Psychological tests

When we send an application for the offer of an employer of our choice, we  wander what the recruitment process will look like. It can be just one, traditional interview with a boss that will result in a positive or negative decision. However, researches concerning the costs of unsuccessful recruitments tell the employers perform a background check of a potential member of their team in the best possible way. The multi-stage recruitment processes are no longer rare cases in industries which suffer from the lack of employees, such as IT or automotive.

In which cases should psychological tests be used?

The recruitment

After a positive assessment of education and skills, the next phase for candidates is psychological tests, which depends on the position and the expected features.

Personality questionnaires are the most frequently used in recruitment processes . They are used to diagnose personality traits and temperament as well as the manner of behavior of a candidate in specific situations, creating relationships with the environment or determining the style of emotional reactions.

The tools used by the HR Project provide answers, among others, to such questions as:

  • What is the Candidate’s typical attitude to work?
  • Does he prefer independent or teamwork?
  • How does he endure tough work conditions (resistance to stress, a monotony of performed tasks, work under time pressure)?

Another feature analyzed by the HR Project team are the social competencies of the candidates. Features that are extremely important in any work environment. The obtained results can be helpful in answering the following questions:

  • How does the Candidate interact with other people?
  • Can he understand other people’s behavior?
  • Does he value good relationships with co-workers?
  • Does he often take an initiative in dealing with others?

During job interviews, questions are asked such as: what gives the candidate satisfaction in his job, what is their dream job, about the ideal boss, about the team, etc. The questionnaires used by HR Project can be a support when we’d like to know the candidate’s motivation:

  • How much do they require from themselves?
  • Does work-life balance matter to them?
  • Do they like to have an influence on the projects they are taking part in?
  • Do they like people and process management?

 

Employees

The use of psychological tests can be very broad also among employees already employed. With the current situation on the job market, companies begin to look after, with attention, at their organizational policy by investing in the personal development of employees. They try to get to know their expectations, talents, plans, and aspirations in order to be able to connect them with the future needs of the company. The results of psychological tests may be a good hint in case of doubts concerning the promotion of a given person and the direction of training or development in the company.

 

It is worth remembering that the use of psychological tests during recruitment to work or already during employment is possible under certain conditions. According to the regulations presented by the general inspector of personal data protection, a psychological examination can reveal only data on the characteristics of candidates that are considered desirable at a given position. It can not provide personal information that an employer should not have access to. The candidate should be informed about the purpose of the study, the scope of the information obtained and people who will have an insight into the results.

 

The types of tests

When examining candidates using personality questionnaires, it’s important to remember, there are no good or bad answers – the result determines the profile of the person’s characteristics, which can be considered as preferred, adequate or useful in a specific workplace.

 

Skills tests (also known as mental capacity tests) are used to assess specific abilities of the candidate. The results of the skills tests are interpreted on the basis of a comparison of the result obtained by a given person with the results obtained by the comparison group – their interpretation refers to clearly defined standards allowing to assess the candidate’s match with the requirements of a given job position.

 

The most common skills tests include:

  • analysis of numerical data allowing to assess the skills of analytical thinking and to solve numerical problems,
  • analysis of verbal data examining the ability to understand, evaluate, logical thinking and inference based on text information,
  • a test examining spatial imagination, which allows you to assess the ability to analyze and transform geometrical figures in space,
  • analysis and understanding of diagrams examining the ability to discover logical rules governing the sequence of symbols and diagrams.

 

Psychological tests examining the level of intelligence (eg Raven’s test) are rarely used in the selection process of potential employees, because they arouse much controversy – unlike personality questionnaires, they divide candidates into more or less intelligent ones, while there is no proof of  direct impact of the intelligence level on employee’s effectiveness in everyday work.

For the customers

Looking for support in the recruitment process and assistance in the selection of candidates? Do you have doubts about employee promotion? Contact us at +48 513 30 46 17 and let us support you with the instructions.

 

For the candidates

Would you like to know your personality traits in the context of your next work? Call us!