In today’s global scenario, across industries, psychometric tests are widely used to help during recruitment and selection process, during appraisals and promotions, and in training and development of employees. Psychometric tests are objective and standardized tools and hence they help an employer create a level playing and fair field for all the employees that he may want to be assessed. It helps them compare different candidates and their strengths and weaknesses regardless of their backgrounds.
Having said this there are certain parameters than an employer would need to keep in mind while administering a test on any given candidate, so as to check whether the candidate is truly fit to take the test.
1. Basic Language Skills:
First and foremost the most basic requirement for any candidate to be evaluated on a psychometric test is that the candidate should know and be able to read and write the language that the test is in and should have at least basic working knowledge of it. If basic language skills are missing or are poor,this will defeat the purpose of the testing process completely.
2. Basic Comprehension:
It is also important to check whether the candidate has the basic comprehension skills. In other words, one needs to check whether he is able to understand the meaning of the test items and know how to answer the same. This can be done during the rapport building process if the testing is face to face. If it is an online assessment, a small Proforma taking demographic details which checks basic comprehension skills can be filled by the candidate. If it is found that the candidate does not have the necessary basic comprehension skills and would find it hard to understand the test items, testing can be stopped at that juncture itself.
3. Understanding of Instructions:
During test administration, it needs to be cross checked whether the candidate has understood the test instructions in detail and knows what is expected of him while answering the test. Especially it is important that he understand how to mark on the answers so as to avoid any marking errors. If this is not done the whole scoring process could go for a toss and render the test invalid.
4. Being Honest and Objective:
It is important to apprise the candidate that he needs to be objective and truthful while answering the test. Most organisations have a supportive Competency Based Interview [CBI] and can detect if one has faked the test. Hence it is important for the candidate to keep away from the temptation of giving socially desirable answers on any given test items.
5. Relevance of the test:
Last but not the least, the employer needs to check whether the particular test to be administered on the candidate is indeed relevant for the candidate and serving the purpose that he has in mind. He would need to check whether the test is truly relevant in helping him make appropriate decisions either regarding selection or training needs of a said candidate/employee.
Once all these parameters are in place, a psychometric test can prove to be an invaluable tool to help organisations make important decisions.
Ms.Shital Ravi is a Senior Consulting Psychologist at Psychometrica. This article presents the author’s personal views.
