Introduction
In performing the selection of employees in organisation, there are different kinds of tests that are performed by organisations in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the candidates applied for the job. In performing a check to the abilities of the candidates, psychometric test is an important test which allows for the evaluation of candidates applied for the job. There are various pros and cons of psychometric testing and this report presents a brief discussion of the major pros and cons that are associated with psychometric testing.
Pros and Cons of Psychometric Testing
The main advantage of using psychometric testing is that this test allows for the evaluation of a wide range of psychological aspects and abilities of the candidate ranging from applicant’s personality to his/her intellect, aptitude and education. This test is applied by career assessment in order to determine the type of career a person’s personality, ability and intellect is best suited. Another major advantage of psychometric testing is that the students who are having good interview techniques are not unduly advantaged. In performing the selection of a particular candidate for a particular job, it is essential that the characteristics of candidates must suit with the job requirements. The psychometric testing in this relation is highly effective in the sense that it allows for the evaluation of the entire personality of the applicants and thereby allows the opportunity to organisations in making the best selection of candidates that can effectively suit over the job requirements.
Apart from having these advantages, there are certain loopholes that are also associated from applying the psychometric testing in evaluating a candidate’s potential. As for instance, the major limitation of psychometric testing is that the decision concerning the effectiveness of candidate for a particular job profile solely on the basis of psychometric testing might not be effective. This is because the psychometric testing mainly aims at assessing the person’s abilities or skill in a particular area. As for instance, if a person scores better on a personality dimension of say Leadership, than it does not necessarily implies that the person is good at performing leadership tasks and possess all the leadership qualities. Apart from this, psychometric testing also suffers from the problem of its applicability in assessing the applicant’s abilities, as psychometric testing requires proper training to candidate before actually applying it. The chances of misinterpretation of the responses of the respondents are higher on the part of interpreter in case of psychometric testing and this would ultimately leads to the selection of an inappropriate candidate. As such, there is a higher level of experience required on the part of interpreter in order to perform the most effective interpretation of a person’s ability.
Conclusion
The analysis in this report concerning the pros and cons of psychometric testing implies that this test is highly effective from the point of view of assessing the attitude and person’s ability and this in turn allows for better evaluation of the candidate’s potential to perform over the job in a successful manner. However, the cons of psychometric testing are also significant from the perspective of adversely affecting the selection of candidates, as it requires an experienced interpreter in performing this test. This test should not be used solely for the purpose of making the selection of a candidate as other tests for assessing the applicant’s ability is essential.