1) Achievement tests
Achievement tests measure what a person has learned or achieved in the form of training, formal education or instruction. This test measures what his/her knowledge is in a given area, and to what extent the individual’s proficiency will be compared against a given population.
In other words, this kind of test helps you to measure a person’s knowledge, skill or accomplishment in a particular area of expertise.
Different types of achievement tests are used in an HR scenario. Let us take a look at some of them:
Survey Battery: A junior level test that helps you to evaluate those enrolled in beginners’ courses.
Single Survey Achievement Test: A test that focuses on a single area of expertise.
Diagnostic Achievement Test: This helps you to assess an individual’s achievements right from the beginning to subject level expertise.
2) Aptitude tests
While an achievement test measures an individual’s knowledge on a particular topic, an aptitude test measures an individual’s ability to acquire a specific skill and to exercise that skill to his or her benefit. There are aptitudes to learn a new language, aptitudes to manage people, to code, to just about anything.
An aptitude test thus measures an individual’s potential ability to carry out a certain kind of activity or acquire a specific kind of knowledge. For example, those with an aptitude for a numerical ability will do better in certain professions that require analytical skills, whereas those who perform better in verbal ability tests may do better in occupations that require writing, speaking or interacting with people.
Few kinds of aptitude tests are:
General aptitude test – That sort of test is a comprehensive evaluation battery that assesses an individual’s verbal, quantitative and logical reasoning. This kind of test also measures a person’s ability to observe. These are necessary aptitude tests that tell us if an individual is good at words or numbers, or both. They are helpful in making broad judgments about an applicant.
Verbal and non-verbal aptitude tests – Verbal tests help to determine an individual’s ability to use words, grammar and put thoughts together to arrive at decisions. Non-verbal tests assist in assessing an individual’s ability to recognize patterns, fit pieces together and solve abstract puzzles, which are required for decision making. The complexity of these tests can vary depending on the position of the applicant.
Quantitative aptitude tests – As the name already indicates, these kinds of tests assess an individual’s mathematical ability and an aptitude to crunch numbers. If you are looking for a coder or a financial chief, you better find someone who ranks very high in numerical ability. This test ensures that they aren’t bored by number crunching or with dealing with calculations, both of which are required for certain kinds of jobs.
3) Attitude tests
Before we go into addressing attitude tests, we need to understand what we mean by attitude. Attitude is the way we look at things or the way we approach things or people. Many variables can test on attitude.
For example, one can check an applicant’s attitude toward older people, toward women, toward LGBT people, etc. If you are trying to maintain diversity at a workplace and there are a large number of LGBT individuals, you do not want to hire someone who is biased or prejudiced against these minorities. So, when you administer a test that evaluates a person’s attitude towards LGBT individuals, you can decide if his/her attitude towards them is biased or prejudiced, and thus make hiring call.
Bringing online psychometric tests to hiring
Today, several ways and methods can be employed to assess individuals online. When it comes to evaluating people, and hiring them online, psychometric tests cannot be left far behind. It is important to bear in mind that all kinds of testing have some psychometric quality to them. For instance, if we are administering a coding skills test on an applicant, it is an achievement test, which is again psychometric in nature.
So, it makes sense to study behavior and emotions too, so that we know the kind of person we are hiring. Of what good is an individual if he is great at coding but is unable to control aggression at a workplace? It is becoming increasingly important to hire people who are psychologically well adjusted, or at least to provide sufficient care to those who are not, if we plan to hire them.
The only way to know this is by administering psychometric tests during the hiring process. It is not difficult to design custom psychometric tests which help in hiring. All that it requires is a solid test construction strategy and standardization of the test that has been customized to yield norms. With these steps, you will be able to check your applicants online in a scientific and valid manner.
We found this article on Testofy.
