common myths about
psychometric tools
• Myth 1: “They’re expensive, aren’t they?”
No. There is an initial outlay in training experts for your
organisation, but running costs are low.
• Myth 2: “They’re not cost-effective.”
Their accuracy in predicting job-performance makes
them cost-effective – as anyone who knows the costs of
recruiting replacement staff will testify.
• Myth 3: “People can fake them.”
Ability tests are extremely difficult to fake and personality
questionnaires have built-in checks to highlight if faking
has been attempted.
• Myth 4: “They are time-
consuming.”
Administering an assessment
varies from ten minutes to
over an hour. Often the
questionnaires can be
administered to many people at
the same time, which can make
them more time-efficient than
other assessment or development
methods.
• Myth 5: “They are unfair to
people with disabilities.”
It is straightforward to make
reasonable adjustments to
the assessment process in
order to alleviate any potential
disadvantage.
• Myth 6: “Personality tools put
people in boxes instead of
helping them develop.”
The value of psychometrics is
that they enable us to cope with
people and their differences more
constructively than we could do
otherwise, which can then be
applied to a development setting.
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