Improve Your HR Decisions with Online Psychometric Assessment

Leadership Development Improve Your HR Decisions with Online Psychometric Assessment Andreas Lohff, Founder and Director of the cut-e Group I t is hard to differentiate between the should meet key quality criteria. ‘good’, the ‘bad’ and the ‘ugly’ Objectivity, reliability and validity are the among the myriad of recruitment and three key words - but what do they selection services and tools and mean? instruments offered today. Andreas Lohff, founder and director of the cut-e • Objectivity Group, explains where online Objectivity refers to the extent to psychometrics can add the most value which the diagnostic results are and how to avoid instrument selection independent of the investigator. pitfalls. Objectivity is achieved through standardisation - from the administration When is online assessment of the test through to scoring and useful? interpreting the results. As technology and the Internet have spread, so has the application of online • Reliability psychometric assessment. In some Reliability, sometimes also termed situations, however, online assessment is Andreas Lohff accuracy, is the extent to which a particularly useful and adds a lot of value diagnostic instrument shows consistent while saving costs: autonomously. This simplifies results in repeated application. In other organisational structures, saves resources words, does it measure the same thing • When implementing consistent and accelerates decisions. again and again? Although there are no standards in local or dispersed completely reliable instruments, selection processes • Small pool of candidates realistically you shouldn’t accept a • When speed is of the essence; for Online assessment can be very helpful reliability value under 0.7. In the case of example, if competing for a select few whenever there are only few appropriate questionnaires, the ideal value lies candidates within a small talent pool candidates for a vacancy, as often is the between 0.75 and 0.85; for ability tests, • When you need a reliable way to sift case with specialist profiles, eg, in the it is between 0.8 and 0.9. out unsuitable candidates early on engineering and IT sectors. In order to from a large number of people to save engage interesting candidates, a fast • Validity time and resources, enabling you to reaction and an efficient selection Validity is a statement of how far the focus on those with real potential. process are necessary. Online assessment test measures what it is designed to helps identify good candidates very measure. To what degree of certainty Let’s look at these situations in more quickly and helps recruiters to decide can conclusions be drawn from the detail. where to focus their time. testing behaviour to the behaviour outside the test situation? A valid • Managed delegation • Finding a needle in a haystack intelligence test, for example, provides a Online diagnostics are often used Online assessment plays an especially way of measuring the intelligence of a when selection strategies are developed important and resource-saving role person and therefore allows a prediction centrally yet executed locally; for when screening large pools of of performance in situations in which example, when sales people, service staff applicants, such as graduates. The online intelligence is important. or field technicians need to be selected assessment acts as a filter to detect and An instrument with perfect validity at different locations. disqualify unsuitable candidates from a would have a validity coefficient of With the help of online assessment, it pre-selected candidate pool. 1.00. As with reliability, this value is is easier to set and implement specific unrealistically utopian. Nevertheless, selection standards. In other words, to How do you know which diagnostic instruments can be control the selection process centrally, instruments to choose? considered good with a value of at while allowing local departments to act Excellent psychometric instruments least 0.3. 1 CEO TODAY Leadership Development Quality criteria for psychometric tests and questionnaires very few attempts to cheat during our 1 DIN 33430 establishes consistent standards for diagnostic instruments. It contains all test procedures. important criteria and requirements concerning the instruments and the process. 2 Similar guidelines exist from the International Test Commission (ITC: The right business partner www.intestcom.org) and from the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations So far we have covered the situations (EFPA: www.efpa.be). in which psychometric assessment can 3 A recommended book, DIN-Screen (Kersting, 2007), contains a detailed overview about be used, the importance of quality how to use DIN 33430 with respect to the evaluation of test procedures. criteria and what to look out for when Additional criteria for online for each test. Each test is generated choosing your instruments - particularly testing uniquely for each candidate, once only, concerning online testing. Often the real It is essential that the procedures in at the start of the test. Another candidate value of psychometric assessment comes online instruments are self-explanatory applying for the same job at the same from working with an experienced and have enough sequences of company taking the ‘same’ test would business partner to ensure that your interactive examples. Hardware receive a completely different test business objectives are met in the best independence also plays a big role. For consisting of other exercises. In this way, possible way. example, a candidate with a faster no sample solutions can be circulated Consider whether your potential Internet connection must not have an and no repetition effect occurs. supplier is experienced and able to turn advantage over another with a slower that experience into value for money for connection. Quality certifications from Retesting to mitigate you. Can the supplier integrate the tests independent associations can be a good replacement cheating you need with any existing HR workflow orientation guide for companies. Companies are also concerned that or information systems? Is the supplier candidates taking tests unsupervised in able to think out of the box and keep How cheat-proof are online their own home will ask a more talented your specific challenge at the forefront? tests? friend to take the test in their place. As Can your corporate competency model, Cut-e is often asked this question. online tests are particularly effective in brand and values be integrated in the Companies have two main concerns, pre-selection where the objective is test reports - quickly and at a reasonable online plagiarism and replacement ‘negative’ selection - identifying non- price? Can your supplier turnaround cheating.