If you have ever made a wrong hiring decision, this article is for you.
Relying on interviews alone, which fail to help you identify & select the right talents for your vacant roles, is not advisable. It is high time you considered adding psychometric assessments to your recruitment process.
Continue reading to learn seven reasons why you should use psychometric assessments during the recruitment process.
As one of the most crucial resources an organisation needs to accomplish its goals and objectives, employees are key determinants of business performance and profitability. Little wonder high-performing organisations go to great lengths to make sure they recruit the right people.
For instance, wrong hiring leads to wasted time spent on hiring activities by your HR/talent recruitment team. Not only in terms of time spent (hours/days/weeks) but also the monetary cost on the organisation.
E.g. Your HR officer spends 30 hours of their week on hiring-related tasks. If they earn N250,000 per month, that means you are paying them N42,000 per week to carry out these tasks. If at the end of the 2-weeks recruitment process, the candidate ends up being the wrong fit, then you would have lost nothing less than N84,000.
If you have more senior employees involved in the recruitment process, e.g. the hiring manager, the Head of HR, and sometimes the CEO; then you begin to see the actual cost of a bad hire.
Recommended Post: 4 Pre-Hiring Assessment Myths that Can Cost a Wrong Hire
Cost of a Bad Hire
Statistics show that the cost of a bad hire can be as high as 30% of the employee’s first-year earnings. Likewise, in any financial year, many organisations end up losing N56.4 million on expenses related to the hiring and retention process.
At entry/experienced hire levels, the cost of a wrong hire can sometimes be as high as N2.5 – N3.6 million naira. And at the same time, it can rise steeply to N14.4million naira for more senior roles.
As most hiring managers would gladly share, hiring the right candidate for the right role requires paying painstaking attention to details.
One Wrong Hire = Decreased Productivity + Cultural Imbalance + Reputational Damage + 3*the cost of hiring
The impact of the wrong hire on an organisation is simply too much to bear. The risk is just not worth it.
Yet, many businesses still rely on traditional recruitment methods alone which are unable to provide the much-needed insight into the skills, behaviour and cognitive abilities of candidates.
So how do you then make informed decisions about the candidate sitting across the table from you? How do you back up your hiring choices & decisions with data and solid facts? How do you genuinely account for your hiring decisions even before the 3-month on-the-job trial ends?
Candidates are often subjected to a broad range of assessments and tests which help to determine their suitability for the role being recruited for. This need to ensure that only the best are selected from the pool of potential employees gave birth to the establishment of Assessment Centres.
At Workforce Group, our assessment centre solutions cover a wide range of tools and methodologies for determining how suitable candidates are for specific job roles. With these multiple selection methods, the probability of finding the right talent increases.
Top Exercises Candidates Take in an Assessment Centre
Some of the assessment exercises and tests candidates are taken through in an assessment centre include:
- Competency-based Interviews
- Group Exercises
- Role Play
- Psychometric Assessments
- In-tray Exercises
- Aptitude Tests
In today’s world, when gut instincts just don’t cut it anymore, the best course of action is to incorporate a valid assessment instrument in your recruitment process.
In this article, we will be evaluating Psychometric Assessments and how vital this behavioural and cognitive abilities identifying tool is to your recruitment process as an organisation.
What Is a Psychometric Assessment Test?
Psychometric tests are designed to measure a candidate’s fit for a role based on their personality & behavioural traits, competencies, motivators, interests, values and mental capabilities. Psychometric assessments are one of the most reliable tools used by organisations to determine how suitable a candidate is for a specific role.
Why Conduct Psychometric Testing?
Every employer wants to find the best candidate to fill the right roles. Best-in-class organisations deploy a combination of varied hiring methodologies to ensure that only candidates who are the right fit for the right roles are identified and selected.
Use of psychometric assessment tests also helps an organisation measurably determine if a candidate possesses the right behaviour, disposition and emotional intelligence to excel in a particular role.
They are also predictors of long-term performance and provide insight into the thought pattern of the candidate being assessed.
Unlike aptitude tests and face-to-face interviews which focus on the technical abilities of applicants; critical performance determinants with far-reaching implications such as candidates’ intelligence, interpersonal relations, interests and motivations can only be discovered through psychometric assessments.
7 Benefits of Adding Psychometric Tests to Your Recruitment Process
Ensure Round Pegs in Round Holes
Hiring can only be said to be successful when best-fit candidates are matched with similar job roles, and they go on to succeed in the role. The recruitment process is not just about finding talent but finding one who epitomises the personality required in a role.
An impatient candidate who possesses excellent verbal and written communication skills would have difficulty excelling in the role of a customer service representative. Psychometric assessments help ensure that scenarios like this are avoided, quickly and without stress.
Promote Objectivity
Psychometric assessments are not subjective. They are not based on the outcomes of a face-to-face interview or susceptible to the preference or biases of the recruiter or hiring manager.
They are statistically determined and therefore give candidates a level playing field to secure a job.
Over time, psychometric assessments have proven to be accurate and reliable in predicting and evaluating a candidate’s on-the-job performance over the years.
Click here
Deliver Measurable Results
Perhaps the most significant benefit of administering psychometric assessments is that they can be measured and accurately evaluated.
The report generated on each applicant is easy to interpret, reliable. It provides your organisation with the information necessary to select the right person for a role. This contributes significantly to the validity of the recruitment process.
Strengthen Organisational Brand
At a time when job seekers are sceptical about the fairness of employers when it comes to hiring decisions, psychometric assessments allay this scepticism because they are standard and unbiased.
With psychometric assessments, candidates can rest assured that they have a fair chance of being hired. This scores points for your organisation as a choice equal opportunity employer.
Reduce Staff Attrition
Studies have shown that one of the major causes of high staff turnover is a poor match between employees’ skills/behaviour and the job. Employees who are placed in roles that take a toll on their personality will get frustrated at some point.
Worse still, the mismatch between staff capabilities and job role may impact negatively on customer acquisition and retention, thereby resulting in a corresponding negative effect on the bottom line.
Psychometric assessments eliminate this possibility and produce employees who are happy in their job function because their job responsibilities align with the natural strengths of their personality.
Save Costs on Recruitment, Compensation and Retention
The impact of the wrong hire is unquantifiable. And where it is measured, it costs more to let go of a wrong hire than have a potential employee take a psychometric assessment test.
Besides, psychometric assessments are relatively inexpensive and almost always guarantee that the right individual will be placed in the right role.
Match Employees to Areas of Strength
Beyond selecting the most suitable candidates for specific roles within your organisation, psychometric assessments will help you identify employees’ personality traits and how each person’s unique personality can be harnessed for the achievement of organisational goals.
The insight generated from psychometric assessment reports can also be used to guide and aid decisions for professional development, succession planning, career management and employee retention.
6 Key Considerations for Implementing Psychometric Tests in Employment Screening
Psychometric assessments have gained significant popularity in the recruitment process due to their ability to provide valuable insights into a candidate’s cognitive abilities, personality traits, and job-related skills. By incorporating psychometric tests into employment screening, organisations can make more informed hiring decisions and improve the overall quality of their workforce.
Below are key considerations for implementing psychometric tests in the employment screening process.
Aligning Psychometric Tests with Job Requirements
To maximise the effectiveness of psychometric assessments for hiring, it is crucial to align the tests with specific job requirements. Each position within an organisation may demand different skills, competencies, and personality traits. By identifying the critical attributes required for success in a particular role, organisations can select psychometric tests that accurately measure these attributes.
Validity and Reliability of Psychometric Tests
When implementing psychometric tests for employment screening, it is essential to ensure the validity and reliability of the assessments. Validity refers to the degree to which a test accurately measures what it intends to measure. Reliability, on the other hand, measures the consistency and stability of test results over time. To optimize the selection process, organisations should choose psychometric tests that have been validated and standardized, ensuring that the results provide a reliable basis for decision-making.
Fairness and Unbiased Assessment
It is crucial to ensure that psychometric tests used in employment screening are fair and unbiased, treating all candidates equitably. This involves eliminating any potential bias that may arise from factors such as gender, ethnicity, or cultural background. Implementing tests that have been thoroughly researched and validated across diverse populations can help minimize bias and ensure a fair evaluation process.
Test Administration and Logistics
Efficient administration of psychometric tests is vital for a smooth employment screening process. Organisations should consider factors such as test duration, ease of access, and technology compatibility. The tests should be user-friendly and accessible for candidates, allowing them to complete the assessments without unnecessary complications or technical difficulties.
Integration with Other Hiring Tools
Psychometric assessments for hiring should not be viewed as stand-alone tools but rather as complementary components of a comprehensive hiring process. Integrating psychometric test results with other hiring tools, such as interviews and reference checks, provides a more holistic view of a candidate’s suitability for a role. This integrated approach enhances the predictive power of the selection process, leading to more informed hiring decisions.
Professional Expertise and Support
Implementing psychometric tests for recruitment effectively requires a level of professional expertise. Organisations should consider partnering with experienced consultants or experts in the field of psychometric testing to ensure proper test selection, administration, and interpretation of results. These professionals can provide valuable guidance in integrating psychometric assessments into the recruitment process and interpreting the outcomes accurately.
Workforce Resourcing administers the psychometric assessments and other pre-employment tests in our purpose-built, computer-based assessment and development centre.
We help organisations generate insights on their prospective employee’s behaviour, cognitive ability and emotional intelligence. Our carefully-curated report will help you identify & select the right candidates for the right roles at the right time.
Interested in learning more about the psychometric assessments we offer or need help with your recruitment process? Contact us now.
If you enjoyed reading this article, please share with your colleagues, friends and hiring managers. You might just be saving an organisation from the cost of a bad hire.
Don’t forget to leave your comments below. We’d like to know how you use psychometric assessments in your organisation.
Recommended Post: How to Use Assessment at Every Stage of the Employee Life Cycle
