Hiring the wrong candidate for a job can be a costly mistake. Studies show that it costs as much as 33% of a worker’s annual salary to replace them (Work Institute’s 2017 Retention Report). When the formula is applied to the average Australian employee’s salary of $90,800 (Salary Explorer, 2021), the average cost of turnover per employee comes out to $30,000. And the fallout resulting from the mismatch between employee and position can be harmful to the employee.
The pace of change in today’s world means that no professional’s skill set is future proof. You may hire someone who is capable of performing in the role straight away, but what if the requirements of the job they have been recruited evolve a year or even six months later?
Psychological assessments, or psychometric testing, helps to minimise these risk factors and offers many other benefits. Psychological assessments can be used for recruitment and selection, development, and coaching purposes to maximise the performance of individuals, leaders, and teams.
5 Benefits of Using Psychological Testing and Assessment for Recruitment and Development
Reduce costly hiring mistakes
A pre-employment psychological assessment reduces hiring risk. This is achieved by determining a candidate’s suitability for a role by matching their strengths to the job requirements. Based on the role, specific psychological assessments can be integrated at the beginning of the recruitment process, to screen a large volume of candidates, or towards the final stages when trying to decide between two potential candidates.
Reduce unconscious bias
On average, employers or interviewers can unconsciously form assumptions of candidates within the first 7 seconds of an encounter, based purely on their observations. However, what about those aspects that aren’t observed or can’t be observed within this first encounter?
Psychological assessments identify underlying characteristics or work styles that a candidate holds and which are difficult to observe in the normal interview process. They are evidence-based, standardised assessments that allow us to directly compare candidate work styles and identify those who possess the qualities most likely to result in success in the role. This objectivity reduces unconscious bias and ensures a candidate is not selected due to similarity with the interviewer.
Optimise role fit and culture fit
Psychological assessments benefit both the organisation and the candidate by maximising the ‘person-job’ fit. There is a good ‘person-job’ fit when the candidate has both the ability and personality characteristics to meet the demands and unique challenges of the role. Achieving this not only benefits the organisation by ensuring a high performing employee, but also enhances the employee’s feelings of competence and confidence in performing the role.
Additionally, by enhancing the ‘person-job’ fit, you can save costs and resources by reducing the likelihood of burnout, turnover or dismissal associated with an employee who feels, or is unable to, perform the role effectively and capably.
Hire for future potential
Hiring for potential means playing the long game, looking for candidates who can grow and develop into more complex and challenging roles as the business world evolves. Experience can only go so far in determining the value that an employee will contribute. By getting to know your candidates during the recruitment process and hiring for potential, you are taking the first step in making a long-term investment in your company’s success. The information within an assessment report is helpful, but only becomes truly empowering when properly understood. Here at Aspect, our highly skilled Organisational Psychologists take a systematic approach to administering and analysing online psychological assessments. In addition to written reports, psychologists can provide in-depth verbal feedback and insights to hiring managers to further support their selection decision, and debriefing for new candidates as part of the onboarding process to consolidate their start and maximise their ongoing potential.
Develop future capability
Assessments can also be used for development purposes, to help your organisation identify and optimise the potential of your people and your teams. Our suite of development tools provides employees with crucial insights about themselves, their colleagues, and how to effectively work with others. Assessments completed by the full team can provide deep understanding of the group’s dynamics, how to maximise the strengths of individual members to create a high-performing team and focus on development activity to build future capability. With a clear recognition of their strengths and developmental gaps, and a greater understanding of their colleagues, your people become better communicators, decision-makers, and leaders. The end results are high-performing people, cohesive teams, and engaging leaders.
Psychological assessments are amazing tools because although they’re critical to an effective hiring process, they’re also useful for coaching and developing staff. In any organisation, a psychological evaluation is only one component of a hiring decision. However, pre-employment testing reduces the risk of costly hiring mistakes and increases the confidence of both candidate and organisation that a job offer will lead to a productive association for both.
At Aspect, we can help you identify the most appropriate psychological assessments for your selection or development process based on the requirements of the role and the information needed to make well-informed decisions. We then administer robust and scientifically validated psychological assessment and provide analysis that indicate a candidate’s likely job performance and future potential.
Contact us to have a confidential discussion about how we can help you select and develop the right talent for your unique organisational values and needs.