addressing potential risk within your selection and recruitment process
  • Identifying employees who are a good fit with your organisation, culture and the role
  • Objectivity and unbiased assessment
  • Tests are created and assessed by a facilitated and experienced team and subject matter experts to give accurate assessment
  • Recognising critical strengths and highlighting development needs within your talent pool (or yourself)
  • Discovering potential within your talent pool for succession management
  • Reducing employee turnover.

If you are interested in offering psychometric and capability testing, get in touch with Westaway Executive Search to discuss further.