Cognitive assessments - Hiring made smart!

When it comes to hiring, the good old interviews and background checks are not enough in a scenario where organizations are vying for top talent. Hiring managers are increasingly turning to psychometric assessments and cognitive tests to make effective and measurable hiring decisions. While psychometric assessments give an objective analysis of a candidate’s behavioral traits, cognitive assessments measure his/her intelligence and aptitude. According to Laszlo Bock, “Ability to perform” assessments are the second highest predicator for a potential employee’s performance, measuring up to 26%¹. 

So, what do these tests measure? Intelligence? Or is it aptitude? Let us understand what these terms mean and how they are different. 

‘Intelligence’, though a commonly used term, is not widely understood. There’s no doubt that Albert Einstein was exceptionally intelligent with an IQ of 160. He has been universally considered a pure genius. But is that all? Is IQ the only indicator of successful performance in one’s job or career? 

Around the 19th century, an English psychologist named Charles Edward Spearman propounded the existence of a general intelligence factor, also known as the ‘G’ factor. It expressed the broad mental capacity of an individual through a single number — strikingly similar to an IQ score. However, the theory that intelligence can be encapsulated in a single number has been a topic of debate amongst psychologists since long. After all, one cannot ignore the fact that intelligence has its unique place in the human cognitive ecosystem. That means that just because a person has an inclination towards art but struggles with math does not make the person any less intelligent.

Many psychologists and their findings have indicated the presence of multiple intelligences or cognitive abilities that overlay our general intelligence. Though IQ scores do define a general intelligence factor, they differ from cognitive abilities. IQ has the ability to measure a generic ability to solve problems and grasp concepts. However, a high IQ does not always coincide with success. Here’s where the concept of Aptitude comes into the picture. Freeman (1971) defined ‘Aptitude’ as:

“A combination of characteristics indicative of an individual’s capacity to acquire, with training, some specific knowledge skill, or a set of organized responses, such as the ability to speak a language, to become a musician, to do a mechanical work.”

Exactly what factors influence a person’s aptitude is not certain, but heredity and the immediate environment are said to have a strong influence. Aptitude, by no means, is restricted to logical reasoning, verbal ability, or data interpretation, as is popularly believed. It is diverse and includes vast areas of cognitive abilities — artistic, musical, clerical, law, and many more.

Industrial psychologists have long stressed on a candidate’s aptitude as a strong indicator of success on the job. An employer might hire someone with passion and inclination, but that would be a decision based on instinct and will not be enough. Cognitive assessments, backed by science and numbers, give a reliable source of evaluating an individual’s ability to live up to the job’s expectations. They give you the measure of an inherent trainable quality that helps in selecting the right people who can be trained for the job. This is how cognitive assessments find an indisputable place in the hiring process. If deployed correctly, hiring managers can definitely grab good talent in the market by focusing on what really matters. Cognitive assessments greatly optimize the hiring process and help companies hire the specific skillset than can be trained mentored.

In all this, there is also some bad news. There’s no test out there that solves hiring problems, nor do cognitive tests fit into all occasions. However, there are instances where it is absolutely helpful to use cognitive assessments.

Filtration: Often, organizations have to filter out from a large pool of candidates, especially in case of campus recruitments. Faster, easier, and foolproof aptitude tests go a long way in making things simpler for organizations. For a larger outreach of candidates, remote proctoring solutions² have also come up. 

Specific job type: Aptitude tests are an excellent source of evaluation for technical jobs. If you are hiring a writer, a verbal ability test proves effective. On the other hand, a job that’s physically demanding will require a physical fitness test just like the ones that the army uses for new recruits. 

Complexity: For highly complex job, cognitive abilities play a much bigger role in determining the right person. Hiring an asset for the foreign intelligence agency, for instance, will require someone with the highest level of intelligence. There, a series of aptitude tests would be needed to assess the candidates. 

However, cognitive tests are not conducive in all scenarios. Here’s why:

One piece of the puzzle: You cannot rely only on cognitive assessments for the final decision. They are just one piece of the puzzle and there’s an array of other factors like competencies, interpersonal skills and more that need to be evaluated.

Where experience matters: This especially holds true for senior leadership where previous performance matters more than scores on an assessment test. 

Aptitude tests have been found to be reliable performance predictors across levels and departments and correlates to successful job performance and long term career advancement. In fact, they possess the highest and the most significant predictive ability than other conventional methods such as educational qualification, interviews etc. However, on the flipside, a high score at the end of an assessment test does not predict creativity. Cognitive assessments do not indicate that the individual is going to have an innovative mindset or even out-of-the-box thinking. That puts a question mark on the usefulness of the aptitude test in today’s world where innovative thinking and foresight are crucial.

While hiring business leaders or top executives, a highly specific cognitive ability, called critical business thinking comes into play which is the foundation of executive intelligence. Executive intelligence assessments are one way to evaluate candidates for leadership positions so that the organizations understand if they are capable of solving problems. In other words, they are performance predictors for business leaders. Till now, executive intelligence assessments have been conducted on more than 500 senior business leaders in 18 countries³ and in seven languages. They have been proven to be valid performance predictors by researches conducted by the Western Michigan University’s Evaluation Center. 

Whatever tools and processes you put in place, it is important to consider the fact that hiring is an amalgamation of science and art. Instinct is an important part, however, hiring managers sometimes get the science wrong. Although cognitive assessments are important for placing the right person on the job, they cannot be used as a standalone entity in the hiring process. But if used wisely, they can significantly cut down attrition and have positive business impact. 

Cognitive assessments do not indicate that the individual is going to have an innovative mindset or even out-of-the-box thinking — this puts a question mark on the usefulness of the aptitude test in today’s world where innovative thinking and foresight are crucial

References