Psychometrics put to the test
By Nick Easen for CNN
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One commonly used test tries to categorize us into one of 16 personality types.
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(CNN) -- From investment banks to the Anglican church, plenty of employers rely on psychometric tests to make hiring decisions, particularly in overcrowded job markets.
Even Rupert Murdoch's son James was tested before becoming CEO of UK broadcaster BSkyB, owned by Murdoch, according to the Australian Financial Review newspaper.
As many of the Fortune 500 companies continue to use psychometric tests, controversy remains over whether they are an effective recruiting method or a way to pigeonhole people into unchangeable personality types, with little room for maneuver or growth.
"There is very little correlation between people who may score highly (in these tests) and how they actually perform on the job," business psychologist Rob Yeung told CNN.
UK chemical company Brunner Mond, however, believes wholeheartedly in psychometric tests as a good measure of potential performance at work and even uses them for blue collar workers operating factory machinery.
Peter Tirrell, human resources manager for the company, says that up to $600,000 can be wasted on one under-performing worker, if that person stays until retirement.
Business psychology consultancy OPP also believes costly misjudgments about new employees can be minimized with the help of psychometrics.
Although they are not 100 percent accurate, OPP says, at least they help companies distinguish between thousands of candidates.
"You are objectively choosing people who will likely do the job better," explains OPP's Nathan Hobbs.
First-time employees are still prime targets, while those already in the job circuit are less likely to face psychometrics.
And compared to ten years ago, there is now a greater acceptance of these kind of tests in the workplace.
"I do not particularly have a problem with them using this formula because they cannot interview thousands of people applying for jobs now," one female university graduate told CNN.
World War I method
Psychometric tests are nothing new. They were used to vet U.S. soldiers during World War I. But now they are more advanced, and some even include stress tests that evaluate a person's ability to handle pressure.
Others are designed to probe the inner machinations of our mind, with questions ranging from the harmless, "do you enjoy familiar food?" to the more invasive, "do you like people to act in a close and personal way with you?"
The most commonly used test is one called Myers-Briggs. It is used to find out more about what direction your career is heading.
The test identifies 16 different personality types, based on Swiss psychologist Carl Jung's theory that we are born with a predisposition of one specific type of personality.
This is gauged from questions about preferred ways of behaving. Individuals can be thinking or feeling, judging or perceiving, introvert or extrovert.
Tests to select candidates look at particular personality traits related to these 16 types and attempt to quantify how much an individual has them.
For example a potential employee might be assessed on his or her degree of radicalism, shrewdness, emotional stability, or boldness.
Like them or loathe them, psychometric tests are here to stay.
But in the end, doing the job is the only true indication of whether a person is suitable.
-- Correspondent Andrew Brown contributed to this report
