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3i Group ABNA Ltd ACI Worldwide Ltd Alexandra Plc Amlin PLC BBC Bio Products Laboratory Bradford & Bingley PLC Britannia Airways British Red Cross Budgeons Cambridgeshire Council Carphone Warehouse Chevrolet Churchill Insurance CIPD City Inn EPR Architects Essex Police Forensic Science Service Fred Olsen Cruise Lines Game Stores Group GCHQ Halfords Help the Aged Heritage Lottery Fund Hyatt Regency London Ikon Office Solutions PLC Ipswich Building Society JCB Sales Josiah Wedgwood Keoghs Solicitors Kingfisher PLC KPMG Ladbrokes Land Registry Lloyds TSB London Business School Macmillan Publishers Manpower Moat House Hotels Morgan Stanley National Autistic Society Natural History Museum NBC Universal Television New Look Retailers Northumbrian Water Ofcom One NorthEast Pepsico Remploy Reuters Revlon Royal Opera House Russell Cooke Solicitors Sandown Park Southern Water Thameslink Rail The Body Shop The British Museum The Children's Mutual The Premier League The Red Cross The Scout Association Thomsonfly Ltd Tiscali Toshiba Trafficmaster Transport for London UNICEF Unwins Wine Group Virgin Money Vodafone Waitrose Westminster City Council Wilkinsons	About Psychometrics The Values and Uses of Psychometric Testing The term 'psychometric test' has been used to cover a wide range of paper and pencil or computer based tools that can be used to measure and quantify aspects of an individual's mental aptitudes, style, abilities or personality. Unlike most other methods of understanding yourself, a potential new recruit or fellow team member psychometrics provide an objective and statistically justified basis for developing a picture of how an individual compares to others, what her relative strengths and weaknesses are and how she might fit in with those around her. Psychometrics are employed in a number of ways by organisations looking to improve their performance and self-knowledge, including: As a selection tool (usually to complement interviews or other tools) To help understand an individual's natural aptitudes and abilities To help improve team performance by highlighting roles and working styles Types of Psychometric Test Broadly speaking psychometrics fall into two categories: ability/aptitude tests and personality profiles. Ability tests are used to assess an individual's potential to be successful in their role by measuring their level of success in tests based on relevant skills (such as numeracy for a trainee accountant). Ability tests aim to reveal the inherent potential of an individual, not what they have achieved in the past, for example in their GCSE maths exams. Aptitude tests also aim to reveal underlying potential of an individual, but tend to be more job role related, for example a specific test for computer programming or accountancy aptitude would focus on skills related specifically to those roles. Ability tests could be said to focus on raw, generally applicable potential; aptitude tests focus on potential within a narrower, more focused area. Personality profiles are used to provide an objective description of our fundamental character traits. These traits have been refined by psychologists over decades and reflect a handful of independent variables that relate to observed behaviour. For example, one of the personality traits a personality profile might aim to measure could be Extroversion-Introversion. The profile would place the individual somewhere along the line between extreme extroversion and extreme introversion, and this position would predict the kinds of behaviour we would expect the individual to exhibit in a particular situation. Someone scoring near the extreme introvert end of the scale would be expected to seek attention less, be happier working on their own and be less gregarious. Using Psychometrics Psychometrics are powerful tools and should be administered and fed-back by an experienced and knowledgeable professional. Simply writing someone off as 'too extrovert' based purely on a profile score would be unfair and simplistic, so it is important that profile or test scores are coordinated with the results of other assessment tools, the opinions of colleagues and feedback given by the individual them self. Cambridge Executive Development can provide a wide range of psychometric services delivered by experienced, certificated consultants who will ensure that your psychometrics are deployed fairly, in keeping with best practice and to the benefit of both the organisation and the individual concerned. To speak to one of our consultants please email or call us on: Email: info@cambridge-ed.com Call: 0845 2260624	Contact: 0845 2260624 info@cambridge-ed.com Cambridge Executive Development Supports: