This document discusses the use of psychometric tools in competency-based recruitment. It describes various psychometric assessments like ability tests, aptitude tests, and personality tests that measure cognitive, behavioral and personality traits. Specific personality tests discussed include the 16PF test, DISC test, Leadership Opinion Questionnaire, and Emotional Quotient test. The benefits of psychometric tests include adding objectivity and fairness to the selection process. However, they still require careful interpretation and are not foolproof. The document advocates using a combination of competency-based interviews and psychometric tests for optimal recruitment.

1. PSYCHOMETRIC TOOLS IN
COMPETENCY BASED
RECRUITMENT
Priti Mudgal

2. Methods of Competency Based
Recruitment
 Competency Based Interview
 Psychometric Testing
 Group Discussions
 Role Plays
 Work simulation tests
 Group exercises
 Presentations
 Assessment Centers

3. “Organizations tend to recruit
people for their technical
skills, but fire them for their
personalities”

4. Interview as the sole method

5. What is a psychometric
assessment?
Tests, exercises or questionnaires, designed by
psychologists, which measure
cognitive, behavioral and personality
constructs of an individual

6. The types of psychometric
assessment
Psychometric Assessment
Ability Tests Aptitude Tests
Personality Tests

7. Ability Testing…
 Measures a persons potential
 Focus is on potential
 Ability tests composes of
numerical, verbal, and spatial ability scales
brought together
 Numerical reasoning, numerical
analysis, numerical estimation, verbal
reasoning, verbal analysis, verbal
application, verbal evaluation, data
interpretation, verbal comprehension, visual
estimation

8. Aptitude Testing…
 Aptitude refers to specific ability
 Aptitude tests tend to be job related

9. Personality Testing…
 Personality can be defined as those relatively
stable and enduring aspects of an individual
which distinguishes them from other
people, making them unique, but which at the
same time permit a comparison between
individuals

10. PURPOSE
 Recruitment & Selection
 Personal Development
 Team Building
 Succession planning
 Organisational change

11. Questions asked in Personality
Testing
 How you relate to other people
 Your work style
 Your ability to deal with emotions
 Your motivation, determination, & general
outlook
 Your ability to handle stressful situations

12. Personality tests used in
recruitment
 16PF
 Leadership Opinion Questionnaire
 DISC Test
 EQ Test

13. 16PF Test
 Thousands of traits were condensed down to
16 primary traits using factor analysis
Warmth Reasoning Emotional
stability
Dominance Liveliness Rule
Consciousness
Social Boldness Sensitivity Vigilance
Self-Reliance Privateness Perfectionism
Abstractedness Apprehensi- Tension
Openness to veness

14. Global Factors
FACTOR DESCRIPTORS
 Extraversion Introverted, Extroverted,
socially inhibtd socially
participative
 Anxiety Low anxiety, Easily
worried, tense
unpertubed
 Tough-mindedness Open
minded, Resolute&determined
receptive 2 ideas
 Independence accomodating & Independent &

15. Key features of 16 PF
 Easy to administer, requires only 35-50 mins to
complete
 Five distinct report options
 Relationship between the test items and traits
measured by the 16PF instrument is not
obvious
 Paper and pen, or computer administration

16. DISC Test
 A four quadrant behavior model based on the
work of William Moulton Marston
 Assessments classify four aspects of behavior
by testing a person’s preferences in word
associations
 Dominance-relating to
control, power, assertiveness
 Influence-relating to social situations &
communication
 Steadiness-
patience, persistence, thoughtfulness

17. D&I=Extrovert D&C=Task focused
C&S=Introvert S&I = Social
Aspects

18. Key features of DISC
 Each DISC consists of 24 questions with four
options
 Takes very little time to complete-10 to 20 mins
 Information thus collected is collated and 3
final graphs are made-Internal profile, External
profile, and summary profile

19. Leadership Opinion
Questionnaire
 A self assessment tool for managers that
provides insight into how they relate to their
supervisees on two dimensions-considerations
& structure
 Percentile scores are reported for each of the
dimensions

20. Emotional Quotient Test
 Self-awareness
 Emotional resilience
 Motivation
 Interpersonal sensitivity
 Influence & persuasion
 Decisiveness
 Conscientiousness & integrity

21. Necessities of a psychometric
test
 objective
 Standardized
 Reliable
 Predictive
 Non-discriminatory

22. Why use psychometric tests?
 Cost of a bad hire
 Failure of traditional techniques
 Saves time, effort, and money
 Objective and fair practice
 Better hiring decisions
 Hire the best

23. Benefits
 Candidate gets insight into work style and
strengths
 Adds to fairness of selection process
 Candidates can utilize feedback for
development purpose
 Great deal of accuracy about suitability

24.  However not a fool proof or altogether
objective method-subjective to human error in
case of interpretation
 Best method-mix of competency based
interview with psychometric test

25. Still…
 Expensive
 Difficult to understand
 Difficult to interpret & easy to misinterpret

26. A Summary
 Come out with the competencies required for
the job
 Use the psychometric tests on the existing
employees to check its validity
 The psychometric test scores of candidates
can be compared with the ideal scores
 Selected candidates can be interviewed

27. Assessment Centers
 Most effective tool used for assessing
individuals in both individual and group based
environments for selection or development
 Assessment Center actually refers to an
approach
 Involves participants completing a range of
exercises which simulate the activities carried
out in the target job

28. Assessment Centers…
 Have a pass/fail criteria
 Are geared towards filling a job vacancy
 Address an immediate organisational need
 Have fewer assessors and more participants
 Focus on what the candidate can do now
 Place emphasis on selection with little or no
development feedback and follow up
 Tend to be used with external candidates

29. Thank You!