The Importance of Feedback Following Psychometric Assessments – Part 1: Candidates
Have you ever had to complete psychometric testing as part of a recruitment process? If you have, you were likely curious afterwards to find out how you went and what the results said about you.
Receiving verbal feedback after psychometric testing can have huge benefits, both for the candidate undertaking the assessment, as well as for the company hiring them.
According to the Privacy Act, candidates have a right to access personal and sensitive information that is held about them (e.g. psychometric testing results). At People Solutions, access to this data is provided through a verbal debrief with a psychologist or consultant who has been trained in the interpretation of the relevant psychometric assessment.
Beyond this legal obligation, for the candidate who has just spent up to several hours completing the assessments (and potentially a lot of worry!), being debriefed on their results by a psychologist or accredited practitioner can:
- Help them better understand the tests, what these were assessing, how data was used, and what norm groups they were compared to;
- Close the loop and satisfy their curiosity about their results – for candidates who were worried about ‘failing’ the assessments or how they scored, this can help allay their fears and reassure them, especially since psychometric testing is not as simple as pass/fail;
- Provide insight into their personal strengths and development areas – either for future applications if they were unsuccessful or, for those who were successful, to aid them as they step into the new role ;
- Create a more positive candidate experience and therefore more positive impressions of the hiring organisation;
- Add value for the candidate –they feel that they get something in return for their time spent doing the assessments (rather than the hiring company being the only one to benefit); and
- Help the candidate understand how psychometric testing fits into the recruitment process and how it is generally used to make selection decisions. Candidates who perform well on testing can still be unsuccessful in receiving a job offer for various other reasons (e.g. other more competitive candidates, interview performance, hiring managers looking for something specific), so reassuring them that this was just one piece of the puzzle can help put their minds at ease.
This doesn’t necessarily mean sending candidates a copy of their psychometric report. These reports are written with hiring managers in mind, so might not be appropriate to send as is to candidates. Feedback can be given verbally over the phone, via a virtual meeting, or in person. While hiring organisations can send candidates the selection report, (developmental candidate versions can be generated for this purpose), we always recommend pairing this with verbal feedback to help candidates better understand the assessments and their results.
Because feedback is so important and beneficial, we always offer this to candidates as part of our standard service and at no additional cost. If you would like to find out more about our psychometric assessment services and feedback, please get in touch with our team today.