What is the best psychometric test at determining employment suitability?

In many ways, this is a trick question.  My quick response would be that there isn’t one.  It’s sort of like asking a handyman or mechanic what’s the best tool?  The answer would inevitably be “for what purpose?”.  Hammers are pretty effective, as are wrenches.  Depends what your trying to accomplish.  It’s the same with this question.  I would have to ask, “what type of position?”  Is it for an hourly level position, a sales position, an executive, a doctor, or one of thousands of other positions?  Ultimately there is no single best tool.  The best approach always entails the use of multiple tests.  Personality tests are great for a broad range of areas but they don’t do a good job of identifying the way someone thinks, solves problems and certainly doesn’t measure any type of technical knowledge.  Cognitive ability tests tell you a lot about the way someone thinks, how well they process new information, but they don’t tell you anything about the type of person they are. So, with the above caveats in place, if push comes to shove and I have to pick one psychometric test to use I would have to choose a good  personality inventory.   Ten years ago I would have said to go with a cognitive ability test but I’ve shifted my thinking over time.  The first reason is that cognitive ability tests are great for positions that require a lot of thinking and decision making but the vast majority of positions, from hourly manufacturing to service and retail, don’t require that much complex thought.  Smarter people tend to do better, up to a point.  Really smart people also tend to get bored quickly.  So, if you want someone who learns quickly and will be great for the first 3 months, then you’d lean towards the cognitive test.  However, that person is probably going to leave more routine positions as soon as they find something better.  Most employers would deem this to be a bad hiring decision.  The second reason is that personality tests and our understanding of how to use them has improved over the past 10-15 years.  You get a lot of information about the type of person they are, how they are likely to respond to difficult situations, how well they get along with co-workers and customers, and how driven they are.  Bang for the buck, you get the most information out of a good personality inventory. Finally, and this is an important consideration, personality inventories have almost no adverse impact against minority candidates while cognitive ability tests tend to have high levels of adverse impact. All things being equal, your legal exposure is likely to be lower with a personality inventory than a cognitive ability test.

I think answered this question very well. Short answer is that "There is no one best psychometric test which can help you in determining employment suitability in ANY job role". Psychometric Tests are immensely useful. They save your time and money in hiring and give you insights about the candidate which is very difficult, if not impossible, to get otherwise. But, in order to get any value from them, you need to have the following: A well defined and up-do-date job description of the job role you are looking to assess the candidates for. A properly conducted job analysis listing all the cognitive, emotional and behavioural qualities the job holder need to have in order to perform well (meet the standards) in the job. Once you have these 2 things, you can search for the available tools in the market which is fitting your specifications and budget.For tests, I recommend this website (http://www.ThePsychometricWorld.com) . They offer a free trial and provide good support during the trial period and after.

Accuracy or validity of the test is a function of a lot of things - role you are hiring for, geography, demographics. Matt has summed up the answer pretty well. What you need is a customized solution that fits your needs. I suggest you take a free trial with http://jombay.com/ Benefits - 1) Self-serve, completely online 2) Customize the assessments as per your job role or competencies 3) Very Simple and Intuitive. You don't need to hire psychologists or certified professionals for interpretation 4) Assessments tightly integrated with analytics Free Trials are readily available once you signup on http://companies.jombay.com/ and Yes! We are recognized by 'People Matters' (India's leading HR magazine) with the spotlight award for 'Futurism in HR Analytics'

This is a hard question, because the answer does largely depend on the role. HR Avatar (the company I work for) has a catalog of job specific simulation tests that are designed to measure a candidate's cognitive ability, personality, and knowledge. Each pre-employment test lets you determine if the candidate is smart enough to learn the job and conscientious enough to be a good employee. Here's a link to the catalog:  https://www.hravatar.com/ta/catalog/employment-tests.xhtml

There are different ways of looking at your question. I would look at it from a different view that what is the best tool to pick the best candidate out of the available pool of candidates. To simply answer your question, the most commonly used psychometric tests in UK and USA are from SHL. Their website is http://www.shldirect.com/index.html. No matter whichever psychometric test you try, you will have those candidates who will in spite of getting the best scores in psychometric test, may not work for you in the long run. And yes, there are online practice psychometric tests available which help employees practice these tests before they take the real test. One of the site is psychometric test guru https://psychometrictestguru.com/.

I do not know what the "best" psychometric test is. It would depend on the role you are interviewing the candidate for the and the type of employee and environment you want. However organizations are relying more and more on psychometric tests as opposed to subjective methods. The more data, the better your selection. http://www.smartrecruiters.com/blog/5-reasons-hiring-managers-use-psychometric-testing/