Aptitude Testing Vs. Personality Assessment
Which Is The Better Approach In Recruitment?
The recruitment process is challenging for businesses. HR and recruitment teams have many different factors to consider, from the initial application to their interview and career collateral. Tools used within the hiring process can help eliminate unconscious bias, reduce recruitment overheads, and ensure that the ideal candidate is offered the role. Others can tell you more about the candidate's personality. With so many options available, how do you know which is the best to choose?
What Is Personality Assessment?
Personality assessment is often used within recruitment and professional development and can tell you more about an individual's traits and characteristics. You cannot fail a personality questionnaire as there are no 'right' and 'wrong' answers, though you might find that you are more or less comfortable in certain kinds of jobs or settings. This helps to relieve some of the pressure on candidates and highlights the desirable traits required for the job in question.
This holistic and rounded viewpoint has been adopted by a variety of industries but specifically used within HR, recruitment and learning and development. It is an effective solution to improve the quality of hires and ensure a solid alignment between candidates and the existing culture within a business.
The Most Popular eras Psychometric Assessments
At eras, we offer a range of psychometric products, consultancy and training services. Versatility is key to our work and The Psychometric Portal® offers you a cloud-based platform to access all of the tools you need. You can get access to a range of tools including two of our most popular - The Quest Profiler® and threesixty°.
The Quest Profiler®
The Quest Profiler® is one of the fastest-growing personality questionnaires in the UK. Easy to use and ideally suited for recruitment, it provides you with information on behavioural preferences, leadership styles and team styles. You can add other features to the report to gain insight into sales performance and conflict handling.
> Learn more about The Quest Profiler®threesixty°
If you need a powerful and customisable assessment tool to measure a range of people's views on how someone is performing, the threesixty° is perfect for your needs. You can select from a bank of questionnaires or create your own with support from our dedicated team. You'll get key insight into a range of areas including competency, behaviour and development.
> Discover customisable threesixty° assessmentsWhat Is Aptitude Testing?
Aptitude testing, also known as ability testing, is widely recognised as one of the most successful methods of predicting the likelihood of success in candidates. It is used within both job applications and success planning to support recruitment and development needs.
By using standardised testing, you can reduce bias in the selection process, ensure that the best candidate is offered the role, and support the career progression of your team. Instead of focusing on preferences, an aptitude test will focus on their skills in an objective way.
The Types Of Aptitude Tests Available From eras
Aptitude tests serve different purposes, and each test has been carefully designed to measure skills and traits in an unbiased manner. By gaining an objective understanding of a person, you'll be able to better align their skills with the role in the business, creating a good match and reducing the possibility of staff turnover.
As ability tests cover different skills, you'll be able to test individuals on a range of competencies. We offer plenty of options to suit your needs from operations to C-suite and more.
- Managerial and professional tests
- Clerical and admin tests
- Supervisory and team leader tests
- Operative tests
- Specialist tests
Aptitude Tests Vs Personality Assessment
Many talk about aptitude testing and personality assessments interchangeably, despite the fact that they use different tools. Aptitude tests focus on skills and abilities, while personality tests build a clear image of a person's characteristics and behaviours. The two may sit underneath the banner of psychometric tools, but they are designed for different areas.
It is hard to say which is best as they target a variety of subjects. Most of the time, an organisation will use both together. It all comes down to what you need to know. If you are focusing entirely on the skills required for a role, an ability test may be what you need. For greater insight into whether a person's behaviour matches your organisation's culture, you should opt for a personality assessment.
Want to know more about a candidate? Consider the variety of psychometric tests and questionnaires available from eras. You can combine personality and aptitude tests to create one of the most sophisticated psychometric profiles for recruitment.
Choosing The Right Psychometric Product
Aptitude tests are an important part of the recruitment process and a key area of psychometric profiling. It is hard to choose between personality tests and ability tests as they cover different areas. For a more comprehensive understanding of an individual, a complete psychometric assessment should be undertaken, involving both aptitude and personality.
At eras, we offer a range of psychometric tools and products to suit your business needs. Whether you want to integrate aptitude tests into your recruitment process or you'd like to understand how best to support your team in their career progression, we can help.