Psychometric Tests
Psychometric tests are potent tools enabling an employer to evaluate the potential fit of a job candidate for a specific position.
Properly used, psychometric tests can benefit everyone involved in the hiring process and contribute to the employer making the best hiring decision. Used improperly, psychometric tests can provide data that is not usable to effectively evaluate a candidate’s likelihood of job success.
Psychometric tests have been around for over 80 years. The science of Psychometric Testing was born in the 1920’s with the introduction of the Myers-Briggs and The DISC psychometric tests. These two psychometric tests were the first application of behavioral science theories outside of the therapeutic environment.
Basically, it was the first time that a psychometric test was used to explain an individual’s primary behavioral traits rather than attempting to determine what made them sick … (diagnosing and treating mental illness was the therapeutic application.)
I have used psychometric tests for almost 8 years helping my clients identify and hirethe best person for the job. I have clients all over the United States … some are large companies, but most are small to midsized firms.
Psychometric testing is a powerful science capable of providing significannt value to making better hiring / promotion decisions.
What has disappointed and angered me is the amount of exaggerated claims and the “snake oil” sales tactics used by some vendors who will say that their psychometric test can do things it was clearly not designed to do.
These dubious claims confuse the consumer and lead unrealistic expectations of what the psychometric test can d. This naturally produces a disappointing experience with the psychometric test and leads the consumer … or job candidate who takes the psychometric test … with a poor impression of the entire field of psychometric testing.
This website was created to help you … (both employer and the job applicant) … better understand how psychometric tests should and should not be used and fundamentally make you a better informed consumer of psychometric tests.
You can check out my consulting website shown in the Blogroll link on the right, but what I really want to to do is check out the psychometric test you are considering and leran all you can about it before you use it.
Lou Kertesz
(1) claim that certain psychometric tests
are in an employer’s
