PSYCHOMETRIC TESTING AT NAB

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PSYCHOMETRIC TESTING AT NAB

• Stephanie Christopher SHL
• Anna Heywood - NAB

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WHAT IS PSYCHOMETRIC TESTING?
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SOME PERCEPTIONS OF WHAT PSYCH TESTING DOES
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• WHAT HAVE YOUR EXPERIENCES BEEN WITH PSYCH
  TESTING?

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PSYCHOMETRIC ASSESSMENTS INCLUDE
Well focus on ability and personality
assessments

• Ability/aptitude tests
• Personality questionnaires
• Structured interviews
• Assessment centres

A psychometric test is a standardised sample of
behaviour that can be described by a numerical
scale or category system.
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BACK TO THE BASICS WHY DO ORGANISATIONS USE
PSYCH TESTING?

• Psych testing has been found to be related to
  future job performance
• And so, is used as a gauge to determine whether
  you have the aptitude for the job, or are a good
  fit to the role before youve stepped into the
  organisation
• Organisations want to have the candidates who are
  the best fit for the role!
• Helps compare apples with apples
• It is in also in your interests to be a good fit
  to the role

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• SELECTING OUR GRADS

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Selecting grads
We want our selection process to

• Highly
• predictive of job
• performance
• 2. Build our
• brand/reputation
• 3. Resource
• efficient

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The NAB assessment process
Stage 1 Online Application Stage 2 Aptitude
tests and fit assessment Stage 3 Phone
interviews Stage 4 Assessment Centres Stage 5
(a)Personality Questionnaire (OPQ) (b)
Interviews with Line Managers Offers made!
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APTITUDE TESTS

• Help organisations understand your potential or
  capacity in a given area
• Typically cover a broad ability area (eg verbal/
  numerical skills, not accounting knowledge)
• There are right and wrong answers

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EXAMPLE VERBAL TEST
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EXAMPLE NUMERICAL TEST
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PREPARING FOR AN APTITUDE TEST

• You cant really prepare for an aptitude test,
  nor are there strategies to assist you in
  completing an aptitude test
• It measures your potential/aptitude
• However, everyday exposure to those types of
  skills (eg at uni!) may enhance those skills
• You can do practice tests to familiarise yourself
  with the types of questions that may be asked
• The SHL Direct website provides practice tests
  and also includes some advice on completing
  psychometric tests
• www.shldirect.com

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The biggest perceived threat to online testing
is CHEATING!
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Dealing with cheating
Your results will be verified later in the
process through the Assessment Centres
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PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRES

• Help organisations understand your
  preferences/behavioural style
• We dont imply ability/capability from a
  personality questionnaire!
• Understanding your natural preferences/style
• Most personality questionnaires used for
  assessments in the workplace do not tell us
  whether you are psycho or not and there is no
  right or wrong personality!
• NAB use a personality questionnaire to simply
  inform the interview process
• NAB take in candidates from a huge range of
  different personalities!
• It is in your best interest to respond honestly
  to the questionnaire as it will ensure you are
  going to be a good fit to the role, and more
  importantly, enjoy the work!!

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EXAMPLE PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE
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TIPS ON COMPLETING A PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE

• Think of your preferred style and preference as
  it relates to the workplace.
• This is what employers will be interested in, not
  your preference/style at the pub on Saturday
  night!
• Respond to the questionnaire honestly
• This helps you be more confident that you will be
  a good fit to the role, and enjoy the work
• If you arent a good fit to a specific
  organisation, there will be other organisations
  you will be a good fit for
• A lot of personality questionnaires actually
  measure a range of different personality traits
  (eg the OPQ measures 32 different personality
  traits!) its hard to fake on every scale!
• Very often, candidates fudge their responses,
  but instead end up coming across worse than if
  they had completed the questionnaire honestly
  its hard to predict specifically what
  organisations are looking for
• Note that some questionnaires have an in-built
  faking mechanism!!

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SOME THINGS TO NOTE

• You can ask for feedback after assessments
• Organisations can hold off providing you with
  information until selection decisions have been
  made, and they can also withhold commercially
  sensitive information
• However, getting feedback is a good opportunity
  to assist you in identifying where you did well
  and didnt do so well during the assessments!
• Is it how you were perceived?
• Are there areas for development?
• What are you doing well? Capitalise on these!
• Consider re-thinking the type of
  role/organisation you are applying to - Which
  roles/organisations might you be best suited to?

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• DEVELOPING GEN Y

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Pulling together Development Day

• Encourage self awareness, while maintaining an
  engaging, fun session
• Lots of interactive activities identify blind
  spots, raise awareness of preferred styles
• How might it differ from others?
• Difference between style and ability?

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A sampling of the activities from the day
We started with
Personality preferences
Impact on working with others
What does NAB expect?
Support for development
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Taking development one step further

• Integrating assessment
• results in grad
• talent development

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Grad Talent Development
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• Broader Context
• Grad Development Day
• Developing Grad Talent

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QUESTIONS?

• Thank you!