Psychological testing, an interesting new tool for employers , may cost you your next job. Employers are flocking in the direction psychological testing. They are successfully reducing the number of applications that they must sort through. Psychological testing is making it possible for them to hire the best candidates for the job in half the time previously required. Or so it would seem.
Psychological testing promises to be more accurate than a personal interview. By administering psychological tests as a part of the application process, employers can easily sort through the initial applicants reducing the number of personal interviews, thus saving time and money. Are these tests accurate enough to determine the work ethic and quality of potential employees?
It is no wonder that employers are now using psychological tests as a part of the application process. Finding good employees has become a difficult task for employers. The number of applicants rise everyday as jobs dwindle away because of they economy and every time employers post a job position, job seekers begin hissing and swarming like locusts. Resumes and applications soon clutter the office and the loathsome work begins. Thousands of applications are soon sorted, a few dozen lucky individuals are selected for an interview and after much deliberation a candidate is selected for the job. It is easy to see the employers frustration and need for a “better way.” Is psychological testing the better way? It can be agreed that these tests save time, as far as the application process is concerned that is. However, requiring applicants to take psychological tests may actually disqualify some of the best applicants. Leaving the jobs to the less qualified candidates .
If you have ever taken a psychological test, you know that it is packed full of double negatives and asks single questions multiple times. These tests often ask you the same questions over and over, trying to flag those individuals who over analyze specific questions. Most psychological tests are given under the impression that the test will be able to identify thieves, drug addicts, dishonest and unsafe individuals. So, are these tests accurate?
SOS Staffing requires its applicants to take psychological tests as a part of their “intensive” screening of applicants. Click here to read a first hand account of this. As a staffing service you would think that they would conduct interviews and make good decisions based on interviews rather then psychological tests.
Question1: Have you ever known anyone who has cheated on a test and got away with it?
Question2: If someone cheated on a test and you were aware of it, would you report them?
If we really think about these questions, and were to answer yes to the first and yes to the second, we would be liars, right? Wrong, the test is not concerned that your answers support each other. What they are actually looking for is whether or not you are carefully studying specific questions. If you have known someone who cheated and got away with it, then you obviously hadn’t reported them because otherwise, they wouldn’t have gotten away with it. These tests are looking for your ability to notice these little things throughout the test. Also, If you are remembering previous questions you are most likely going to let past answers influence future answers and you will be flagged as a liar instead of a genius for your memorization skills. This is how the test determines your tendency to lie, cheat or steal. If you fail the test you are either extremely honest or extremely dishonest neither of which will land you the job.
These psychological tests seem to throw out the most analytical of applicants. You would think that employers would want to have smart analytical people working for them. The truth is employers don’t actually understand the tests they are handing out. They claim they do. No one really knows exactly how these tests function. Not even the psychologist who wrote it could give you an explanation. They just write the tests for money.
Psychological tests are not only hurting the most qualified applicants for the job, but they are also hurting the employers as well. Employers are not getting what they think they are getting. They have blind faith in tests they know little about. They are placing job seekers futures in the hands of flawed tests, thinking they are selecting the most qualified applicants. They believe that smart people pass these tests. They are wrong. The smart people are the ones failing the tests.
