Psychometric Tests - One of the Most Valuable and Versatile Tools in Any Organization"s HR Toolkit

Psychometric tests are designed to measure a person’s personality, intelligence, and mental ability. And although they were originally developed for use in the field of educational psychology back in the early part of the 20th century, they are commonly used as part of an organization’s personnel selection, development and promotion process.

Key Benefits of Psychometric Tests

Tests can help prospective employers in a number of important ways – some of which are:

• Making more enlightened hiring decisions


• Mapping out employees’ developmental needs


• Improving communications between team members


• Introducing objectivity into the succession planning process


• Reducing employee turnover

They are also beneficial to job candidates and employees as they provide key insights into their on-the-job capabilities and behaviors, enabling them to gain clarity about the types of roles to which they would be best suited and about aptitude or personality gaps that might hinder their progress.

Popularity of Psychometric Tests

It is estimated that over 80% of Fortune 500 companies in the U.S use psychometric tests. Types of organizations that use them most include:

• Information technology companies


• Financial institutions


• Management consultancies


• Civil service


• Local authorities


• Fire services


• Police forces


• Armed forces

Obviously the tests have applications across a wide range of industries and professions.

Key Criteria Psychometric Tests Must Meet

Because they influence personnel decisions, it is critical that the type of tests an organization uses reliably produces accurate results. To this end, a test must meet the following criteria:

• Objective – test results must not be influenced by beliefs and values of testers


• Standardized – tests must be administered under tightly controlled conditions


• Reliable – intrinsic errors must be minimized and quantified


• Predictive – test results must accurately predict job performance


• Non-discriminatory – test results must not be influenced by gender, culture, ethnicity, etc

Tests that do not meet all of the above criteria are not worth using.

Types of Psychometric Tests

Tests fall into one of two categories:

Personality Tests

Because employers recognize that personality is a factor in job performance, most psychometric tests include a personality test that seeks to “quantify” key dimensions of a person’s personality by asking about thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in a variety of work and non-work situations.

Aptitude Tests

Aptitude tests (also known as ability tests) seek to measure a person’s intellectual and reasoning abilities. Aptitude tests can be broken down as follows:

• Verbal ability


• Numeric ability


• Spatial ability


• Abstract reasoning


• Mechanical reasoning


• Fault diagnosis


• Data checking


• Work sample

Because there are more than 5,000 aptitude tests on the market today – and there are, of course, differences between what they measure (some may measure only one type of ability, such as verbal or numeric) – it’s important to which abilities are important to the success of the role for which a candidate is being considered.

Psychometric Tests Should be Part of Every HR Toolkit

Ultimately, psychometric tests are great tools that should be part of every organization’s human resources toolkit because they bring data and objectivity to decisions that are all too often influenced by “gut feel.” They help everyone – from job candidates and employees to hiring managers and employee supervisors – better understand what it takes to succeed in any role in an organization and to make progress towards achieving success.