Why Bother with Psychometrics?
25 November 2009
Psychometric and assessment products are strongly associated with recruitment but the power of these products to provide a focus for self development or coaching can be a highly cost effective way to deliver results.
Companies are more reluctant than ever to invest in Management Training. Time out of office, costs, relevance to requirements all plays a part. Yet without development, effective management is often reliant on chance or hope that a person’s ‘natural characteristics’ will fit.
More organisations are using psychometric and assessment products to identify individual strengths as well as improvement areas. A participant completes carefully selected assessment products and later receives one to one feedback. This session is intended to increase self awareness, identify improvements, increase motivation and create a personal development plan. The participant can use this plan to self develop or as a road map to focus coaching or training. With clearly defined learning objectives, progress can be easily measured over time to ensure value for money.
The success of a session relies on a good understanding of the demands of the role and careful identification of the many assessment products.
Top Tips for Choosing and Using Psychometrics for Development
- Define ‘what good looks like’ in the role by following a simple job analysis process and consider future requirements.
- Ask job holders to provide feedback on those competencies you have identified – check for relevance and clarity.
- Use collected job information to identify relevant assessment products from a range of manufacturers.
- When selecting products, consider how the assessment is administered, check the content seems relevant, ask for information on test validity and relevant ‘norm group’ data.
- Read an independent review of the product via the BPS Testing website www.psychtesting.org.uk
- Request a free trial of the product and get a job holder to trial it for you.
Jessica Jones one of the PVHR team specialises in making it her business to fully understand the diverse range of products on the market. She is highly experienced at Job Analysis and skilled in personal development.
Article written by
Jessica Jones: HR Consultant
