PSYCHOMETRICS

Measuring attributes like height, weight, and strength is reasonably simple. These are all physical and observable traits that you can assess objectively. But what about factors that aren't so easy to measure?

Traits such as personality, intelligence, attitude, and beliefs are important characteristics to measure and assess. Whether you're hiring people, helping team members understand themselves and their relationships with others, or trying to figure out what you want to do with your life, it's useful to assess these types of "hidden," less obvious attributes.

One way to gather this information is through psychometric tests. Psychometric tests include personality profiles, reasoning tests, motivation questionnaires, and ability assessments. These tests try to provide objective data for otherwise subjective measurements. For example, if you want to determine someone's attitude, you can ask the person directly, observe the person in action, or even gather observations about the person from other people. However, all of these methods can be affected by personal bias and perspective. By using a psychometric test, you make a more objective and impartial judgment.

Personality: how people are typically likely to act. This covers a huge range of aspects from people's motivations and values to how they characteristically react to authority and their honesty or integrity. Behavioural and personality models are widely used in organisations. Used appropriately, psychometrics and personality tests can be hugely beneficial in improving knowledge of self and other people – it is also the key to unlocking elusive human qualities, for example leadership, motivation, empathy, strengths, weaknesses, preferred thinking and working styles. Different people have different strengths and needs. Understanding personality is also the key to unlocking elusive human qualities.

Tests are used to recruit new staff; identify people with the potential to be promoted and developed; counsel staff who are under-performing; put teams together; coaching, identify stress factors in an organisation; decide on the best organisational structure; create incentive programmes that really motivate - any decision about people individually or people in groups.

Continued on page 2...