Psychometrics in building teams

Article supplied by Talent Connect Group

Psychometric assessments can provide an insight into what goes on under the exterior of a person, providing insights into intelligence, skills and personality.

These insights can help inform people-based decisions such as candidate selection, individual development, succession planning and promotions.

Process

Recruitment, in any sector follows a process of CV submission, interview, technical assessment and decision, with many of the decisions through this process being based on a gut feelby the employer.

This works well but if we look at each part of the recruitment process, psychometric assessments can truly support each stage, going much deeper that what is comprised within a CV.

For example, a CV might reveal a candidate has changed jobs frequently, but it won’t explain why. Perhaps the candidate hasn’t found the right company, ethos, personality, or the job was not as advertised. Having both a CV and a psychometric assessment will show both a candidate’s work history but also a view of their capability, aptitude for the job, personality fit within the organisation and workplace behaviour.

Interview

It can also support the interview process. When meeting a candidate for the first time, do we see someone who will work well with the team and external clients, be an immediate and future asset to the business, or just the solution to an immediate problem?

A psychometric assessment will have provided the employer with these, while providing advice about how interviewers should adapt their approach when interviewing, such as interpersonal and emotional style, motivation, ability and culture fit, along with questions relating to their results. This provides the interviewer with competency-based questions that allow for a consistent and scientific approach rather than just an instinctive interview.

The decision

Let’s be honest, the decision can still be based on that ‘gut feel’, but with your experience and the added results and personality insights provided by the psychometric assessment, this important decision is now based on judgement and good data.

On-Boarding is also a key part of recruitment and the assessment provides suggestions on how to motivate and engage the candidate as they take up their new role.

Talent Connect Group believes that candidate management and experience are integral to every modern business and should be used throughout an employee’s lifecycle. Using psychometric assessments to measure suitable candidates and glean additional detail to develop that individual in their role is essential in today’s candidate-driven market.

Having worked with an accident repair group to develop a specific vehicle technician assessment, we have seen how these personality and preferred behavioural assessments improve a client’s recruitment process and employee retention levels. The assessment for the repairer was based on the company’s values and the role of the technician, and provided a deeper insight into candidates, looking at team strengths, how to best onboard the candidate and importantly how to interview that candidate.

Working with the client we assessed a number of technicians providing the client with a normative group on which to create a psychometric assessment for the recruitment of their technicians.

People

People are the lifeblood of any business and recruitment needs to be prioritised, structured, and planned. A business does not think twice about investing in infrastructure, spraybooths and buildings but paying for recruitment seems to be a taboo and with additional costs of psychometric assessments, it’s easy to see why company’s baulk at the expense.

Great recruitment, incorporating psychometric assessments, providing deep insights into a person’s profile, can improve a time-consuming recruitment process, reduce painful and expensive mis-hires and improve staff retention leading to reduced recruitment costs for your business.