Archive for category: General

Are you taking a numerical reasoning test in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Perth as part of a psychometric assessment? If so, you need to have a good understanding of these tests and perform lots of practice runs before the actual day of your test.

What is a numerical reasoning test?

These tests are often used during a recruitment drive in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney or Perth to assess how well candidates understand and manipulate numerical data. There are no complicated analyses that need to be performed, but you will need high school mathematics to complete the test and it will be based on multi-choice questions, so the correct answer is on the paper!

Usually, a numerical reasoning test in Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane or Sydney is time limited, so you will only have a certain amount of time to answer each question or you will fall behind and not complete the test (between 45 seconds to 2 minutes is normal). This means that you should do all the easiest questions first, leaving the harder questions to last.

10 Tips for answering a numerical reasoning test

1.    Make sure you read the question carefully and understand what it’s asking.
2.    Take a calculator with you to the test and know how to use it.
3.    These are multiple choice questions, so if your answer isn’t on the paper – it’s definitely wrong!
4.    Calculate the time needed to answer each question and stick to it.
5.    Don’t make assumptions – all the data you need is on the page, ignore anything else.
6.    Many questions can be related to one graph or table, so make sure you understand each graph or table fully, don’t jump ahead to the questions.
7.    Focus on what’s important in the question, what are they asking you to do?
8.    Check units, currencies or bases and make sure you select the correct answer.
9.    Use rough paper for your calculations.
10.  Practice many questions before actually sitting the test.

For information on using a numerical reasoning test in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne or Perth, call Urban Psychometrics on 07 3535 1220 or send us an email today.

When you are searching for a new job, you are usually focussed on the recruitment test, something that you might not have encountered previously. These tests can come in many different forms and can have a profound effect on the success or failure of your application, which is why most candidates spend a significant amount of time practicing these tests.

First impressions make a difference in your job search

Whilst each type of recruitment test is an essential part of the recruitment phase (since it helps you to find a job that suits your skills and personality), a good first impression can move mountains. You must have heard the old adage that you can’t recover from a bad first impression? Which is why the first impression you give to recruiters must be flawless.

First impressions don’t only include how you portray yourself during your recruitment test and interview to recruiters and hiring personnel however, but also include anyone else you come into contact with at the company. Employees and even customers are a good example where a first impression can have a lasting effect on the result of your interview, because you will be watched the entire time that you are in the building.

As an example, consider how you interact with a hiring manager’s secretary when you first arrive for your recruitment test. What if you see an employee struggling to balance a number of files in their arms, what type of first impression would you make if you got up and helped them? If the team leader sits down to idly chat with you before your interview, it’s worth considering the value of being friendly and respectful, because first impressions always count.

Tips for making a good first impression during your recruitment test

Always be well groomed and dress appropriately for the occasion. Research the company, so you have plenty of background information and can hold a conversation with confidence. Check out senior management on LinkedIn to learn more about the company and their specific roles (particularly the people who will be on the interview panel) and of course, when you arrive for your test and interview, be happy and smile!

For more information on using a recruitment test that is tailored for your business needs, please call us on 07 3535 1220 or send us an email.

Mechanical reasoning testing is generally use during the recruitment phase for engineering or technical jobs. It measures a candidates ability to understand and apply mechanical concepts to solve problems that are inherent in this line of work.

Positions where this type of test is frequently used include train drivers, trades people, firefighters and operation workers; the complexity of the test reflects the job and role on offer. If you are considering using  mechanical reasoning testing for your next recruitment drive, here is a quick overview of these tests.

Overview of mechanical reasoning testing

These tests include a number of mechanical problems that need to be completed within a specific time frame with 30 seconds per question, and are designed so that only 1% or 5% of the candidates are likely to finish on time. Each set of questions is created for a particular role; each question has only one correct answer and the questions can be based on topics that include pressure, moments, friction, acceleration, energy transformation, kinetic and potential energy, levers, pulleys and so on.

Employers can customise the questions so that they are specific for particular positions and roles and can vary in complexity. Questions for managerial roles or senior positions can be far more complex than those for more junior positions or entry-level roles.

Test scores reflect a candidates’ ability to solve mechanical problems quickly, which can be a skill that is greatly needed for many roles. Mechanical reasoning testing is a way to judge how quickly a candidate solves complex mechanical problems on the fly and is a skill that can be improved over time. Candidates can spend a significant amount of time prior to taking the test, practicing questions and honing their knowledge.

Online preparations for taking a mechanical reasoning test

There are plenty of websites where candidates can access examples of these tests. Developed by psychometric test writers, these practice tests are based on real world problems and are realistic questions that may be asked during a recruitment drive. Candidates receive the correct answers with detailed explanations immediately, helping them to identify any areas they need to revise.

For more information on using mechanical reasoning testing in your next for recruitment drive, call Urban Psychometrics on 07 3535 1220 or send us an email.

A cognitive ability test is quite useful in Brisbane workplaces because it measures a host of abilities that are essential when you are assessing employee performance. These tests typically comprise questions that evaluate how an employee addresses job-related challenges by measuring an employee’s ability to learn quickly, and to reason and think through a problem to a logical conclusion.

Benefits of a cognitive ability test for employers

These abilities are essential for a variety of different jobs and there is plenty of research that demonstrates the usefulness of cognitive ability tests in assessing both job performance and training outcomes. These type of tests help employers and managers to decide the best career paths for their employees and whether they may benefit from additional training, mentoring or even a challenging promotion or new role.

Knowing which employee will benefit from a particular career path can save a lot of time and money that may otherwise be spent encouraging an employee in one direction, when they would be much happier and more successful heading in another direction.

In Brisbane, a cognitive ability test has been shown to be particularly useful to predict job performance for more challenging roles, identifying qualities that even the employee may not know they possess. Since they assess an individual’s ability to reason and think through a situation, these tests can be very useful for managerial roles or senior positions where being able to identify and manage complex situations is an essential task.

Other benefits of using these tests are that they are very simple to administer to large groups of employees at one time, requiring no special skills from those overseeing these tests. The results are also very difficult to influence by the employee, which is why they are very effective at identifying individuals with certain abilities.

In fact, some research has found that employee retention rates are increased when a cognitive ability test is used to help them find their best career path within an organisation.

If you are interested in using a cognitive ability test to evaluate your employee’s work performance in Brisbane, contact Urban Psychometrics on 07 3535 1220 or send us an email.

Most employers in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne use aptitude tests during their recruitment drives to test the candidate’s cognitive thinking. You will be happy to know that everyone should be able to answer these questions, so they aren’t very difficult, the problem is that these are timed tests, so how long you take to answer them is an important factor that is taken into consideration.

These tests assess your ability or potential to perform certain tasks without any prior knowledge or training and provide the recruiters with a good idea about how you draw conclusions from certain facts. Below we have listed the type of different aptitude tests that are frequently used in Brisbane, Sydney, Perth and Melbourne.

Verbal reasoning: These are language based tests designed to assess your verbal analytical skills. Essentially, they test your ability to identify the most important points in a document and come to a logical and sound conclusion, based on these salient points.

Numerical reasoning: These are similar to the verbal reasoning tests, but are based on deriving important conclusions from data, graphs and tables and being able to use these conclusions to make effective decisions within the workplace. Your maths ability isn’t tested, it’s only your ability to interpret and use the data that is assessed.

Language & literacy: Your ability to communicate through writing is assessed with the language and literacy aptitude tests. Spelling, grammar, vocabulary and sentence structure are all important aspects of this test, as well as how you use the written language to communicate effectively with others.

Abstract reasoning: These are based on drawing conclusions from shapes, patterns and words and are becoming more popular with employers. The three main types of aptitude tests in this category are inductive, deductive and diagrammatic reasoning. Inductive tests often include drawing conclusions from shapes or matrices, deductive tests assess your ability to apply certain rules to specific examples, whilst diagrammatic reasoning involves drawing conclusions from numbers.

Spatial reasoning: This aptitude test assesses your ability to organise spaces such as warehouses and to identify hazards in the workplace. It uses images, diagrams and dimensional shapes to test your awareness and how you orientate yourself and other objects in space.

For more information on using aptitude tests in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne for your next recruitment drive, call Urban Psychometrics on 07 3535 1220 or send us an email.

Most employees are familiar with using a pre-employment psychometric test during the recruitment process, but few are aware that you can use information gathered from exit surveys to enhance and finetune your psychometrics.

Finding out why staff leave your employment can significantly assist you in understanding your company’s strengths and weaknesses, and identify any areas that need to be further developed to assist employee retention. Many companies have great success using exit surveys, but if you craft the questions appropriately and make use of the information, you can also finetune your recruitment psychometrics in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

It can actually be a circular process. For example, if you review the psychometric test used during the recruitment process for an exiting employee, you can design a survey that questions whether your company made use of the employee’s natural talents highlighted in the recruitment psychometrics. If this didn’t happen, then maybe the employee is leaving because he or she didn’t feel fulfilled or empowered?

This information can be used to finetune your pre-employment psychometrics in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne to ensure that the candidate’s expectations are not only aligned with those of your company, but are also utilised to their benefit.

There are three steps to creating an exit survey:

1. Craft the questions: Your HR department can work in cooperation with an expert in psychometrics to design a well balanced exit survey that feeds back into your recruitment processes and the way your company mentors employees.
2. Design an exit interview: If the exit survey is to hand before the exit interview, you can ask leading questions to encourage the employee to expand on their answers. This is where you can obtain information that can significantly increase your retention rate, particularly if you weren’t aware of the problems highlighted by the employee.
3. Investigate: Some of the employee’s answers might be quite uncomfortable to swallow, but if more than one employee leaves for the same reasons, then it must be investigated.

Psychometrics can play a significant role in both recruitment and retention of your employees, but it can also be used to find out why employees leave and can be used in a feedback loop to improve the pre-employment psychometric test used during your recruitment drives.

For help with exit surveys or pre employment psychometrics in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, call Urban Psychometrics on 07 3535 1220 or send us an email.

Do you include a psychology test in your recruitment process? If not, then you could be missing out on a proven way to find the right person for the job. Most employers have learnt that qualifications, skills and experience don’t always define the best person for a specific role.

Far too often, employers spend their time and money training a new employee, only to find later that they really were not the best person for the job, despite the quality of their resume. This is where a recruitment test can make all the difference, because with a psychological report on each candidate, you have a much higher chance of selecting the right person for your organisation.

Let’s take a look at the most popular psychology tests used by employers today.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: Needing to choose between two answers, this recruitment test determines the psychological type of a candidate in four specific areas. Basically it gives you an overview of how they interact with others, access information, make decisions, and deal with the world. With 16 different personality types, recruiters have a very clear idea whether a candidate is suitable for a specific role or not.

Caliper Profile: In this psychology test, candidates have to select a statement that they agree with the most, giving recruiters a psychological report that quantifies how a candidate’s traits relate to their job performance. This test is based on their natural strengths, weaknesses, motivations and potential to succeed in a role. It’s ideal for knowing the areas where a candidate needs further development, making it a very useful recruitment test.

Gallup Profile: Similar to the Caliper Profile, the Gallup Profile however, only focuses on a candidate’s strengths and what they do best. The Gallup psychological report gives recruiters the power to attract and identify their ideal employees, focussing on identifying a candidate’s greatest talents and those who will thrive in your culture.

Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire: This psychology test is very effective at revealing a candidate’s potential and developmental needs. It is based on 170 questions and gives employers enough information to help new employees achieve their best in their new role.

For more information on selecting the best psychology test for your next recruitment drive, call us on 07 3535 1220 or send us an email.

The use of psychometrics in Brisbane during both the recruitment process and post-hire is becoming more and more popular with employers who want to employ the right person for a specific role. These tests have proven to be extremely useful to employers, particularly for identifying the best candidates for management roles.

Using pre-hire psychometrics in Brisbane

A cognitive ability test (a type of psychometric test) is often used in Brisbane to identify candidates who excel in leadership and management roles and who can build a strong and cohesive team within a company. Specifically, people who score highly on these tests have the ability to think strategically and solve complex problems quickly.

Another attribute that is required in a good leader is emotional intelligence; people who can communicate, inspire and encourage employees to work effectively as a team. Unfortunately, qualifications and intelligence don’t always equate to good leadership skills. This is why candidates need to be tested during the recruitment process for both their emotional intelligence and their mental abilities using psychometrics in Brisbane.

Using post-hire psychometrics in Brisbane

If you already have a full complement of staff, you can still utilise the benefits of these tests to identify your best leaders and encourage their growth within your company. For example, a cognitive ability test and an emotional intelligence test can be used to help identify employees who should be promoted to leadership or management roles within your organisation.

For employees already in these managerial positions, psychometrics can be used to assess their current performance as a manager and whether there are any gaps in their skill set. With an understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses (from an emotional intelligence perspective), employees can focus on making improvements within themselves and using their interpersonal skills to encourage and inspire others to work to their own best abilities.

At Urban Psychometrics in Brisbane, we offer a range of tests for both pre and post-hire situations. To identify candidates with good leadership skills during the recruitment process, we have an emotional intelligence test (MSCEIT) that gives a measure of their own self-awareness, self-regulation and how they relate to others on an emotional level. Post-hire, you can supplement the MSCEIT with additional questions that identify an employee’s strengths and weaknesses, with suggestions for making improvements. A cognitive ability test can also be used both pre and post-hire to assess an individual’s ability to solve abstract and complex problems on their feet.

For more information on using pre or post-hire psychometrics in Brisbane for your organisation, call us on 07 3535 1220 or send us an email.

A psychological report or a psychology test is often used in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane during the recruitment phase for jobs in the police force, security industry and law enforcement agencies, as well as any other roles that require security clearance.

They are only one part of the selection process however, but can be invaluable tool in deciding whether the candidate is suitable for the role. Here are two of the more commonly used psychology tests that are used in Australia.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: This psychology test is frequently used in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane by government agencies to indicate how a candidate perceives the world and how they make decisions based on their perception. It doesn’t measure personality traits, instead it highlights a candidate’s preferences. For example, the 16 personality types are based on four fundamental preferences:

People and things vs ideas and information (E vs I).
Facts and reality vs possibilities and potential (S vs N).
Logic and truth vs values and relationships (T vs F).
A well-structured lifestyle vs one that goes with the flow (J vs P).

This results in a four letter code, for example ENTJ, and a professional practitioner can use this psychological report to match the candidate with specific roles or leadership positions.

Kolbe Index: This psychological report is designed to maximise an employee’s potential by identifying their natural talents and matching them with a role that requires these qualities. The results of this test indicate how well a candidate uses their instincts to prevent and resolve problems and how they respond to opportunities. It also indicates the candidate’s expectations, which helps the candidate to recognise if they are working against own interests.

Whichever psychological test is used, each is meant to answer a set of specific questions and an experienced practitioner can synthesize all the data from these tests to capture a candidate’s unique perspective on the world.

As you can appreciate, in positions that require a high level of security clearance, as well as in law enforcement roles, a psychological report that predicts how an individual will respond in certain circumstances can be an invaluable asset during the recruitment process.

For more information on using a psychology test in Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane for your organisation, call Urban Psychometrics on 07 3535 1220 or send us an email.

Using a pre employment assessment is fairly common practice during a recruitment process, because they help employers to find the right person for the job. Candidates also benefit from these recruitment tests, because when they are offered a position, they know that it’s one that is well suited to their personality and skill set.

Pre employment testing also offers a certain level of objectivity to the recruitment process, which is an essential component of every campaign. They also help employers to deal with large numbers of potential candidates by ranking them based on a number of factors, one of which can be the results of these tests.

So what type of pre employment assessment might be included in your recruitment process?

Personality tests

These tests help employers to decide if a candidate is a good fit for their company or organisation. A personality test is a frequently used recruitment test, as it demonstrates how an individual would behave in a variety of different scenarios.

Employers often use a personality test focused on work preferences that measures how well an individual works in a team and how much satisfaction they gain from their work. Emotional intelligence is also another type of personality test that demonstrates how well the candidate manages their own and other’s emotions in the workplace. There are no right or wrong answers to this type of pre employment testing, as all results will be compared to the personality profile of the employer’s ‘ideal’ candidate.

Aptitude tests

These type of pre employment assessments are designed to measure a candidate’s ability to perform certain tasks in the workplace. They rely more on natural aptitude or abilities than on experience or knowledge; the three types of aptitude tests focus on different aspects of the candidate’s abilities.

The verbal reasoning recruitment test is concerned with how the candidate interprets and passes-on written information and data. The abstract reasoning test is concerned with how well they can identify patterns and trends in images and use this information to solve problems, and the numerical reasoning test is concerned with how well they interpret and pass-on information gleaned from graphs, numbers and statistics.

One or more of these tests may be included in the pre employment testing process, depending on the requirements of the role and the employers preferences. For more information on including a pre employment assessment in your recruitment drive, call Urban Psychometrics on 07 35351220 or send us an email.