Psychometric Testing
Structure
• What are psychometric tests ?
• Psychometric tests in recruitment
• Team building and Belbin types
• Psychometric test and your own development
What are Psychometric Tests?
What are Psychometric Tests?
• Psycho = mind (Greek: psyche)
• Metric = measurement
Psychometrics - systematic testing, measurement and
assessment of intelligence, aptitudes and personality.
Aim to determine differences between people using scientific
statistical methods
What can be measured?
• Ability
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Numerical Reasoning
Verbal Reasoning
Diagrammatic Reasoning – linked to logical thinking
IT Skills, In tray exercises, group exercises, role play, presentations
Aptitude – IQ
Personality and preferences – MBIT / Belbin
Motivation / interests / attitudes - Maslow
Emotional Intelligence
Critical thinking / situational reasoning
When to use Psychometric Tests?
• Most common = recruitment selection processes
• Used in over 70% of larger organisations (CIPD, 2007a)
• Use continues to increase
• Ability tests most popular
• Traditionally – Graduate or Senior Management recruitment
• Increasingly used for a wide range of roles
Other…
• During the promotion of staff – internal recruitment
• Selecting staff for redundancy
When to use Psychometric Tests?
Training & Development
• Use to identify an individual’s development requirements
• Enhance self-knowledge
• Career Development
Team Building
• Forming a new team
• Developing a team
• Dealing with team issues
Psychometric Testing & Recruitment
High influx of
applications
High number of
applications meet
essential criteria
Process needs to
be fair & Consistent
Legislation
Cost
Psychometric Testing & Recruitment
Psychometric testing is:
• Consistent
• Objective
• Efficient
• Equal/fair
• Cost saving – compared to using traditional methods
• Used at any point of process
• Can determine future performance – Graduate &
Management recruitment
Psychometric Testing & Recruitment
Not the “Silver Bullet” – used to support decision making, not
replace it
Damaging results if used to make the hiring decision
Psychometric Testing & Recruitment
Top Tips !
Practice makes perfect
Do not Lie
Ask for feedback
Do some homework
And finally….don’t stress !
Psychometric Tests & Team Building
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Belbin Team Inventory (1981)
Based on observation of business games
Effective teams = Key 9 roles
Popular with business & management training
Psychometric Tests & Team Building
• Plant: The Ideas person – creative & imaginative
• Resource Investigator: The networker - gets the team what it
needs
• Co-ordinator: Concern with fairness and equity among team
members - everyone has a say
• Shaper: A driving force - dynamic team member who loves a
challenge and thrives on pressure
Psychometric Tests & Team Building
• Monitor-Evaluator: Assess and monitor progress to prevent
mistakes
• Team Worker: is concerned to ensure that interpersonal
relationships within the team are maintained
• Implementer: The practical thinker - creates systems and
processes
• Completer Finisher: The details person & get the job done!
• Specialist: brings 'specialist' knowledge to the team
Paper Tower Challenge
The object of the game is to build the highest tower with the materials you have
within the time frame. Additional points will be awarded for any interesting design
features you may wish to add. The team with the highest score wins!
Rules – Your tower must be able to stand on its own, it cannot be attached to anything
such as the ceiling, table or a person!
Each team will have the following:
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1 x newspaper
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Masking / Sellotape
You have 15 mins!!
Scoring – 1pt for each centimetre of height, 10 bonus points for each interesting
design feature, 10 bonus points awarded for the tallest structure.
Belbin Roles
Do you think you might have taken on one or more of the roles?
Do you think there were any key roles missing from your team?
Do you consider any of the roles more important compared to
the other roles?
Would you do anything different as a team if you had to do a
similar task again?
Psychometric Tests & Your own
development
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Beneficial to assessing own skills and development needs
Used to determine career paths / areas of job satisfaction
Used as a tool in Career Coaching
Free versions online
Learning Style, Myers-Briggs (MBIT), Belbin, Emotional
Intelligence, Type A/Type B persons, etc…
• Used as part of CPD
Online Resources
Psychometric Test Practice
www.practiceaptitudetests.com
www.jobtestprep.co.uk
www.psychometric-success.com
www.testpartnership.com (paid for)
www.psychometricinstitute.com.au
Online Resources
Myers-Briggs (MBIT)
www.humanmetrics.com
www.16personalities.com
Type A / B (linked to stress)
www.psych.uncc.edu/pagoolka/TypeA-B-intro.html
Learning Styles
http://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/
Handouts – Belbin and Learning Styles Questionnaire
Summary
• Psychometric tests are popular in recruitment, but used for a
range of other activities
• Can be beneficial for assessing your own development needs
• Get to know your strengths and areas of development
• Psychometric Tests = Don’t panic, practice, enjoy and ask for
feedback!
Contact us
@MarjonUnderGrd
UnderGroundatMarjon
e: underground@marjon.ac.uk