The essence of a candidate – the perks of psychometric assessments

Last Updated on Friday, 18 February, 2022 at 9:27 am by Andre Camilleri

Sara Anne Galea joined Misco in March 2020 as a member of the Selection team.

Human instinct is after all, quite subjective.

Nowadays, most business leaders make decisions that are backed up by data and market research, and therefore psychometric assessments play an important role in helping companies identify the high potential in employees throughout all stages of the employment cycle – be it for an internal promotion, team building, personal development or recruitment. When recruiting, a wrong decision comes at a cost due to lost productivity. In fact, nowadays, the use of psychometric assessments during the selection process is on the rise across different sectors.

Psychometric assessments provide an objective way of measuring a range of attributes including personality traits and competencies. Personality refers to “the characteristics or blend of characteristics that make a person unique” (Weinberg & Gould, 1999). These characteristics distinguish individuals from one another and have been often used to understand individual differences in work performance and career outcomes.

Misco is in partnership with a UK company aiming to offer a range of psychometrics to the local business community.  Profile:Match2™ Assessments are a range of assessments which are easy to use and interpret and cover the whole employee lifecycle. This tool also allows for flexibility in choosing the competencies required for the job and assessing different areas as necessary.

These assessments benchmark candidates in a way that is often difficult to do with other methods, such as interviewing. By scoring candidates on set competencies, it becomes easier to distinguish standout candidates and shortlist the most promising ones more quickly.  Having said this, these tests cannot act by themselves and are usually conducted between the first and second interview as they will allow you to assess further, challenge the candidate and ask more behavioural questions during the second interview.

Different types of assessments are available and can be used for different purposes. A useful tool for hiring managers to identify the competencies required for a particular role is the Job Analysis Survey. This survey will gather which characteristics are necessary and which ones are desirable and these are gathered by people who have experience in the role, supervisors, managers or HR professionals.

Once the competencies have been selected, Profile:Match2™ delivers Sifting and Selection Reports and Interview Guides, all focused on the competencies deemed essential for a particular job. The system is underpinned by a bank of researched, validated and standardised personality items capable of addressing the full panorama of personality. In various combinations and weightings, these elements can be tailored to address the precise requirements of any role.

A more in-depth report is the Personal Development Report which provides both a personality and a competency profile and enables a structured review of the current understanding of strengths and limitations and gives an additional competency-based perspective. This will enable individuals to plan a realistic and attainable path for future personal development and for career planning.

Another report which is used by companies is the 360°Feedback Report. This is specifically designed to help the candidate understand how their behaviour is perceived by others and provide the basis for a re-evaluation of their talents and limitations. This also confirms which behaviour will most likely get results.

Psychometric assessments are designed to provide objective and measurable data to help managers make informed decisions during the recruitment process.  They provide insight into a candidate’s intelligence levels, values, as well as behaviours and motivations. In other words, they look into how and why a candidate might act a certain way and how they will behave during a certain situation at work. They are also very useful in analysing whether the personality traits of different individuals will fit in well within the team they will be working with.

For more information and queries about Misco’s range of Profile:Match2™ Psychometric assessments, feel free to contact Sara Anne Galea at Misco via email on sagalea@miscomalta.com

Sara Anne Galea joined Misco in March 2020 as a member of the Selection team. Since joining, she has been involved in different recruitment projects with various clients whereby she helps in finding candidates that not only fit the job vacancy but also the company culture. She obtained her Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Human Language Technology in 2019 from the University of Malta and her Diploma in Human Resources Management and Development in 2020.

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