Psychometric Assessments – How do we protect ourselves?

The MIE Assessment team has recently noted a steep increase in the queries we have received from candidates that were assessed. Some are just curious and want to understand their own development areas for career planning, but many are challenging their results, or even the outcome of the recruitment process.

We suspect that it might be linked to the high unemployment rate in our country and the reduced opportunities that are available due to many organisations embarking on recruitment freezes.

We would like to ensure our valued clients of peace of mind that our professional team of psychometrists and psychologists will ensure that all legislative and regulatory requirements, as well as psychometric best practices, are met when outsourcing your assessments to us. There are, however, a few areas that you as the potential employer are responsible for and should take care off, to ensure that you eliminate any risk. These are the areas to consider:

• Getting the requirements spot-on: To ensure that the assessment results relate to the inherent requirements of the role, the employer must perform a proper job analysis that will establish the correct requirements. Getting this wrong could impact the assessment outcome significantly and result in poor selection or even talent decisions. Contact us if you need assistance employing a more defensible process. 

•  Share the results appropriately: Line managers often need guidance on how to interpret assessments results effectively and unpack the risks that were identified during the recruitment process. Asking our psychometrists for feedback helps line managers to reach a deeper level of insight about the candidate and therefore results in more effective decision making and peace of mind.

•  Don’t risk exposing yourself: At MIE we offer candidate-friendly development reports to help your candidates make sense of their results and plan their development. It is not good practice to share your selection reports with the candidates. They usually do not understand the results in the way we do and sharing these reports can expose your company and do the candidate more harm than good. Always speak to us to obtain candidate development reports before sharing any information with your candidates. It is best practice to offer feedback from a qualified person to ensure that the results are communicated effectively. Rather invest the extra time in doing this right from the beginning, than spending additional time trying to argue your case when challenged. 

•  Ensure fairness through standardisation: We ensure that all requirements related to fairness towards candidates are met by following a standardised approach, and it is critical that you do the same in your internal practices. Applying standardisation and consistency is one of the ways to eliminate the risk of candidates being able to prove unfairness. This should imply regardless of whether they are internal or external candidates. Lastly, it is also critical that you embed standardisation by making provision for the use of assessments within your HR policies and ensure adherence throughout the organisation.

As always, please reach out to us if you are unsure or need our expert advice.

The MIE Assessment Team