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Recruitment: Most Professionals Agree on Psychometric Testing

DUBAI — Sixty-three per cent of professionals think Middle Eastern companies should start using psychometric testing in the recruitment of staff, the latest online poll series by job site Bayt.com show. 



Psychometric test, which is gaining popularity in the region, is a process to map and plot the psychological traits of an individual in order to measure sensitivity, memory, intelligence, aptitude and personality among other educational and psychological traits, the job site said.

The test can help an individual to make the best possible career choice, and can enable employers to check the suitability of a potential candidate for a specific vacancy, Bayt.com said in a statement on Monday as it announced the launch of online psychometric tests for Middle East professionals.

It claimed the online tests are designed to specifically evaluate the work-related/professional attributes of an individual.

“Psychometric testing of potential new recruits has been popular with organisations around the globe for a number of years because of its positive application for finding a candidate that is the best fit for an organisation and a specific vacancy. By extending these tests to professionals, we are empowering them to discover just where their competencies, preferences and abilities lie, which will enable them to find a career and position that they are suited to and that they can make a success of,” said Lama Ataya, Bayt’s marketing and corporate communication director.



Some 4,865 job seekers across the Middle East took part in the online poll between March 2 and 23.

A majority of respondents in the survey agreed that there were a number of benefits for professionals taking such tests: 30 per cent agreed that it acts as a guide to finding the right career, 17 per cent said that it measures an individual’s intelligence when it comes to work and another 12 per cent said that it serves as a measure of a professional’s sensitivity to various work factors. For the most part, 35 per cent of the respondents agreed that it was a combination of all of these factors.

However, when respondents asked whether they had ever taken a psychometric evaluation, 68 per cent said they had not undertaken one but agreed that they would like to. A further 12 per cent of respondents said that they had undergone a psychometric evaluation for an employer or potential employer, while 10 per cent said they had undergone a test out of choice. Interestingly, just 10 per cent of the professionals that participated in the poll said that they have not undergone a test and do not believe in them. Asked whether friends and family had undergone a psychometric test, almost three quarters of those surveyed, said that they had not.

“The results of the poll series, which was conducted with professionals working in a number of different industries in the region, show that psychometric testing is something that professionals consider as highly important, and their uptake and use will likely bring widespread benefits to the Middle East’s job market,” said Ataya. — issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com