22nd March 2022
We’re slowly entering a post-covid world, where restrictions
are disappearing and many employees are returning to their workplaces. And we’re
seeing greater levels of flexibility too, with hybrid and remote working
becoming a permanent arrangement for many. This is all fantastic news with businesses
now focusing on growth and building back stronger. And to grow a business
successfully you need to get the culture right - which means recruiting the
right people to make that happen.
But this can be easier said than done. It’s not straightforward
to work out how well a candidate will fit with your culture. Someone might have
been a high performer in their previous company but if they aren’t aligned with
the beliefs, values and behaviours needed in your business, there’s no
guarantee they’ll be as successful when they come to work for you. And the last
thing you want to do is bring someone into your company, only to realise you’ve
made a costly mistake.
Your organisation needs someone who’s going to
thrive in your environment, and the applicant needs to fit in comfortably to be
happy and able to do their best work.
This is where psychometric testing plays a really
valuable role, quickly helping a company get useful insights into an applicant’s
behavioural style and a feel for how that style might impact on their working relationships
and performance. The tests can give information about behavioural traits,
leadership styles and motivation, indicating how candidates might differ in the
way they respond to particular situations, and are likely to interact with other
people in their working environment.
Obviously there are limitations. While these types
of tests will help you get a more informed view about a candidate’s suitability
for a role, they should form part of a wider recruitment process rather than be
used in isolation to make a recruitment decision. Nor are they ability tests. They
simply reveal preferences towards certain types of behaviour styles.
But from a cultural fit perspective, psychometric
tests can provide some really valuable information that can be built on throughout,
and used in combination with, other stages of the recruitment process. In an
interview, it’s not always easy to get a true feel for what someone’s
personality is like for example. But use the psychometric testing profile to
guide question preparation and the conversation during the interview, and it
can open up lots of areas for discussion.
One question that’s sometimes raised is whether
psychometric testing for cultural fit can negatively affect diversity efforts.
And it’s an understandable concern. After all, if you restrict yourself to looking
for a particular “type”, your company could miss out on some great talent, and
do a major disservice to candidates who could have gone on to do the role
really well. So yes, there could be a risk if the profiles aren’t used
correctly, perhaps if they’re assessed against a highly prescriptive list where
candidates have to be a very close match.
But used properly, psychometric tests can actively
contribute towards greater diversity. The tests help you understand more about
how a candidate could potentially add to and complement your existing mix of people,
and even help take the culture in a new direction that you’re aspiring towards.
They encourage you to think in terms of the overall blend of styles and what
somebody could add, rather than having unconscious biases creep in that lead to
an individual being recruited because they “feel” right as they’re similar to
the rest of the team.
Psychometric tests don’t only have to be used at the
point of recruitment though. They can also be highly effective tools to use for
the development of your existing employees, providing insights that create a greater
understanding of dynamics, motivations and working styles, and improving engagement
by using the feedback to build stronger relationships and encourage better communication.
The information can be used to assist with identifying progression
opportunities and internal promotions too.
Using psychometric tests can add a great deal to the
recruitment process, helping you find the right person in terms of working
styles and values. As part of our applicant assessment support services, we can
provide psychometric
testing and cognitive ability assessments, as well as
a pre-employment
testing service to enable you to assess candidates'
numeracy, literacy, and IT skills and knowledge. If you’d like to learn more
about the ways we can support you in delivering your talent attraction and
recruitment strategy, please do contact us.
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