Categories: Created Articles

Psychometric Personality Testing

Using Psychometric Testing to develop you and your people

Aptitude (ability) and Personality Testing

Psychometric Personality Testing

Other Instruments and Profiles
Applications for recruitment
Benefits of psychometric testing
Test Use and application
Preparing for online tests

Aptitude (ability) and Personality Testing

Whether you are a believer or a doubter, I would like to assure you that these are WELL researched and over the years have been proved to work, when used correctly. And there is the rub. Many tests are not used appropriately!

When used as assessment tools, they should complement and support other programmes and exercises. Test results should never be interpreted in isolation.

Psychometric testing often seeks to measure:

  • Aptitude (testing skills such as verbal and numerical reasoning and logical thinking),
  • Personality testing and
  • Motivation.

Select the right test for the job

Selecting the proper test for the right job is an important activity. Many organisations make a mistake of ‘one size fits all’. This does not work with psychometric instruments or tests.

If a consultant only offers one type of test, be sceptical, it may be the only test they are accredited to use.

Our consultants are accredited users of a wide range of personality tests; such as the:

  • 16PF
  • Belbin
  • FIRO-B
  • CPI
  • Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

These tests can help in the following activities:

  • Career counselling
  • Executive Coaching
  • Management Development
  • Recruitment (certain restrictions apply, not all tests are suitable for recruitment, indeed many are explicitly barred for this purpose by their publisher)
  • Team Building

Other Instruments & Profiles

Psychometric ability and personality tests are useful but not universal solutions. We can also help you with a range of profiling tools that are not classified as psychometric ‘tests’ but which do provide valuable information and data to discuss and explore with individuals. These include:

  • 360-degree feedback tools
  • Learning Styles Inventory
  • Belbin & other team role profiles
  • Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI)
  • Culture surveys
  • Creatrix Innovation Inventory
  • Leadership profiles etc.

Application for Recruitment and Selection

As a first step, it can assist companies, large or small, to understand some of the key personality traits of their existing high-performing employees. Armed with this information, you can then decide to target potential candidates with those traits in future recruitment campaigns.

It may be that you can’t decide between two or three excellent candidates and would like some external support to build a deeper understanding of the individuals.

Benefits of Psychometric Testing (Profiling)

  • A more in-depth knowledge of the individual
  • Confirmation (metrics) of gut feelings you may have had from face-to-face interactions
  • Ability to benchmark candidates against each other, especially in aptitude testing in an objective manner

Test use and application

Personality & Behaviour Per Person Team (4)
16PF

The 16PF is an extensively researched and rigorously constructed questionnaire, designed to provide an in-depth measure and analysis of an individual’s personality.

This measures each of the 16 primary personality factors, as well as several new scales such as Emotional Intelligence, Team Roles, Management and Subordinate styles and Counter-Productive Work behaviour.

Various reports are available. These can be used to provide vocational guidance information to help match jobs to people and assist with staff selection and career development.

OK for recruitment
CPI

A sophisticated personality measure which is highly reliable and has many applications.  It is multipurpose and used throughout the world to predict behaviour. Continually refined and updated, it translates well across cultures. The CPI is useful for:

  • Recruitment and selection
  • Predicting response in defined situations
  • Developing managers and leaders
  • Assessing leadership and creative potential
OK for recruitment
MBTI – Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Is a personality framework that can help individuals explore preferences in; taking in information and making decisions.  A powerful and versatile indicator of personality type. Widely used for individual, group and organisational development.  Applications include:

  • Individual development – identifying leadership style, developing managerial potential, time and stress management, and executive coaching
  • Team building and team development – improving communication, enhancing team problem solving, valuing diversity and resolving conflict
  • Organisational change – understanding and dealing with responses to rapid change, understanding team and corporate culture
  • Career development – identifying learning styles, motivations & providing career guidance
Not for use in recruitment
FIRO-B

Is a questionnaire that measures how a person typically behaves towards other people and the behaviours they want back.  It can help people understand how they come across to others & why this may not be the ‘real’ them.  FIRO-B is a unique, world-leading indicator of interpersonal style. Ideal for team building, development and coaching. Applications include:

  • Team building and team development – identifying likely sources of compatibility or tension; identifying leadership style; aiding effective decision making; improving communication, openness and trust; and resolving conflicts
  • Individual development – increasing self-awareness and interpersonal effectiveness as part of the coaching process, career development or personal growth
  • Selection and placement – but only in combination with other assessment techniques. This can help to structure interviews and assess likely interpersonal behaviour.
OK for use in recruitment
SDI – Strength Deployment Inventory

Enables people to understand the reason why others do things and identify for individuals their personal strengths and motivations and how these relate to those of their colleagues.

The SDI provides invaluable information on what motivates a person under two conditions; when everything is going well and when you are faced with conflict or opposition. This ensures we understand why certain people have an impact on us they do and how we may be impacting on them!

Applications include team development and management skills development.

Not for use in recruitment
Creatrix – Innovation Inventory

The Creatrix is a tool to help identify strengths and weaknesses around innovation.  It looks at two key factors – Creativity and Risk-taking. These two main scales are made up of seven drivers. The output from the Creatrix is a personal profile showing strengths and a comprehensive report.

The Creatrix can be used as a coaching tool with individuals or as an organisational development tool with teams.

Applications include individual development, team development, culture change and leadership development.

Not for use in recruitment

 

Ability Tests– used mainly for recruitment/ promotion Middle Mgr Director Per person * Per group
Verbal Critical Reasoning Y Y
Numerical Critical Reasoning Y Y
Financial Appraisal – Jobs requiring the ability to interpret financial data and use it to make business decisions. Y Y
Commercial Reasoning – Anyone who prioritises commercial needs and allocates resources (people, products or services). Y Y
Legal Interpretation – Jobs requiring an aptitude for understanding and interpreting complex legal documentation & regulations. Y N
Business Decision Analysis – Is aimed at senior jobs where products and processes are paramount. E.g. line management, marketing, production etc. Y Y
Critical Business Planning – Is aimed at senior jobs where the emphasis is on companies, people & inter-relationships of the organisation as a whole Y Y
If only one person – you may choose any two tests for the price of one.  The more people tested at one time, the more cost-effective it is.

Preparing for Online tests

Many organisations want applicants and potential employees to undertake some form of psychometric testing online.  In this section, we will give you an overview of the types of tests, how they may be used, and how to prepare.

Lastly, what to expect back.

Types of psychometric test:

How to prepare for taking a psychometric test:

What to expect before during and after taking a psychometric test:

Psychometric Personality Testing was last modified: November 8th, 2019
Mike Morrison

Mike is a consultant and change agent specialising in developing skills in senior people to increase organizational performance. Mike is also founder & director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. Check out his linkedin profile MikeMorrison LinkedIn Profile

Share
Published by
Mike Morrison

Recent Posts

Managing Change in Organizations

Change Management For organizational development to be effective, change needs to be managed. Many organizational…

6 days ago

Talent – are leaders training enough people? #infographic

Talent - are leaders training enough people? The reality is of course that the workplace…

2 weeks ago

There is no “i” in team

For years management trainers and gurus have been using the literal letters in the word…

4 weeks ago

History of PEST analysis

The PEST Analysis Political, Economic, Social and Technical factors affecting a business or organization from…

1 month ago

Learning Styles Questionnaire – Honey & Mumford style LSQ – TRAP

Learning Styles Questionnaire based on the model developed by Peter Honey and Alan Mumford this…

2 months ago

Creating an organisational wide innovation culture

Creating an organisational wide innovation culture Ever heard people say... “What we need in this…

2 months ago