Submitted by wedmondson on
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How useful are psychometric and other personality based analysis tools in the hiring process?
More particularly, has anyone found these types of tools helpful in matching job candidates to a role or company? Have you experienced better retention rates and productivity or is it a wasted effort to go through personality testing?
It seems like it would be useful if we could better match candidates to roles through careful personality analysis but I don't have enough experience with this type of tool to know if they are accurate enough to be helpful.
I used to work for one of
I used to work for one of the companies that publishes such tests. There are quite a few out there, but the ones that do the best job of describing a person's personality traits need to be administered and interepreted by a psychologist...many of the ones that don't are easy to fake your way through. Plus, there's still the difference between personality traits and behaviors, and that's not a small thing. For instance, a psychometric test is going to tell you that I am an introvert by nature, and prefer to work independently when possible. But at work I spend time every day building relationships and working together on projects and tasks, and I'm pretty good at it. There's a big difference between what most psychometric tests can tell you about a person's personality and what that person will actually *do* at work.
That's why Mark & Mike like the DISC so much. DISC is more about behavior and communication. And it's also why they ofer the Interview Creation Tool, where you can describe the behaviors necessary in the role you're looking to fill, and it helps you design interview questions that will help you determine whether a candidate has the right behaviors. I think you'll get a lot more bang for your buck using those two tools than you will on the other psychometric testing available via an IO Psychologist.
A useful site
This blog has lots of information about psychometric testing and how effective it is: www.onetest.com.au/home/blog