Psychometric Assessments: Should – form part of our Selection process?

By Charne Opperman (22.01.2021)

In the past year, overshadowed by a pandemic, most companies have been facing various challenges that affected their productivity, success and effectiveness in one way or another.

The overarching challenge most companies faced was how to the manage staff responsibly without it having a negative effect on the productiveness of the overall business functions.

Now more than ever companies should be focused on attracting and retaining talented employees.

Business should similarly be focused on how to remain competitive in an economy that is being undermined by rampant unemployment.

This means they must do everything within their power to be at the forefront of their respective fields.

In order to do so, it requires that they prioritize the talent they attract and retain.

Are you a Small Business, Company or Large Organization looking for Consulting on Selection Processes or Psychometric Assessments?

Danshaw can help! Contact us for more information.

Human Capital Enrichment and Development Challenges

One of the challenges companies face these days is the enrichment and development of their talent or Human Capital.

This is not because the current talent pool within South Africa is lacking skills, competencies or knowledge, rather, this is mainly due to the fact that a lot of companies do not have a proper selection process in place.

This, in turn, leaves them at a disadvantage when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent.

As part of the identification process of top talent for your organization, it is important to understand exactly what the ideal profile for a successful candidate within your company is.

This should not just include the technical knowledge, skills or competencies required by the position, but should also include the behavioural competencies linked to the organizational culture or success factors.

How Psychometric Assessments Can Help You

In terms of a report, published by Central Test in 2014, it can be argued that psychometric assessments help organisations in the assessment of human behaviour, which in turn helps a business’s chances of hiring a candidate who will be successful within a specific role (p. 2). As a result of this argument, psychometric assessments have become one of the biggest tools used within the human capital domain.

There are many different reasons for the increased use of psychometric assessments as part of the new talent identification strategies within a recruitment and selection process.

Some of these reasons include:

The guidance received from legislation on fairness, equality and equity which can be eliminated with the use of HPCSA approved assessments.
The large pool of talent that organisations are faced with which needs to be filtered through, and candidates validated by an objective tool, such as psychometric assessments.

The use of psychometric assessments within a company’s selection process assists business owners or managers in identifying abstract and more concrete aspects of candidate suitability, such as aptitude, personality and specific person-job match criteria which are not always considered or explored within the confines of a “normal” hiring process.

It is beneficial when companies consider overall person-job matches as they are intrinsically linked to personality and attributes that will be uncovered by psychometric testing – especially when company culture is an important element within the overall organizational strategy.

Use A Combination of Activities In Your Selection Process

It should be noted that these assessments cannot, however, stand alone, and should not form the sole basis for a hiring decision.

They should always be used in conjunction with other selection activities or processes. According to Clarkson (2013), the inclusion of psychometric assessments brings science to the art of recruitment and selection.

When these assessments are used in an ethical, insightful but also sensitive way it can be considered an important and effective tool to include in the selection process, but hiring remains an art.

Psychometric assessments that are used by Registered HPCSA approved practitioners are objective, reliable and accurate predictors of an individual’s behaviour, attributes and personality, but there remains something to be said for practical experiences and first impressions.

Conclusion

We believe it is important to have the right people in the right positions in order for companies to be profitable and sustainable.

Adding a tool such as psychometric assessments to your hiring arsenal can assist your organization in making a sound hiring decision.

Using these assessments in combination with other techniques, such as competency-based interviews, assessment centers or panel structured interviews, can be of great value to your company, and can change the way in which you attract and retain top talent.

Danshaw can help! Contact us for more information.

References:

Central Test. (2014). “White Paper On Psychometric Assessments: Everything You Need To Know About Hr Assessments.” http://www.centraltest.com/espFICHIER/WHITE-PAPER-US-2014.pdf
Owen Fernandes, “Psychometric Assessment and Its Impact on Human Resource Practices”, IEEE, 2011.
Clarkson, M. (2013) “5 Reasons Hiring Managers Use Psychometric Testing” Retrieved from http://www.smartrecruiters.com/blog/5-reasons-hiring-managers-use-psychometric-testing/ on March 26, 2013