The recruitment process typically assesses potential applicants through stages like scanning resumes, doing reference checks and conducting interviews. But some HR managers have gone a step ahead by using psychometric tests.
Psychometric tests evaluate aptitudes and personality profiles of employees or potential candidates. Such tests help in screening candidates at the first stage of recruitment, in the selection of candidates at the final stage, and to gain information about employees.
Though psychometric tests are popular in many industries, there are several issues that HR managers must consider when deciding to use such tests? So, care must be taken while deciding on testing like Mettl Psychometric Assessment.
Some potential issues are simply practical. For one, there are many psychometric tests in the market, and the tough task before the manager is how to select the best one suited to his needs. Then, care must be taken for the proper administration of the test. Lastly, relying excessively on psychometric testing and ignoring other methods of recruitment can result in inadvertent missing out on good candidates.
Here are some other legal issues involving psychometric testing:
Issues of Human Rights
Legislation of human rights disallows employers from making decisions regarding candidates based on discriminatory grounds like disability, family status, religious belief or place of origin. For instance, employers cannot question job applicants about their mental health background or religious beliefs. Some kinds of psychometric testing can cause a complaint of human rights in case candidates have been excluded from a job opportunity based on modes of discrimination which are prohibited.
These may be:
- Direct discrimination
In case of psychometric tests, direct questions may be asked or indirect information may be gathered about mental health of candidates, religious beliefs or family relationships.
- Indirect discrimination
Sometimes, psychometric tests may be criticized for excluding candidates on the basis of prohibited grounds of discrimination like ethnic background or race. This emerges as a problem when tests are used to measure leadership traits or fit in company culture.
Privacy
Basically, psychometric tests deal with collating personal information about a candidate. Such personal information is by nature highly sensitive. The manager must take great care about privacy rights of candidates. Proper consent must be obtained before administering such tests as well as for the use of information gained by such tests.
An employer should properly identify the reason for collecting information. He must also ensure that information gathered is related to that purpose. Information needs to be collected according to the consent of the candidate.
For example, it would be unsuitable for an employer to gain consent to administer a psychometric test under the guise of a team-building exercise and without the knowledge of the employee, use the test results to decide on which candidate to promote in the workplace.
Finally, information obtained in this manner must be kept safe, so that is not accessed by a third party or misused.
In sum, employers wishing to use psychometric testing must do their proper homework. Any of the tests should be on the basis of reputable research and must comply with standards as per a human rights perspective. The tests must be implemented fairly and must address concerns of privacy.
While psychometric tests are useful, it should be only one criterion for making the decision for recruitment.
