PSYCHOMETRIC TEST VS APTITUDE TEST
Ever since recruiters have started involving pre-screening tests in their hiring process, there has been a debate going on which is better – Psychometric Test or Aptitude Test? Although usage of both type of tests fits in different scenarios, but it is always discussed which one should be given preference. Here is a detailed analysis from Applicant Tracking System about Psychometric Test and Aptitude Test. Psychometric Test By definition, Psychometric test is used to measure the human intelligence levels and gauge the cultural fit of a candidate who has applied for a job opening in an organisation. Today, almost 70% of the companies worldwide includes psychometric test in their recruitment process. What makes Psychometric test a preferred step before interview is its ability to bring out details about behavioral traits and personality traits of a candidate through a set of questionnaire, which usually cannot be tracked during an interview. The assertion given by many recruiters to follow this process is that it gives the idea of strengths and weakness of a professional (not in terms of skills), and serves as a roadmap for them to understand what they are supposed to handle at the job. But this whole process is based on the assumption that Psychometric test can reduce the risk of a bad hire or onboarding an unfit candidate. Psychometric test does not measure the skills of the candidate required to handle the job they are getting hired for. Also, there is no pre-defined pattern of such tests, every company comes up with their own design, making the results outcome more debatable.
Aptitude Test By definition, Aptitude Test is used to access the problem solving and reasoning ability of the candidates. This tests helps recruiters to obtain the informed decision about the candidate’s ability and skills to handle the current job at hand. Almost 80% of the companies worldwide are trusting this tool. An Aptitude test is taken as the most supportive tool before an applicant is asked to appear for the interview. When number of candidates are more for a job interview, aptitude test helps to generate comparison scale among them to filter out the best. This is a direct tool to measure problem solving and reasoning ability of a candidate. What makes this tool ineffective is that most of the times recruiters use only one pattern across all the openings, without keeping in mind the type of vacancy at hand. This might not accurately measure the potential of the candidate matching to this job opening. Having said in detail about the two types of testing tools, what we recommend to the recruiters is to use these tools in order to build the positives of the candidates, rather than using it to filter out the crowd. Responses to psychometric test can be faked on the day and aptitude test can miss out the questions on understanding the exact skill of the candidate. Human interaction should be the best judge to consider a candidate as a best fit for the job. Applicant Tracking System helps you to conduct aptitude tests, psychometric tests as well as pre-screening tests through its Online Test module. Recruiters are allowed to create customized tests of their preference and at one-click the tests can be distributed to applicants sitting at any location. The best part here is the test score is calculated on the spot, saving time and money of companies in manual hiring process.