Personality profiling or to use the modern term psychometric profiling is increasing used by employers to assess potential employees. In an article that appeared in The Times the British Market Research Bureau stated that Nearly three quarters of UK companies now rely on psychometric profiling when recruiting. It is now commonplace for employers to use psychometrics to understand, enhance and improve personal and team performance.

Because there are many psychometric tools from which to choose it helps if you are clear about exactly what it is you wish to measure. Based on a recent on line poll the most popular uses of Psychometrics profiles falls into three distinct areas:

Recruitment and Candidate Selection - mainly to provide insight and reduce risk.

Employee development to ensure employers retain and make the most of existing staff.

Team Building - significantly improve communication and productivity both internally and externally.

There is no doubt that psychometrics can provide insight in these areas and generate measurable improvements. Yet this trend to use psychometrics is not a modern phenomenon as the basics of personality profiling has been around for a long time. You may well be familiar with the widely used Myers Briggs Type indicator test that was developed in the 1950s and is still popular now. This was based on the work of Carl Jung in the 1920s. The lineage of personality profiling can be traced back through the centuries, right back to Plato around three hundred and forty years before the birth of Christ.

Surprisingly the basic nature of all personality profiles has remained static in all that time. They measure an individuals psychological attributes using one of two different styles or instruments:

Tests: These mainly consist of right (like me) or wrong (not like me) answers. They are constructed to measure a persons ability or aptitude. Some tests gauge someones verbal or numerical skills and are used when a particular skill or aptitude is required to do a job. So, tests tend to measure hard skills.

Questionnaires: Typically there are no right or wrong answers because questionnaires consider someones characteristics or how they prefer to behave. Questionnaires measure soft skills.

So whilst it is true that a psychometric profile may take the guesswork out of recruiting and give you confidence in making the right decision and perhaps appoint the right person. They are not always an objective mechanism to short list candidates or eliminate those individuals without the right temperament.

The problem with profiles

The issue is not the process but the nature of how the information is gathered. Both test and questionnaire based profiles used word based questions to drive the profile. And these questions, or variations of them, have been around for a long time. People who are exposed to them are becoming used to the style, pattern and content. In fact you can by books and attend courses in how to answer the questions in a way that changes the profile.

Its not that hard, even without the inside knowledge. For example the question below was taken at random from a widely used and popular test. Does interacting with strangers (a) energise you or (b) tax your reserves?

Now it doesnt take much understanding of psychometric profiles to realise that this question is measuring your preference for social interaction. Most popular profiles would define this as Introversion or Extroversion. If you have a basic understanding of personality profiles you could predict the employers requirements, modify your answers and alter your profile. As familiarity with the questions and interview coaching increase the effectiveness of profiles can only diminish. This is a growing concern for employers.

New challenges require a fresh approach

Increasingly psychometric tests are emerging that record the subjects response to non-verbal stimuli. This questioning technique works at a deeper more unconscious level, which makes them much harder to predict or second guess. There is even a suggestion that the answers given are more accurate, eliminating the other issue with traditional profiles which is the number of questions that need to be asked. Instead of spending ten, fifteen or thirty minutes often a visually based psychometric profile can be completed in less than sixty seconds.

If words and questions are being replaced by images and preferences, perhaps this will make psychometric profiling not only faster, fun and more accurate, it might appeal more to a wider audience, rather than just being the preserve of business. In the future it could be that a picture really is worth a thousand words.