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Career News Careers: Gain a Psychological Advantage By: Lindsay Wood Assessments are a fundamental part of the hiring process "By trying to manipulate a test, I messed up the opportunity to shine." Because quality hiring is such an issue in today's workplace Recruiters are increasingly incorporating personality and psychological testing into the interview process in order to separate the men from the boys. Evaluations during the recruitment process may help employers ensure better productivity, reduce absenteeism and fight high turnover rates. Those goals have given pre-employment assessments a push. So, do they work? The distinguished ones do, according to Mark Parkinson, occupational psychologist and author of How To Master Psychometric Tests (Kogan Page). "Personality tests are a part of the new trend towards psychometric testing and are constantly being improved." Assessments are a fundamental part of the hiring process For many employment seekers, assessments are a fundamental part of the hiring process. From personality assessments to integrity evaluations, pre-employment testing is on the increase. For job seekers, the tests they take during the hiring process can be integral to determining whether they and the company are a right fit. The reasons why businesses give tests are varied, but most can be traced back to a desire to predict employee performance. Detailed measurement of this kind is ideal for the millennial workplace, where different industries and roles require increasingly different management styles. Personality tests are far less prone to bias or discrimination than interviews because race, disability and sex are not known at the time of the test. Employers are also fighting the resume cheats. Firms often offer extra hurdles like aptitude tests, psychometric tests or exercises that display interpersonal skills, along with up to three or four lengthy interviews to decrease their reliance on the resume. As many as 25 percent of applications and resumes contain a major falsehood, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. "Someone trying to mislead will frequently not get the details right -- cover up dates, exaggerate titles, lie about academic degrees." The Institute of Personnel and Development also says economy with the truth in CVs is an "increasing problem". "By trying to manipulate a test, I messed up the opportunity to shine." So, can you blag your way through personality tests? "Definitely not," says Maria Ramos, a business school graduate who has sat through four in the last three months. "In my first test, I made the mistake of putting down the answers I thought the interviewer wanted to hear. And because they're so carefully designed, I ended up contradicting myself. I wasn't surprised when I didn't get the job." It was ironic, she says. "By trying to manipulate a test, I messed up the opportunity to shine." Advisors to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, agree honesty is always the best policy. The tests use several ways to get around candidates who think they can outwit the evaluation. Questionnaires used for recruitment purposes should always be followed by interviews. Employers will never get the whole picture without face-to-face contact. The honesty comes out in the test, which, in turn, helps the recruiter see past the barriers that may be prevalent in the interview. The interview, in other words, should still be the chief recruitment tool and experts say a personality profile should count for about 25 percent of the hiring decision. Personality-profiling advocates believe that a good test should focus strictly on work-related matters. They assert that a test can be counterproductive if it wanders into personal territory and examines characteristics that have no bearing on job performance. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has guidelines to protect against possible biases based on gender, race or ethnicity. Companies need to be diligent in their anti-discriminatory efforts, but fear of legal ramifications should not keep employers from trying pre-employment testing. Only two percent of employment lawsuits relate to personnel testing. Companies increasingly use personality tests even after you've got the job. This is particularly prevalent with graduate recruitment schemes. The employer has got as far as knowing they want you on their corporate team. But they're not sure exactly where. An American Management Association survey earlier this year found some executive recruiters said the focus of such testing could be shifting from the rank-and-file toward industry leaders. In fact, some experts estimate that about 25 percent of executive searches now incorporate personality testing, and a few expect that percentage to grow as investors become increasingly concerned about the quality of senior management. Testing is just one step to help clients predict whether a candidate can fit into the corporate culture, carry out the job, and work well with his or her new boss. Advocates of personality profiling say it's a valuable reality check when viewed in the context of a candidate's references and interviews. Because quality hiring is such an issue in today's workplace No matter the type of assessment, they can improve the efficiency of a company's hiring process. Companies need to be sure that their evaluations are job-related. It is also a company's responsibility to keep results confidential. Because quality hiring is such an issue in today's workplace, more companies are turning to professionals to help them make the most of their recruitment processes. © Copyright 2001. Galt Western Personnel Ltd. Unless otherwise specified, you may reprint this article, quote from it, use it in research or projects, duplicate it or distribute it. Credit of authorship and source MUST be given to galtglobalreview.com. Ownership of Copyright remains with Galt Western Personnel Ltd.     Return to Top      Business News / Business Roundup - Australia / Canada / Europe / United States / Careers / Classified / Information Technology / New Technology / Education News / World Facts / Book Reviews / Archives/Research