As the field of Talent Management grows in India, the use of personality tests is likely to become pervasive.

One of the pioneers of psychometric testing in the emerging markets, Richard Cross, demystifies the area. Reflecting on his own experience he explains what personality tests are about, their sometimes controversial history, and the pitfalls of the Barnum Effect. Executive advice is offered on how to get the best out of them providing a robust foundation to individual and organizational talent management.

We've all taken one. At some point in your business life, you may have taken a psychometric test. Even the talented young wizard Harry Potter was placed into the Gryffindor House at Hogwarts by a "sorting hat" that could gauge the temperament of each student. He's now addicted to psychometric tests. The `'Harry Potter'' effect has been coined as candidates for jobs have repeatedly logged on to online tests to hone their performance under his name. If you are an executive based in the UK, US, and in Europe; if you work for a big company there's at least a seventy per cent chance that you have been subject to a personality test. In India, on the other hand, unless you are part of a multinational this is less likely, say around twenty per cent. The forecast is a testing tsunami. Indian companies will reach the European levels of use and potentially abuse, sooner rather than later. Consistent with this scenario, what follows is an experiential executive orientation concerning personality tests. It's a personal reflection as a `behavioral science' practitioner and HR manager who had to make many tough and high value (as well as costly) recruitment recommendations and development. The intention is to help Indian executives get to grip with an alluring niche field that on a good day can help measure work performance, improve the productivity of your organization and get the most out of your people through its contribution to selection and development.

Psychometric assessments involve the measurement of concepts such as intelligence, reasoning, numerical ability and personality in an objective and quantitative manner. Here the discussion is restricted to personality but it's worth emphasizing that ability tests tend to predict successful job performance slightly better than personality assessments in many instances.

Why use psychometrics and personality tests? Essentially such tests are designed to minimize human bias in selection and make the process more objective. While they can take their time (from thirteen minutes to a gruelling one-hour Japanese game show `torture test') to complete, there is some truth in the adage "more haste less speed". They allow personality characteristics to be assessed accurately and consistently. They can enable individuals to be evaluated on common criteria. Decisions can be made on more than gut feeling, in extreme cases longer than just an executive minute. Most importantly, relevant psychometric tests allow hiring of individuals who are more likely to be highly effective or if you like, and I do elite performers. We are probably only too aware of the financial cost in selecting individuals who are not `quite' suited to their jobs. It's not the best emotional experience either to fire people you've just recruited or promote someone successful in one arena, a salesman or sports star to watch them fail in another as a sales manager or head coach.

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