Psychometrics at Work

Modern psychometric questionnaires can do far more than simply assess personality or ability. They can become an integral part of an organisation's talent assessment and development (and competency management strategy), providing invaluable insight into people's perceptions and motivation, highlighting important aspects of work behaviour and revealing how best to build on strengths. Increasingly, there is a strong diagnostic focus, so questionnaires can play an important part in coaching or leadership development.

The key principles of psychometric questionnaire design, concerning reliability and validity, should also be applied to the design of competency models, 360 degree feedback questionnaires, and employee attitude surveys. This approach, based on the principles of Objective Testing, identifies patterns of behaviour directly relevant to performance. It can be contrasted with most personality testing (that simply comments of underlying traits with no reference to role, context, or work culture). In 'The New Psychometrics' Paul Kline emphasised the need for Objective Testing to improve reliability and validity. A critical element involves the application of relevant theory to the design of questionnaires - and this is central to our approach.