Welcome to your first module: Introduction to Psychometrics. This module will guide you through the fundamentals of psychometric tests, their benefits, the models we use, and their applications in recruitment and development.
What is a Psychometric Test?
Psychometric tests are scientific methods used to measure psychological characteristics. These tests can assess personality traits, cognitive abilities, and future competency in role. They consist of standardised test items, ensuring all candidates receive either the same personality questionnaire or the same ability test level. Psychometric tests are very reliable. However, personality questionnaires in particular are not infallible. This means that personality questionnaires should be supplemented with interviews to gather comprehensive candidate information.
Benefits of Psychometrics
Psychometrics offer numerous advantages for both organisations and candidates:
For Organizations:
- Unbiased Information: Psychometric tests provide reliable and valid measures, reducing human biases in the recruitment process.
- Enhanced Recruitment Process: Using psychometrics demonstrates investment in the recruitment process, impressing candidates.
- Improved Candidate Selection: By identifying the right candidates, organisations can achieve higher productivity, job satisfaction, and overall success.
For Candidates:
- Self-Awareness: Personality questionnaires, especially with feedback, help candidates gain insights into themselves.
- Feeling Understood: Candidates feel valued when organizations invest time to understand their personality and abilities.
- Streamlined Process: Psychometrics can shorten the application-to-decision time, benefiting both candidates and recruitment teams.
Reliability and Validity
We’ve already discussed reliability and validity a little, so let’s clarify what we mean when we talk about reliability and validity in psychometric tests.
Reliability refers to the consistency of a test in measuring psychological attributes. For example, a reliable personality scale measuring how much a candidate is motivated by competition will yield similar results every time you test that candidate.
Validity concerns the accuracy of the test in measuring the intended attribute. It ensures the test assesses the specific characteristic, such as how motivated by competition someone is, rather than an unrelated trait. High reliability and validity are crucial for effective psychometric tests.
Models in Psychometrics
Psychometrics have evolved since the 1880s, originating from academia and adapting to occupational settings.
Clevry uses the rational model, developed for workplace applications. We recognise differences between the personality you may show at work, and the personality you may show outside of work. Our tests only refer to occupational contexts, and we ask the candidates to think of their personality in the workplace. We also use occupational norm group comparisons, offering higher predictability, reliability, and validity for job performance.
Approaches in Personality Psychometrics
There are two main approaches psychometric companies use when designing personality psychometrics.
Type Approach: This method categorises individuals once they have taken a personality questionnaire. If we take the MBTI as an example, if someone is 60% extroverted, they will be given the “E” letter in the 4-letter combination. While easy for comparison and team building, it can overlook individual nuances, such as the remaining 40% of introversion in this example.
Trait Approach: Our preferred method, the trait approach, uses continuous measures of personality. For example, a score between 1 and 10 (called a sten score) provides a detailed personality profile, showing the degree of where someone sits on that scale. This approach offers a more accurate representation of individual differences, making it ideal for recruitment and development.
Accreditations and Verifications
Our psychometric tests are validated by the British Psychological Society (BPS), which independently reviews our tests, manuals, and materials. We hold ISO 27001 certification, ensuring strict security controls to protect sensitive data. Additionally, we comply with EU GDPR regulations, safeguarding candidate information.