Thinking about aptitude testing? Make sure you’re getting it right!

An important and well-known arm in the suite of tools used during pre-employment assessments is aptitude testing (kind of like IQ testing). These tests, in a nutshell, are about measuring someone’s ability – how quickly and how accurately they do something.

Aptitude tests were originally developed more than two centuries ago, but they were really refined in the early 20th Century by the U.S. Army. They developed a range of tests across different levels of service, from Officers to servicemen, and across different languages.

A big part of this was to understand survival rate – and this is a great way of understanding exactly what aptitude testing is. In the Army, when you hear a bang, you duck. But some people do this faster and smarter – it’s as simple as that.

…and that’s a great analogy for all aptitude testing. It is about measuring speed and accuracy – that’s it.

At TALY, we partner with ACER to provide aptitude testing for pre-employment across verbal, numeric, and abstract reasoning dimensions. These tests can provide valuable insight on candidates during recruitment. Get in touch with our team to find out more.

Firstly, what are we measuring here?

Aptitude tests are NOT intelligence tests. What they simply measure is how accurately and quickly someone moves through a range of questions on a particular topic.

For many roles, this isn’t really needed. And of course, other factors like personality, experience, skills, attitude, etc matter. Recruitment is about seeing the whole person.

The outcome of this gives us insight into how they might operate in certain environments or work situations. A couple of examples…

Imagine your role involves high-level negotiations, where you need to quickly work with complex numbers, make changes, come up with deals.

Imagine you need to think on your feet, take in a lot of written or verbal information, make quick decisions, respond to what’s going on around you.

Or perhaps you need to be able to rapidly innovate, work with complex or abstract information, create change.

You might have noticed from those examples that what we are talking about is complexity and, most importantly, speed. The truth is, most people will be able to get to the right answer for a question if time didn’t matter – but people can differ A LOT when we put a time limit on things.

The aptitude testing with conduct at TALY covers three dimensions…

Verbal reasoning – assesses reasoning, analysis and problem solving of verbal and written information.

Numeric reasoning – assesses reasoning, analysis and problem solving of numerical data and statistical information.

Abstract reasoning – defined as the extent to which a person can discover principles and rules, and apply them to solve problems using abstract visual patterns.

The results give a percentage score, comparing the candidate to extensive norming data, benchmarked to role-type.

When are they suitable for pre-employment?

So, if we’re talking about speed, the question you need to ask yourself is what role will speed play in the role you are hiring for? As a regular part of the role, will the team member need to move fast with verbal, numeric and/or abstract/conceptual information?

There are a lot of roles where this isn’t the case, so perhaps aptitude testing isn’t necessary for these people.

But if you need assurance that the people you’re bringing in will operate at a certain level, then aptitude testing might be right for you.

BUT… some important things to think about before using these tests.

Aptitude testing can be super helpful in some employment situations, and can really help differentiate candidates for certain roles, helping employers make sure they are getting people that are going to be able to operate quickly and effectively in the role.

However, there are very divided opinions about aptitude testing in the industry, and some important things for you to think about before adding it into the mix.

Impact on the candidate

Aptitude testing can be stressful for some people, and is also time consuming (around 60 minutes all up). This stress can impact on how people respond, leading to lower scores than they would get if they weren’t feeling the pressure.

Unless it is really needed for the role, consider the impact this may have on the candidate’s interviewing and pre-employment experience, and what it says about your business.

Concerns about the validity

Aptitude testing is often challenged as a tool for assessment, with some feeling that it doesn’t test aptitude, but rather just tests how well you take tests.

Some people feel confident when being tested, and are familiar with it.

Others are not.

Aptitude testing has been found to discriminate a little to people who have a lower level of education, are older, are from certain backgrounds, people living with disabilities and more – not because they aren’t intelligent enough, but more that they may not have the same grounding in “test-taking”.

Again, it’s important to keep this in mind to ensure that the aptitude testing is needed, and that it will be fair for everyone.

Check out this summary for some further insight into some of the challenges

The TALY approach to personality profiling brings together a unique mix of Five Factor and Emotional Intelligence profiling to help organisations, hiring managers and teams to make better decisions about recruitment and teams.

Get in touch to find out more… we love talking about this stuff!