Psychometric tests free essay sample

?Introduction If a business wants to be successful, there are a lot of aspects need to be concerned. Business objectives are one of the most essential factors. Therefore, a firm needs to be very careful on their recruitment and selection process because choosing the right candidates that fit for the business could help the firm to be more likely to achieve the goals. However, it is not easy to find the right candidates due to different organizations seeking for different qualities of employees. In some business, employers pay very high attention on the ethical behavior of employee, especially some jobs require candidates to be able to handle high responsibilities. Hence, employers want to eliminate liars, cheaters and thieves before the hiring. There are a variety of methods to do that, for example, behavior-based interviews and face-to-face interviews but nowadays employers are in favor of using psychometric testing because it could save the employers’ money and quicker to find out if the candidate is right for the business or not. In this essay, we are going to analyze different issues of psychometric testing. Issues Analysis Issue 1: When is it appropriate to use psychometric tests at the workplace? It is very important to understand when is the appropriate situation to use psychometric tests. First of all. according to Shawn (as cited in Humber, 2004), some tests could help the business to identify the group of right candidates with the qualities of what the firm needs, but it doesn’t tell who is the best in the group. Therefore, if a business wants to hire the best person with the qualities they need, they still need to go through another type of assessment with that group of person, using of the psychometric tests can only eliminate those who aren’t qualify but it cannot specifically tell you who is the best. Hence, the tests can be used at the start of recruitment and selection process for shortlisting in order to reduce the unnecessary time to interview the unqualified candidates. Unless, the company has used several different kind of tests to test the candidates, it would be more accurate and this is the only time that the company do not really need to use another kind of interview to make sure the person has the right abilities that the company need. But in order hands, using more tests to test the candidates might somehow cannot achieve the goal of cost-effectiveness, therefore it’s all depend on how much the company trusts psychometric tests in use of recruitment and selection process. There are only few people who can effectively deliver the use of those tests and clearly determine the differences between those tests and other traditional interviews methods (Gray-Roberts, 2010). Accordingly, if those organizations doesn’t understand how to effectively deliver those tests to help for the recruitment and selections section, it is just a waste of time and money. It is better for them to use back the traditional interviews methods unless they have sought for the opinions from the experts to guide them. Therefore, the tests can be used when it is truly effective to help the organizations to find the right candidates. Besides recruitment and selection, the psychometric tests can be also used to identify the current employees’ strengths and weaknesses in the workplace. Those tests could provide a scientifically sound way of identifying people’ strengths and weaknesses (De Vita, 2007). It’s a great way for the business to determine if there has any need of provide training for the employees and what tasks the employees are capable to deal with. For those reasons, Psychometric tests has its valuable part for the business. To be a methods of eliminate during selection process, or cost and time effectiveness, or even to understand the abilities of the internal employees. It an excellent method for most of the organization if it can be used effectively. Issue2: Are such tests valid? Reliable? Culturally Sensitive? The validity of those tests are one of the controversial topic. Employers might think if those tests are not valid, why do we waste our money on them? According to Whieddett’s analysis (1995), he claimed that psychometric testing has a certain valid role to play in recruitment and selection as long as the users clearly understand the theory behind the practice. To measure the validity of those tests, users need to identify the requirements and what characteristics are needed for the job to search for the right candidate, it is the essential first step for those tests. And then mix different tests together that suit with the selection, if they are correlate with the performance standards in the relevant job, that means the test are valid for use. Although we try our best to make those tests valid for us to find out the right candidates for the organization, Fowler(1997) points out that there are no tests could reach 100% validity, it couldn’t be the only sole basis of consideration when choosing the candidates, we still need to consider alongside with interview, previous employment history, references and the job-simulation exercises. For that reason, even psychometric has a certain extent of validity but when it comes to decision making, the data that have been collected from those tests could only use for reference to assist the selection and should only being seen as a supportive resources. Furthermore, it is the most concern factor and have a rather strong debate over many years. We would think: is it reliable for the company to use psychometric testing in recruitment and selection process? Employers might worry about that the candidates might not be honest when they are doing the tests. Corcoran (2005) stated that some candidate has been trying to ‘fake good’. They have got a high score on their tests but however it would be indicative of a mis-match because the candidates has trying to sell themselves too hard but when they come to the interview part, the employers could easily found out the differences from the results that the candidates provide. Therefore, still it is more about assisting the decision of hiring and simplifying recruitment and selection process but cannot be the primary resources. The reliability of psychometric testing is more concerns about the honesty of candidates and how the user views about the testing but validity aspect is more concern about the effective use of type of questions and choices (Kendall-Raynor 2010). The reliability of the tests are based on the degree of how employers trust the results. They are not highly reliable due to the respondents might â€Å"fake† and choose the favorable answer to suit the organization’s need when they are not. Moreover, there are also issues concerning about culture sensitive. There is a limited cultural contexts when using the psychometric testing on recruitment and selection. Dr Elcock (as cited in Clark, 2003) claimed that western cultures are more pound of the individuality but some other cultures are more collective. Also, different companies have different working cultures and background. For example, a Chinese Company is providing a new position offer and using Psychometric tests. If a western person with a suitable ability to suit for the company but the testing results coming back stated he is an ‘individuality person’, as a Chinese company, they would not be hire this person because they are not collective person. It would causing discrimination due to the culture differences. Therefore, company hires people also need to consider range of culture questions. Especially most of the workplace environment are very diverse nowadays, they need to make sure those test are adjusted and should be able to apply on different culture. Issue3: What are the potential ethical dilemmas associated with psychological testing for employment purposes? Maintaining an ethical work practices and making decisions considering ethical factors are very essential for a business. Therefore, when we choose to use psychological testing to use in recruitment and selection process, we have to consider if there is any ethical dilemmas that we are facing. In my opinion, one the ethical dilemmas is after the candidates have done their tests and the company could assess if they are suitable for the company, but beside that, the company could also see through what kind of person the candidate is. Does the company really need to access too deep of one person privacy and is it very really that important to hire a person? Levine(1971) have defined privacy as necessary space to escape the perpetual bombardment of urban life. From that views, we could conclude that the company have no right and should not access too deep of one individual personal life. More even they haven’t hired that person yet, what is the point for a company to know too much about the person? Therefore, if a company wants to use the psychometric test for recruitment and selection process, they should really make sure they have pick the right tests and they don’t involve too much questions answer about the personal life. The tests are better more about concerning the abilities of working and performance quality. However, for some financial companies with higher requirements because they are all about dealing with money, they could still involve a bit of needed personnel information but keeping the less maybe the better. Another issue concerning is about the method of providing feedback to the candidates. Normally, the candidates would love to know what and why the company hire or not hire them. When the companies are going to reply to these candidates, they should really be careful when they provide the feedback. There are chances that the company might misunderstand the results of the tests and they have indicated that person with a personality which he is not. Therefore, a company should only provide feedback about what these tests are testing on the job performance content but do not talk about an individual personality. We should only take them as one of the test and should not only making decision based on only this part. Talking about discrimination, another issue concerning is that there might have discrimination involved in using psychological testing on recruitmet and selection process. As we stated at the cultural sensitive part, cultural differences might cause impact on those tests if they are not suitable for use for people come from different cultures. Company should not only relies on the statistical analysis alone, they might probably not accurate and incur human error. Many HR practitioners, however, have continued to use personality testing with an optimistic and enduring faith in its ability to discriminate between good and poor job candidates. (Scroggins, Thomas Morris, 2008). They have also pointed out that those with those personality tests, they could have the chance that unable to predict the job performance of the candidates. Therefore, if those tests can only tell us what is the personality of the candidates but not the job performance, why are we bother to use them? It would cause more problems if we only just rely on those tests. Also, hire a person base on their personality can be seen as a discrimination. Same as age, height, races, those kind of unchangeable factors, and a person might only be introvert. If a company choose their candidates base on this kind of personnel quality, I think it can be considered as one of the discrimination actions. A firm should really think deeply when they are using those tests, it can be touch off a bit of legal aspect. They should make sure they have seen everyone equally, otherwise they might carelessly break the law. Recommendations From the results of the issue analysis about psychometric test, we have identify when is the appropriate use, the validity and the reliability of the tests. Also, we have already looked through the culture sensitive issues and ethical dilemmas that are associated with psychometric testing. Therefore, I would like to make the recommendations on what I think if a company wants to use the psychometric testing for the recruitment and selection process. In my opinion, I would not recommend a company use this kind of tests as the unilateral factors when they really want to find the right candidates. Although these tests have been widely used in recently years and the creators also claimed that it would easily help the business to identify if a person is what the business needs or not, there are not enough evidence that telling us the tests are valid and reliable. A human mind sometimes cannot be expand through an only piece of paper. Therefore, I would rather prefer the traditional interviewing methods because it’s more reliable and can also interact with the person face to face. Also, some qualities of most of the company requirements are needed might not be able to accessed in those tests but a face to face interview can let the employers know more about the person through communication. For example, the tests could be limited to access about the grooming of the person but you can find it out in a face to face interview and more importantly communication. I was wondering how these tests could test about one individual ability to communicate and it’s one of the most important factors of most of the business. Hence, as the whole analysis continually mentions, psychometric could only use as a secondary sources when hiring a new employee. A working performance bases on the ability to handle the real life situation, psychometric testing can only uses for a references but it doesn’t tell us well enough. Also, using those tests might mistakenly causing some cultural issues which might also lead to discrimination issues. Therefore, a firm need to be very careful on the questions which they want to ask about the candidates to make sure they do not jump into those issues. I recommend that the suitable situation of the company to use psychometric testing for recruitment and selection process is when they have a very large group of person that need to be accessed then it would be an excellent tool to use. Conclusion In conclusion, psychometric testing is widely used in the nowadays business recruitment and selection process but it still has its limitations to use. Companies need to be very carefully when they want to use psychometric testing and make sure understand what kind of information those tests can provide them. Also, if a company cannot deliver the tests effectively, it is more recommended that they should use the typical interviews methods. Moreover, the insufficient evidence of the validity and reliability of those tests are needed to improve. They are really based on the design of the test and the questions that ask about the candidates. A bad testing could results wasting of money and time. Therefore, they could only been used as a secondary resources or references. Companies also need to understand the cultural sensitive, discrimination and personal privacy issues which associated with this type of interview, otherwise it may break the law and giving unnecessary impact for the company.