Posts tagged "HR"

Psychometrics

Psychometrics and Organizations

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“The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined efforts of each individual.” Vince Lombardi

The world is becoming smaller and more competitive by the day. As high quality resources become scarcer, organizations are facing a multitude of performance and productivity related issues. In the last decade or so there has been an ever increasing focus on human resources (HR) function in organizations, primarily because people are finally being seen as an organization’s most valuable asset. Psychometrics provides organizations with comprehensive information regarding understanding this asset. Listed below are some ways psychometrics could benefit organizations.

1. Better placement: Using a wide variety of tests available in the market place, helps to identify positions which are more suited to particular individuals. At work, most of the time we adapt to the environment, culture and the sort of work we do. Sometimes we get lucky and actually enjoy what we do, other times the clock doesn’t move fast enough. Through psychometrics, HR could essentially become more adept in placing individuals with greater accuracy, increasing productivity, efficiency and employee morale.

2. Team building: Tests such as the MBTi provide HR the ability to understand team dynamics with a greater level of insight. These tests provide HR with the ability to gauge interpersonal styles of an individual, how they like to receive information, what factors affect their decision making and how they structure their lives. Using this data helps create teams who are better able to understand each other, work more effectively and most importantly, execute. 

3. Decreased retention: When individuals enjoy the type of work they do, enjoy the people they work with, a natural increase in productivity, efficiency and morale is a natural outcome. I have personally noticed that when individuals or teams reach such a stage, attrition levels fall. This results in massive cost savings for organizations and can actually convert into a strong competitive advantage in the world we live in today.

Listed above are some reasons why your organization should look into psychometrics. It is important to note that the benefits listed above are not solely derived from psychometrics, they can be achieved when senior management makes a commitment to making their HR function more strategic. Training development and coaching are integral parts of the mix, together with psychometrics they help you form a strong bond with your employee and lay the foundation for a strong organization.

 

Psychometrics

Psychometrics and You

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“Personality is only ripe when a man has made the truth his own.” Soren Kierkegaard

Understanding oneself is a major step that has to be undertaken to create change in ones life. To be successful and achieve set goals, it is vital to identify one’s strengths, weaknesses and limitations. Psychometrics does not provide you with all the answers, but what it does, is help make the abstract concepts of personality more tangible. Listed below are a few ways that specific psychometric personality assessments could aid and benefit growth.

1. Identification of strengths: Tests such as strength finder highlight and bring greater emphasis to your strengths. From childhood, aspects of our lives which were weakest got the most attention, for example if you were exceptional at english literature and not the greatest at math, a lot of energy used to go into making your math skills better at the expense of developing your skills in literature further. Through psychometrics and targeted assessment we can identify areas of exceptional skills and focus on developing them further.

2. Identification of drivers: Tests such as the values & motives inventory provide specific reports which show what motivates you and what sort of entrepreneurial or career paths you may be more suited towards. These can be really insightful and help you focus your energy on paths where you may be more inclined to follow with more accuracy.

3. Work environment preferences: Tests such as the 15FQ+ provide tremendous insight into the sort of team player slot you are most suited for based on your preferences,the sort of leadership styles that are most effective with your personality and even how you can be more effective in communicating your thoughts and ideas. This provides a comprehensive picture of the sort of working environment that would suit you the most and how to be more effective on the path you take.

Listed above are just the few ways psychometrics can help you to understand yourself better in an objective and accurate manner. It is then upto you to use the results when you get them. Ideally you should talk them over with a trained consultant and get feedback on your report as also answers to any queries. Think of it as a giant stepping stone which provides you with the ability to understand aspects of yourself without the benefit of time and experience . 

 

Psychometrics

Types of Tests

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“At college age, you can tell who is best at taking tests and going to school, but you can’t tell who the best people are. That worries the hell out of me.” Barnaby C. Keeney

Psychometric tests can be classified in three basic categories. Each category assesses a particular aspect, whether it is personality, cognitive ability or basic interests. Listed below are the three types in some detail:

1. Personality & Values: Tests of personality and values provide a fair, objective and accurate method of predicting likely behaviour in a wide range of settings. They allow you to gather information which is not easy to gather from interviews or any other traditional means of evaluation. They give you much greater insight into character pattern of behavior, thoughts, and feelings.

2. Aptitude & Ability: These tests provide a comprehensive and in-depth measure of mental capacity. Tests in this category are designed to assess high level reasoning ability. This is a category which most of us have had more exposure to at school, entering colleges and now, even common place when applying for jobs. 

3. Development & Guidance: These tests are used to facilitate personal development, career guidance, team building and counseling. They provide candidates the ability to understand key concepts on how to interact with the rest of the world, take in information, process that information and eventually make decisions. These help greatly in areas for developing much stronger teams and making the candidate more productive and efficient.

Once again if you are asked to take or are taking a test for personal development, it is highly recommended that you ask the test provider for details regarding the reliability and validity of the test. This list will also provide you with reference for the sort of test to take to get the information you seek.

 

Psychometrics

Psychometrics Fundamentals

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“A man is but the product of his thoughts what he think, he becomes.” Mahatama Gandhi

With the introduction of psychometrics into the recruitment and evaluation process, users of this instrument have to be extremely vigilant about the tests they take or have done for their employees. There are a number of psychometric instruments in the market and on the web which do not meet or satisfy the five core fundamental characteristics of a psychometric test. The five principals are:

1. Standardized: The test needs to be administered and scored using  standard procedures to avoid any biases in the test reports. The results need to be compared to a reliable norm group as well.

2. Reliable: The reliability of a test is based on the assessment and extent of the variation in test scores, due to differences between people on the trait(s) being measured. The test results need to be consistent across people, time & situations. So if a test says you have an extroverted personality type on your first attempt and on the next attempt says you have have an introverted personality type, the test is an unreliable indicator.

3. Validity: A test is said to be valid if it measures the characteristics, which it is claims to measure. A test used for job selection should predict job performance. A test of verbal ability should predict an applicant’s ability to read and comprehend written material and not some other characteristic. 

4. Objective: The results are not biased or skewed due to personal preferences towards the test taker. For example if the test administer scores the test according to the appearance of the candidate than this would be result in an un-objective assessment.

5. Discriminating: The test should provide you with clear differences between individuals, on the characteristics which are being tested. This will help the the reports to provide a much clearer, transparent and objective assessment of the individual.

These are the five characteristics you should be look for if you plan to implement psychometrics into your organization or for personal development. All reputable test providers have this information on hand for the tests that they administer. In order to gain maximum benefit from this , vigilance needs to be taken to ensure correct and accurate results.

Psychometrics

Psychometrics is….

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“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.