psychological tests of recruitment english

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Psychological tests of recruitmentPublished in Success and Career, 2004

Would you like to find the right employer for yourcareer? Then you have something in common withhim.

Human faculties are at the basis of any successfulcorporation. Bill Gates himselfdeclared that without his 0 top notchcollea!ues, "icrosoft would only be amediocre company. #he $uestionis how do we find for a certainposition, the re$uired talents%

Psycholo!ical tests can be auseful and pertinent tool ifchosen appropriately and usedcorrectly. &n Swit'erland, thesetests are not used as fre$uentlyas in countries such asGermany and (merica, wheresuch tests ha)e a lon! tradition. &thas been found that rou!hly *+ of Swisscorporations use personality tests durin! theirrecruitment phase. "ultinationals are apparentlymore open to these methods, but there also is a!eo!raphical di)ide. &t seems that the SwissGerman are more fa)orable to these techni$uesthan the Swiss -omands.

#hese reser)ations howe)er, are pro!ressi)elybein! reduced due to the fact that most directors ofhuman resources ha)e a de!ree or a minor inpsycholo!y and that the tools offered ha)e beenenhanced and ha)e been adapted to the corporateworld. et, certain preconceptions are resilient andwould li/e that psycholo!y remain only in thedomain of health care, whilst courses in industrialpsycholo!y eist in the 1nited States since *0.

#he contet of the recruitment test.

3hen the need for additional personnel is felt in acorporation, and that the economic circumstancespermit it, the Human -esources department may becalled upon to recruit new staff.

( description of the position is created includin! the$ualities and $ualifications that are needed to fulfillthis position. #he $ualifications can be bothtechnical lan!ua!es, computer literacy etc56 ornon7technical. #he latter is less often mentioned inthe 8ob description that you may ha)e read in thepaper than the former. Howe)er, it may be 8ust asimportant in the recruitment criteria. Psycholo!ical tests are precisely desi!ned to shedli!ht on the latter part. #hese tests can co)er )ariouselements such as lo!ic, stress resistance, and

or!ani'ational s/ills such as client orientation,communication s/ills or leadership s/ills.

#he recruiter in house or head hunter6 will in !eneralchoose the candidate whose profile inferred by aninter)iew and e)entually a recruitment test or othermethod6 matches the most the criteria desi!ned forthat certain position.

9istin! Psycholo!ical #estsSocial comparison is a normal human reaction.

#herefore it is not surprisin! that such a plethora ofpsycholo!ical tests are a)ailable on the mar/et, ofwhich recruitment tests are a part of. Some testsinspire themsel)es from the psychoanalytic traditionauthors such as :reud, ;un!, <lein, =acan6, andothers from neurolo!ical theories, but the ma8orityrefer to theories of psycholo!y of the personalityauthors such as Cattell, 9ysenc/ or (llport6.Personality tests measure a certain number ofpersonality dimensions in !eneral >, /nown as the?bi! >@6. (spects such as if you are an etro)ert, yourconscious character, or your aniety le)els areanaly'ed. #he results create a personality profile thatcan be matched with the 8ob openin! or withthe eistin! team, within which the 8ob lies.

(n intro)erted sales person wouldha)e a difficult time approachin! hispotential clients.

Co!niti)e tests eplore differentaptitudes such as numeric, spatial,

)erbal, lo!ic or the memory. #hecommon denominator of all these

aptitudes is called the ?! factor@authors such as Spearman,

Cattell6A this is what the test tryand measure.

3e ha)e all heard of & tests. #he first & test was

created by a :renchman, (lfred Binet *+>7***6.#oday, these tests ha)e lost their cultural biases,thou!h some contro)ersy subsists6 and constitute!ood indicators of academic and professionalsuccess.

#he last decades, ha)in! shown and proclaimed theimportance of emotional competency authors such as"ayer , Salo)ey and Goleman6, numerous tests try tomeasure this with more or less successthis themewas pre)iously co)ered in the 20072004 edition ofSuccess D Career by #an8a 3rani/7Edehnal andFidier Grand8ean6. Se)eral studiesindicate that emotional competency

is a !ood indicator offuture success or failurein the wor/place. (n



irrational or unstable mana!er constitutes a potentialproblem for his collea!ues. (n air controller thatwould become o)erwhelmed by stress to the point

of losin! control in front of his monitors, representsa dan!er for the security of passen!ers in a criticalsituation. Ether tests try and measure theenthusiasm of candidates, his professional orhuman )alues, his social s/ills or his potentialleadership s/ills. 9ach domain whether co!niti)e,emotional, )alues, leadership and so forth6 brin!certain pieces of information. #here also eist a fewe)aluation tools that co)er many domains andwhose )alidity is hi!her than isolated test. But whateactly is meant by the )alidity of a test%

alidity&n Swit'erland, the :ederal ;ud!e for the protection

of information, with reference to the federal law onthe protection of information of the * ;une *2=:PF7*26, states ?that one must be )i!ilant thatthe e)aluation must render ob8ecti)e results, whichare both trustworthy and )alid@. #he law onlyauthori'es recruitment tests if they are ?carried outand analy'ed by professionals@. Howe)er, is this,the case in reality%

3hether psycholo!ical recruitment test are )alid, isa comple $uestion for amateurs. #o simplify thematter, one must test the test. :rom a scientific pointof )iew, this impliesI

• The test must measure

appropriately what it pretends it measures.

• The test must measure all aspects

of what it pretends to measure.

• The test must give relatively

consistent outputs at different time intervalswith the same persons.

• The candidate must judge the test

relevant to the attribution of the job.

• The test must (in a quantifiable way)

predict the probability of success thecandidate has for that particular job opening.

#he last point is the most crucial. -e!ardless towhether the test is deemed serious or not, theimportance is that the test predicts the successof the candidate. #o employ the wron! personin a senior mana!ement position can cost acorporation up to *00,000 CH: recruitment,head hunter, salary, bad performance,redundancy and outplacement6, withoutmentionin! the indirect effects low morale,turn7o)er, loss of competiti)e ed!e etc56. (scientific approach consists simply ofcalculatin! the lin/ the correlation6 between theresults of the psycholo!ical test and theperformance in the wor/place further in timemonths or years6. Here are the predicti)eresults of a series of methods, based on the

results of se)eral studies carried out in the (n!lo7Saon world.

Perfect prediction *.00 (ssessment Centers 0.J+Co!niti)e (ptitude #ests 0.>4Structured &nter)iew 0.44Personality #ests 0.+

(uto79)aluation 0.*>-eferencesK-ecommendations 0.*Grapholo!y 0.00

(strolo!y 0.00-andom Prediction 0.00

(s you will notice, (ssessment Centers ha)e thehi!hest )alidity. #hey use a multi7an!le approachco!niti)e, emotional, and personality tests6 andse)eral methods such as $uestionnaires, inter)iews,

situation analysis6. Structured inter)iews are also a)alid method of selection. Howe)er, the results showno )alidity for methods such as !rapholo!y which isused by of :rench corporations6, astrolo!y ornumerolo!y. #hus such tests would not be consistentwith the law =:PF7*2.#hou!h the e)aluation method is crucial, one must notne!lect the importance of the $ualifications and theeperience of the e)aluator. &deally, this personshould ha)e theoretical /nowled!e of psycholo!y aswell as a professional eperience in the wor/place.#he )alidity of the test does not !uarantee that thetest was carried out correctly.

9thics3e can distin!uish at least three points of analysisthat relate to ethics in the realm of recruitment tests.#he first point is lin/ed to the test itself. #he =:PF7*2 law stipulates that the recruitment test ?cannotin)ade the pri)acy of the candidate@. #hus, one canrefuse to answer any $uestions that one deems tooin)asi)e. Ha)in! re)iewed the )alidity, the ob8ecti)ityand the reliability of the tests abo)e, we must nowconsider the ethical implications of usin! recruitmenttests. Can a moderator be ethical% (ccordin! tose)eral sur)eys this is the case in astrolo!y.

#he second point has to do with theperson or corporation that is conductin!

the test. #he =:PF7*2 law stipulatesthat the test cannot be carried out without

the epressed consent of the candidate orwithout informin! them of the point ofthe test. #hus, each candidate has the

ri!ht to research the test, or refuseit. :urthermore the law states

that each candidate must ha)eaccess to his or her results andinsists on the professionalism of the

moderator. ou may thereforedemand your test results, which may

well be )ery informati)e.Le)ertheless, the corporation

reser)es the ri!ht to select anothercandidate than you, re!ardless to whether you scoredhi!her on the test. "oreo)er, all other results are



confidential and you will only be allowed to accessyour results.#he third point concerns the candidate itself. #he

candidate may decide to !i)e insincere answers ormay as/ for the help of a third party. Howe)er, mosttests are hard to tric/ as they analy'e the coherenceof all the answers or as/ $uestions apparentlywithout connection with the dimensions that theymeasure.:urthermore, it is not in the interest of the candidateto be !i)en a 8ob that does not correspond to itsprofile dissatisfaction, loss of enthusiasm,depression etc56 or that will lead him to aprofessional failure loss of confidence, ne!ati)ereferences, redundancy etc56.

Conclusions for the 8ob candidate

Psycholo!ical recruitment tests, if correctly desi!nedand run by competent professionals, constitute anopportunity for the corporation and the candidate to/now him better. ( serious attitude must bedemanded from both parties howe)er. #here isnonetheless, no point in worryin! about such tests,as free moc/ tests are a)ailable on the &nternet.

&t must be clear that thou!h these tests help choosethe most ade$uate person for the 8ob, they arene)er *00 error proof. #hus, do not hesitate tochallen!e the results if you belie)e they do notreflect your personality. #his can e)en show acertain amount of self confidence that certainemployers appreciate. Howe)er, be open7minded tothe fact that thou!h some results may di)er!e fromyour opinion of yourself, they may be actually becorrect. #o admit that you may need to impro)esome s/ills is a constructi)e attitude to adopt, andmay enhance your potential career future.

(lastair Coull, Ph.F.HR FOCUS consultant

psychological tests of recruitment english

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