Best Practices

Many organisations use some form of psychometric assessment as a part of their selection and career development processes. The purpose of this page is to shed a little light on the nature and use of best practice psychometric testing to accurately measure an individual’s work suitability or assess ones relevant strengths and weaknesses.

Psychometric testing best practice requires measuring each individual on two broad categories:

1. Abilities and aptitudes

Measures of ability and aptitude have been shown to be excellent indicators of future job performance. Consequently they should be used as a part of any psychometric assessment process to help improve the overall quality of a selection or a career development decision. Ability tests measure several facit of intelligence which were found to be predictors of job performance:

1.1 Fluid Intelligence – Fluid intelligence is tied to biology. It is defined as our "on-the-spot reasoning ability, a skill not basically dependant on our experience." (Belsky, 1990, p. 125). Fluid intelligence is the ability to develop techniques for problem solving that are new and unusual. Fluid Intelligence is best measured using conceptual reasoning.

1.2 Crystallised Intelligence - Crystallised intelligence is defined as the ability to bring previously acquired, culturally defined problem-solving skills to solve current problems. Crystallised Intelligence is best measured using verbal and numerical reasoning.

1.3 Emotional Intelligence - Emotional intelligence is a broad concept, which involves the ability to identify emotions in yourself and others, to be able to manage those emotions and to use them to promote personal growth or build strong relationships with strategic stakeholders. Emotional Intelligence is commonly accepted as an important part of real-world interpersonal skills, management, and goal-setting.

In line with best practice, test designers should choose the ability tests based on their fit with the role’s core competencies as well as the company’s culture.

2. Personality and behavioural style profile

The way that a person performs in a job does not depend solely upon ability; their personality also plays an important part. Used in conjunction with other measures and assessments personality measures provides a useful insight into an individual's style and how they see themselves in terms of their fundamental characteristics.

In line with best practice the personality test should measure the personality attributes that are relevant to job performance and company’s culture.