When a hire goes wrong, it’s rarely just a minor setback. Mis-hires cost time, money, and momentum, especially in critical roles. Yet many organisations still lean heavily on instinct or outdated methods when choosing who to bring on board.
By adopting a data-driven hiring approach, particularly through the use of psychometric assessments, companies can dramatically reduce the likelihood of poor hiring decisions.
Data or intuition?
Hiring based on gut-feeling is common and can often be flawed or biassed. Intuition is often clouded by unconscious biases, first impressions, or the personal preferences of interviewers. This can be especially risky when multiple candidates all look good on paper.
The danger here is false positives: a candidate appears promising in interviews but fails to perform in-role. Without objective benchmarks, it’s difficult to distinguish between true potential and polished presentation. That’s where traditional processes fall short.
Relying solely on CVs and interviews also limits insight into core behavioural traits—like resilience, adaptability, or learning ability—that determine how well someone will perform and stay in a role.
How psychometrics can de-risk hiring
Psychometric assessments provide objective, standardised data on a candidate’s personality traits, cognitive ability, and potential for success. When used properly, they remove guesswork and introduce consistency to the decision-making process.
With a platform like ours, you can assess candidates across a wide range of validated personality traits linked to job-specific performance. Whether you’re hiring for sales, tech, or customer support, it allows you to prioritise the traits that actually drive results in your roles.
Key benefits of using psychometrics include:
- Trait alignment: Match candidate traits with those proven to predict success in your organisation.
- Fairness and consistency: Standardised assessments reduce bias and level the playing field.
- Early insight: Get reliable signals earlier in the funnel, helping reduce time-to-hire without sacrificing quality.
- Risk reduction: Identify red flags (e.g. poor stress tolerance, low motivation) before the offer stage.
Quantifying the value of objectivity
Let’s put numbers to it. A number of studies estimate the cost of a bad hire can be between 30–150% of the role’s annual salary, factoring in lost productivity, re-hiring costs, training time, and team disruption. For leadership or high-impact roles, the cost can be even higher.
A data-driven approach helps avoid these costs by improving selection accuracy. By adding psychometric data to your hiring stack, you increase the odds of choosing someone who not only fits the role but thrives in it.
Assessment platforms like ours go beyond testing, they offer customisable scoring thresholds, automated shortlisting, and clear visual insights. That means hiring teams don’t just have more data, they have better data, structured for faster, smarter decisions.
The business case for data-driven hiring
Mis-hires are expensive. But they’re also avoidable. Using data from psychometric assessments, companies can:
- Hire more confidently
- Build more resilient, higher-performing teams
- Shorten employee onboarding time
- Improve long-term retention
Ready to reduce your hiring risks?
Find out how the Clevry online assessment platform combines psychometric assessments with automation and insight to help you hire better, faster.
Speak to one of the team now or book a quick demo to see it in action.
