1. Psychometric assessment
for strategic talent acquisition
& management
26th March 2013
Stephen Buchanan, Managing Director
Research Europe Ltd

2. About psychometric assessments
Psychologist-designed tests
Measure individuals’ cognitive, behavioural or personality traits
Recruitment methods that rely on personal relationships and gut
instinct can result in wrong (expensive) hiring decisions
Psychometric assessments can remove bias from the process –
instead decisions made on the basis of psychological evidence
Should not be used as a stand-alone measure of a candidate’s
suitability - should be combined with other selection tools, such as
interviews and referencing

3. Assessment types
There are two types of psychometric assessment:
personality and ability.
Personality assessments identify personality traits relevant to job
performance and the workplace (such as stress tolerance and
motivation)
Ability assessments measure skills and abilities (such as numeracy
and critical thinking).

4. Advantages
Effective: successful predictors of job performance1
Incisive: highlight significant similarities between an individual’s
character and measures of job performance2
Reduce risk of hiring the wrong person
Time saving: reduce timelines associated with wrong hires
Predict performance systematically
Avoid costly mistakes from poor recruitment decisions
Identify and manage talent amongst potential and existing
employees
1. Andrew Jenkins, Companies’ Use of Psychometric Testing and the Changing Demand for Skills: A Review of the
Literature (Centre for the Economics of Education, London School of Economics, 2001)
2. R P Tett, D N Jackson and M Rothstein, Personality Measures as Predictors of Job Performance: A Meta-Analytic Review (Personnel
Psychology, 1991)

5. Personality assessments
Reveal aspects of a person’s character
Can disclose how an individual relates to others, their values and their motivators
Can help identify the sort of work, or working environment, that they are best suited to
Format:
Come in ‘questionnaire’ form
Candidates are asked to respond to a series of statements or questions, either by
stating
the degree to which they agree with the statement or by selecting the response which
they feel is the truest
Unlike ability assessments, there are no right or wrong answers

6. Personality traits
Some examples of what’s assessed:

7. Ability assessments
Measure skills that relate to job performance
These include:
– Numeracy
– Writing comprehension (verbal reasoning)
– Cognitive ability
They can also measure skills that are specific to a particular field of
work, for example, sales ability.

8. Abilities
Some examples of what’s assessed:

9. Research Europe’s offering
A range of both personality and ability assessments
Advice on choosing the most suitable product
Trained and licensed practitioners (BPS A&B, SHL qualified), administer the
assessments on behalf of clients
All assessments offered by Research Europe:
• Conform to British Psychological Society (BPS) guidelines
• Are supported by research-based evidence
• Avoid clinical or technical terminology
• Are applicable across a range of age-groups, education-levels and cultures
• Identify irregularities in response patterns
• Provide security in terms of data collection
• Are accompanied by written and verbal reports, which include (where appropriate) interpretation
by our assessors, available to clients once candidates have completed the assessments

10. Contact us for a full brochure:
1 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BD
+44 (0)20 7470 7297
assessment@researcheurope.co.uk
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