Today organisations choose Psychometric assessments because they greatly reduce the time and cost of managing talent, be it employee selection or development. Psychometric assessment tests also help HR prevent conscious or unconscious biases from creeping in, particularly during the selection of candidates. And since assessments can be delivered remotely and online, they can handle a wide pool of talent.
Certainly Psychometric assessments aid HR in managing their talent management activities, but sometimes they may not deliver the desired results. Today there are hundreds of Psychometric assessments available in the market and HR is spoilt for choice. Choosing a Psychometric assessment can be overwhelming and if one ends up selecting an incorrect assessment, it can possibly end up doing more harm than good.
So before you go ahead and pick a Psychometric assessment that fits your needs (or you think it does), be sure to check the following attributes in a Psychometric assessment test before sealing the deal:
1. Reliability
Reliability refers to how consistently a Psychometric assessment test can measure a characteristic (attitude, competence, behaviour, motivation etc.) For example, if an individual takes the test again, will he or she get a similar score, or will the score be drastically different. An assessment test that yields similar scores for a person if he or she repeats the test is said to measure a characteristic reliably.
An assessment test with a reliability score of 0.7 and above is considered reliable.
2. Validity
Validity is the most important attribute of any Psychometric assessment test. Validity gives meaning to the test scores. It indicates that there is a connection between the test performance and job performance. Validity also describes the degree to which you can make specific conclusions and take a decision about people based on the test scores.
A validity score of 0.4 and above is considered highly valid for an assessment.
Validity will tell you how good a test is in a particular situation and reliability will tell you how trustworthy a score on a test will be.
3. Fit and Type
Imagine running a marathon wearing a pair of stilettos. There’s a good chance that you may not finish the race and also risk injuring yourself.
Same applies to Psychometric assessments.
Even with the highest Reliability and Validity scores, you don’t get the true value from Psychometric assessments unless it fits your talent management intervention. You need to define your objective and corresponding expectations from an assessment in order to achieve your goals. For instance, if you are looking at training first-time managers on people-oriented skills choosing a personality assessment might be a good option. If one is looking to develop their High-Potential talent, then a competency-based assessment is a better choice.
There are various other factors to look for in a Psychometric assessment, but if these three factors are satisfied then your money is safely invested and talent management programs become more effective.