Psychometric Assessments for Recruitment
Add behavioural insight to better-informed hiring decisions.
Recruitment decisions draw on multiple sources of information.
Experience, capability, qualifications, structured interviews and references can tell you a great deal about a candidate.
Psychometric assessment can add another perspective.
flowprofiler® assessments help organisations explore workplace behaviours associated with emotional intelligence, resilience and motivation, including how those behaviours may present day to day and under pressure.
Used alongside a structured recruitment process, this can help hiring managers ask better questions, explore potential development needs and make more informed decisions.
“Using flowprofiler® is like the difference between a low-res and high-res photo. It gives structure, clarity and depth to the recruitment process.”
– Brendt Evenden, CEO, Gistlens
Go Beyond the CV
A CV tells you where someone has been. An interview gives you an opportunity to explore what they have done and how they think.
Behavioural assessment adds another source of evidence to the conversation. Depending on the assessment selected, flowprofiler® can explore areas including:
● emotional awareness and regulation ● self confidence
● social awareness ● regard for others
● optimism ● unbiased thinking
● perseverance ● adaptability
● assertiveness ● collaboration
● recognition ● autonomy
● growth ● reward
● well-being ● purpose
Behaviour Day to Day and Under Pressure
People do not necessarily behave the same way in every situation.
Pressure, workload, uncertainty and changing expectations can influence how behaviour is expressed.
flowprofiler® assessments examine behaviour across two states:
- Day to Day
How the individual reports experiencing and expressing the behaviour under normal working conditions. - Under Pressure
How that reported behaviour may shift when demands or pressure increase.
The comparison can provide useful prompts for a structured interview.
For example:
What happens when priorities suddenly change?
How does the candidate approach disagreement?
What motivates them when work becomes difficult?
How do they regulate their response under pressure?
The assessment doesn’t answer those questions for you.
It helps you know which questions may be worth asking.
Choose the Assessment That Fits the Role
Different roles place different demands on people. Rather than automatically administering every assessment, organisations can select the behavioural areas most relevant to the recruitment context.
From Recruitment to Onboarding and Development
One advantage of using a development-oriented behavioural assessment during recruitment is that the insight does not have to end when the hiring decision is made.
For a successful candidate, the assessment can provide a useful starting point for:
- onboarding conversations
- manager and employee expectations
- individual development planning
- coaching
- communication
- understanding motivation
- preparing for pressure
- future leadership development
This changes the question from simply:
“Should we hire this person?”
to:
“If we hire this person, what have we learned that could help them succeed?”
Responsible Use of Psychometric Assessments in Recruitment
Psychometric assessment should support professional judgement, not replace it.
flowprofiler® assessments measure self-reported behavioural patterns. Results should be interpreted within the context of the role and alongside other appropriate recruitment evidence.
We recommend that organisations:
- use assessment as one component of a structured selection process
- define relevant role requirements before interpreting results
- avoid searching for an assumed “ideal” flowprofiler® profile
- use results to inform further questioning rather than make automatic decisions
- ensure assessment results are interpreted by appropriately trained users
- consider candidate context and other available evidence
- handle assessment data appropriately and transparently
A flowprofiler® assessment should not be used as the sole basis for a hiring decision.
Build Better Recruitment Conversations
Good recruitment is not about finding a psychometric score that says yes or no.
It is about gathering useful evidence, asking better questions and making a considered decision.
flowprofiler® gives hiring managers another lens through which to understand behaviour, and gives successful candidates insight that can continue into onboarding and development.
❝The Chartered Institute for Professional Development, UK, estimates the
average cost of filling a vacancy, including labour costs, is £6,125.
❝I was shocked to see how much staff attrition was costing.
It made me think, why aren’t we spending more on retaining our talent?❞
❝We feel that flowprofiler® gives you a real insight into a person’s behaviour. It’s such an investment when we are making recruitment decisions. Recruitment, as we all know, is so expensive. To have that insight into somebody and to really dive into that as part of the interview process is just so valuable.❞
❝Using flowprofiler® is like the difference between a low-res and high-res photo. It gives structure, clarity and depth to the recruitment process❞
❝flowprofiler® has also helped us in our onboarding process. It has especially helped us if there are any challenges with a recruit. We’re able to really coach this person and really try and make them a success. We can use the report to highlight where the developmental areas are and help them to make sure that they are in that flow zone day to day and when under pressure.❞
❝flowprofiler® have been great in giving us a detailed insight into our candidates we recently hired. Not only was this helpful in the recruiting process, but the data we’ve gathered from these assessments will help us in managing and developing our recruits and existing team into the future. I highly recommend these guys!❞
❝We’re seeing that our leaders, our hiring managers, and myself, we’re making more mature and thorough decisions when we are recruiting❞
❝A great assessment to seek knowledge about how a person will actually work within a team or business.This could be an existing team member or someone you are recruiting.❞
❝We’re seeing that our leaders, our hiring managers, and myself, we’re making more mature and thorough decisions when we are recruiting. What this has allowed us to do is to really take our time and to really plan for the interview, and really be sure of what type of behaviours we’re looking for.❞
❝We increased retention of candidates in the first 6 weeks from 50 % to 80% with flowprofiler®
– Brendt Evendon, CEO, Gistlens