“People are not homogeneous; we’re not all the same psychically, psychologically or dispositionally. There’s a huge area of psychology that’s worked to define personality as a primary basis for individual differences.” Jim Weaver

These days I am spending a great part of my time building a new company called InnovoGS. We are at the initial stages of setting up a structure and getting all the foundation blocks in place. My role in the organization is in the capacity of developing the psychometrics division. When I talk to people about psychometrics I usually get blank faces, so I thought I would briefly introduce psychometrics this week.

Psychometrics is a field of study concerned with the theory and technique of educational and psychological measurement. Measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and personality traits. It is a complex science through which we are able to quantify preferences in an objective and precise manner. Understanding the human psyche and what drives it, has always fascinated me. Through this business venture I am doing something I am passionate about. To add  to this, the market in the Asian region is relatively untapped and growing rapidly in this area . 

Being a virgin market, there is a critical requirement for education in this field which needs to be addressed. On one hand Corporate entities still view HR as an administrative department and optimizing its processes is alien to them. On the other hand individual customers have attached stigma to psychometric tests due to a multitude of scams which non credited test providers have been promoting. This makes it a challenging market environment but an interesting one nonertheless. 

When deployed correctly, with a degree of commitment and buy-in from the user of this instrument, it can impact profoundly. The insights provided from some of the tests help you to identify what really drives you, how you deal with stressful conditions, your thinking processes and even how you adapt in different workplace settings. This helps both employers and employees, specially in reaching that elusive ‘Right person for the Right job’ scenario.

I hope this week sheds some insight into Psychometrics and how it can help you or your company. If anyone has had prior experiences with such tests I would like to hear from you.