Psychometric Testing: have you got the right tool for the job?

When it comes to psychometric assessments, there’s no shortage of options (or opinions on what tools different people and businesses prefer).

We’ve used a number of different assessments over the years, here’s some of our insights on what to consider when looking to use psychometric assessments or feedback reporting with your team.

Get clear on your "Why?"

Why are you looking to introduce an assessment tool into your team or recruitment process?

Is it for self-awareness, awareness of our behavioural preferences, personality, cognitive ability, emotional intelligence, or other’s perceptions of us and our performance in our job?

Your answer to that will impact the kind of assessment you ultimately choose to use.

It is crucial to ask yourself if the introduction and follow-up of this assessment as a learning and development activity, or as a part of the recruitment process, align to your overall business goals. If your reason for the introduction is not aligned, there may be confusion by your team or candidates. They won’t have an opportunity to utilise the skills or information they learn from the assessment into their role because it is at odds with what is expected of them.

Is it for the "I" or for the "TEAM"

Some tools are very useful to find out more about ourselves, highlighting our strengths and development areas or giving us the words to articulate how and why we do and think the things we do (e.g., emotional intelligence measure or 360-degree feedback).

Other tools are more interesting to look at as an individual and also as part of a team. By encouraging your team to be open about their own results, and sharing them with their team, these tools can create a common language where we seek to better understand ourselves and others in a variety of situations in the workplace (e.g. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) or DISC Behavioural Assessment).

Handling the truth

The various tests require differing investment of time from your team members (or prospective candidates) and they also differ in complexity or how challenging they are to complete, and to receive the feedback/results for.

Simple: Tests that reflect a person’s preferences (e.g., DISC or MBTI) are quite simple to complete and the results are simply a reflection of their choices so are easier to hear.

Mid-level: Other tests might take a bit more brain power to complete and then compare the results to a societal or test norm (which means people are put into categories or percentiles based on their answers). Finding out you don’t sit in the top 5% can be a hard pill to swallow for some.

Advanced: Lastly is the trickiest category that are quite difficult to complete and also hard to digest which are things like Life Styles Inventory or 360-degree feedback reports that ask those close to us (manager, peers and direct reports) to reflect on our behaviour and performance.

Not all assessments are appropriate for everyone and, again, it is important to have strong rationale as to why you are asking your team to complete them so that it is a safe space without threat of negative repercussion. 360-degree feedback in particular requires a high level of maturity and trust from all respondents involved.

Don't set and forget

An assessment as a standalone activity is about as useful as complimenting someone’s work once in their career. It might give them a little pep in their step for the day, but there is unlikely to be a lasting impression. To be successful at creating real awareness and behavioural change, assessments should be coupled with detailed interpretation and ongoing coaching or exposure.

If utilising a team style tool, for example, you could reinvigorate the learning and awareness of the assessment by introducing each new team member to the assessment and encouraging them to discuss their results with their new team (again if the individual and team are mature enough). This can help to speed up the onboarding of a new team member relating to their preferences, motivators etc and demonstrate your investment into your team straight off the bat!

All psychometric tests have their place and can be extremely useful for gaining clarification within your team and yourself. However, they should be used appropriately and it’s always best to have them conducted by a professional who can both administer and interpret the results for maximum impact. If you think psychometric testing is something you and your team could benefit from (every team could) then head to our contact page and book in a chat with one of our team!

If you’d like to hear more about psychometric testing and how these tools might support your team, get in touch.