GSBS6507 Activity 2.

Selection Tools – Psychometric Testing

Different psychometric tools include aptitude and personality testing for recruitment purposes.
Cognitive testing for verbal, numerical, and reasoning ability is the most common and relevant to
matching the person with job needs. The most controversial is personality testing which is designed
to test people’s honesty, values, stress under pressure, personality – job fit, and potential emotional
disorders. One of the most common is the Myer’s – Briggs (MBTI) personality test used in a growing
number of industries. However, many argue that these tests are inaccurate and prone to many
biases such as, construct, method, or item bias depending on many variables like nature of work
environment and culture. Another problem is people answering dishonestly by self-reporting
themselves to fit the ideal candidate profile knowing that they are actually different. Personality
testing is more relevant when recruiting for the police, paramedic, military, pilot, type role where
calmness under pressure is important, but not for the average office job. For most ordinary jobs the
potential benefits of testing by trained professionals does not justify the cost incurred by the
company. In this case, psychometric testing for a job in HR is not necessary, simple cognitive tasks,
and mental agility are adequate when backed up by prior work experience and references.