In the first part Blog 1: Assessment Fundamentals of this blog series we covered the introduction, basics, history, and types of assessments and relevance of psychometric assessments for HR, talent acquisition, organizational development, learning & development leaders and candidates.

In this blog, we would take deeper insights as to the importance of psychometric assessments for HR leaders and how they can use these assessments across the lifecycle of employees and not just for hiring.

Organizations today are fighting a fierce battle for attracting the best talent. Senior executives strongly believe that the success of the organization depends on the availability of the talent within the organization. There is also a strong correlation to suggest that higher the fitment between the job and candidate, higher is the employee productivity, employer branding, reduced turnover, and employee experience. And no other assessment tool does the job of identifying the right mix than the psychometric assessments.

As per a report by People Matters, over 56% of organizations in India are using psychometric assessment tools. As per the report, the majority of organizations use psychometric assessments in a variety of ways and apply it across the talent cycle of an individual.

The major area of application of psychometric assessments is recruiting and selecting talent. But there is a huge scope for using psychometric tools in the areas of talent development, high potential identification and development, and succession planning.

While these are some of the areas of application, the use and importance of psychometric assessments for employee engagement and branding arealso gaining credence. Let's take a closer look

1. 1. Recruitment and Selection
2. One cannot underestimate the cost associated with a wrong hire. HR leaders have used psychometric assessments to predict job performance more accurately. They help predict performance through insights on fitness, strengths, weaknesses, and working style of the candidate.
3. 2. Learning and Development
4. Psychometric assessments help organizations understand their learning needs and redirect their efforts to continuously improve individual performances. These assessments pre and post the training help evaluate training effectiveness.
5. 3. Career Guidance
6. HR can help candidates take batter career choices by making the candidates more self-aware and help them evaluate their interests, values, and work styles.
7. 4. Performance Evaluation
8. Focusing only on targets or quantifiable numbers is not the best way to judge an employee's performance. HR must assist people leaders in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of an individual and how to optimally use their potential for their and the organization's benefit.
9. 5. High Potential and Succession Planning
10. The development of any organization is dependent on the identification of future leaders or high potentials and create succession planning centered around future leadership development. Psychometric assessments help assess leadership potential by objectively evaluating their competencies and behavior for the next leap.
11. 6. Employee Engagement
12. Psychometric assessments help HR leaders gauge job satisfaction and the level of commitment that employees bring to the table. They foster and encourage employee engagement by accessing employees' motivators and expectations and providing valuable information to HR and managers to work on policies and frameworks.
13. An employee's journey starts as a candidate and game-based assessments are significantly more engaging than a traditional psychometric assessment. Some organizations experience dropout rates of over 30% with a traditional approach to assessment. Candidates are generally more likely to complete a series of games than a lengthy test and are more likely to enjoy the experience.
14. 7. Employer Branding
15. A well-designed selection process is critical for sustainable and scalable talent identification. It allows recruiters to leave a lasting positive impression on applicants (who are not only prospective employees but also potential or existing customers).
16. Game-based assessments convey a fresh and dynamic employer image. The enhanced candidate experience creates an important competitive edge for companies in an increasingly global war for talent.

Challenges to Psychometric Assessments

Still with all the benefits so evident a lot of HR organizations in India still struggle to utilize psychometric assessments for the entire life cycle of the employees. Based on the research with HR leaders some of the most prominent reasons include

1. Most of the HR leaders still believe that psychometric assessments are good for recruitments alone, which can't be farther from the truth. With a perceived focus on only one aspect of the employee life cycle makes their adoption very low
2. Considering the ratio of applicants to hired people, the cost of administration of tools looks very high and is a big impediment to their adoption
3. There are a lot of organizations that have doubts about the reliability and validity of the tests and tend to depend more on the human aspect of evaluation.
4. Candidates are under stress while taking the tests and find them cumbersome. This results in a considerable chunk of candidates dropping out during the process.
5. There are many psychometric assessments out there, and not all of them are created differently and for different purposes. Some might be perfectly suited to a particular company's needs, but the same tools might fall short of what another company requires. Lack of knowledge on how to use psychometrics assessments effectively can also hinder a company to utilize their benefits.

Next Steps for HR Leaders

HR leaders must realize and educate on all the aspects of the benefits of psychometric assessments across the employee's life cycle. Taking a holistic approach helps balance out the cost of assessments across longer life cycles and a large set of employees helps bring down the costs. Then there are indirect and major benefits across employee retention, engagement, and branding and if considered holistically, improves the ROI and business case for psychometric assessments stronger.

Also important is for HR leaders to re-discover the combined power of understanding of cognitive abilities, personality and their application by an individual in a given scenario supported by the reliability and validity of a particular psychometric assessment. The triad of these should be the guiding force for HR leaders to define appropriate assessments for different stages of an employee's lifecycle. The assessment requirements at the hiring stage can be different than assessment requirements during promotions or identifying training needs.

Another aspect which is now becoming integral to HR success is their ability to create a positive sentiment around the employer branding by creating more engaging experiences for the candidates and employees. That's why more and more organizations are leaning and moving towards game-based assessments that candidates find more immersive and engaging and this help brands create a more favorable employer brand.

Watch out for our next blog in the Series "Psychometric Assessment for Talent Acquisition Leaders". If you liked what you read, do like and share the blog in your network and follow our page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/armezo-solutions/