Are you an HR challenged with selecting the right person for the job? Do you want to address attrition by hiring people who would be a good fit for the job opportunities in your company?

A psychometric test may help you!

What are psychometric tests? Psychometric tests are standardized methods used to measure behavior and mental capabilities. This employs the use of the scientific method together with statistical and other principles for objective measurement. In different industries, psychometric tests are used to evaluate a candidate’s fit to certain roles. Certain roles require specific cognitive, comprehension, and personalities so that the person assigned to it can deliver with maximum effectiveness. A standard psychometric test allows an employer or assessor to uncover certain traits that match those. These pieces of information are usually difficult to extract using face-to-face interviews.

Should psychometric tests be a sole basis for hiring? No. The recruiter still needs to identify and ascertain other factors before facilitating a psychometric test. There are still a lot of other requirements aside from personality, cognitive ability, and comprehension. Recruiters still need to review the candidate’s resume, conduct an interview, and do background check.  While the psychometric test can provide good information about the potentials of an individual, it can never check a candidate’s work history and analyze gaps that may indicate their fit for the role or otherwise. Some companies also have specific skills tests that provide objective data on the candidates’ abilities.

Does everyone agree that a psychometric test provide a good barometer for job fit? Not everyone does. But it is worth looking into. We have to take into account that psychometric tests are examined statistically so they are built through an objective process in order to gain unbiased results. Because everyone is presented with exactly the same questions, the method offers a very good chance of providing reliable data from your response group. The information gathered is predictive of a candidates’ potential performance in the job.

Our final verdict. There is no single approach that can be considered best in selecting from prospective candidates. Even the traditional one-on-one interview has its own limitations and downsides.  A combination of a few proven approaches may really benefit you in making sure that you secure the best candidates for the job. This means that there is value in looking into psychometric tests for evaluation.

To know more about how you can select the best candidate for your company, you may also want to check our premium e-Workshop on Recruitment and Selection in the New Normal.

At this time when the COVID-19 pandemic has overturned the usual way we do business, we are faced with multiple overwhelming changes that make requires a lot of communication. If we are to drive people toward success in the middle of this crisis, it is important to keep them informed at all times. They need to know about new business strategies and considerations. If you are an HR practitioner, memos will be your good friends.

These are one of the most common and simple means of communications in the workplace which provides a short and direct communication to your staff in regards to important matters and reminders. There are two reasons why we create a memo: to bring attention to issues and to solicit actions toward issues. Memos are used to share updates and new processes within the company. They can also be used when providing more information about company decisions. They can also provide information for trivial items that people need to be reminded of, for example, cleaning up the pantry sink after use. Memos are truly versatile and important so everyone needs to know how to write them professionally and with clarity.

Here are some tips that may prove helpful when you are creating your memo.

1. Purpose Must Be Clear and Brief.

 When creating memos, it is critical that you use simple words and phrases. Your purpose is not to impress people with your wide vocabulary, instead you want them to take action on certain workplace issues and reminders. It is okay to use jargon only when you know that the intended readers will be able to understand the message despite using these. When using acronyms, it is also good to define these so that everyone can fully understand, for example, it is better to write down “To Be Announced” than put TBA and get too many employees asking the same question. Using simple words can definitely make more impact for your memo.

 Other than clarity, it is important to have brevity. This means that your memo should not take too much of other people’s time to read. Get the fewest number of words you can to express the most number of thoughts. There must not be any room for words that do not add meaning. Putting such as, as a matter of fact, needless to say, in terms of, the fact that, in order to, all of the, at the end of the day, are some phrases that may either be eliminated from your memo or shortened using a word. As most writers would say, KISS – Keep it short and simple!

2. Audience-Focused

 Memo is not creative writing, therefore it should be made with your reader in mind. You need to clearly determine what kind of readers are going to find your memo on the pantry wall or wherever you may post them. You need to use this information to decide the overall tone of your memo. For example, if you know that your readers are likely managers, you must use a formal tone with much attention to details. If you are targeting a group of sales person to convince them to send their sales reports on time, you may need to use a bold tone that can persuade them to act quickly. If you know that your employees are too busy at work, you will want to create memos with two or three quick sentences so that they do not need to read for a long time where your posted memo is. What words can your reader most clearly understand? What can they easily relate to? There are many other factors you can consider, but writing for your reader and not yourself  is one of the most important things to keep in mind in writing a high-impact memo that achieves its purpose.

3. Objectivity

 Your memo should not have opinion, preferences, emotional language, and subjectivity. Saying, “The management would truly appreciate if everyone can wear the proper protective gears before entering the laboratory…” is less than ideal. Instead say, “The management requires the use of proper protective gears when entering the laboratory.” This sends a very clear sense of the action that you would like the employees to take. The first sentence makes it appear like it is a mild request where employees still have the prerogative to follow or not. If you want people to take action, do so.

Emotions should also not be present in a memo. Saying, “Our manager was very angry with the late submission of reports last months. Please do not disappoint him further by repeating the same this month. All reports need to be submitted on time.” Is very counter-productive. Some people may take it the wrong way. Saying, “Please submit all reports on time to avoid delays in processing” could replace the entire paragraph. This also provides a more objective deliver of information that should call for action.

4. Friendly but Professional

 While it is okay to have a formal tone for the content of your memo, it is a much more informal approach to sharing information in the workplace. Compared to a business letter, it has a more relaxed and easy-to-follow structure. It is sometimes used to address unofficial speculations from the grapevine, so it only makes sense that it should be much more forward and relatable for your employees. Being informal, all the other tips can be easily achieved as you do not need highly technical terms when creating it.

At this time of crisis, it is definitely important that we keep communication lines open while considering social distancing. One possible way of sharing information without having to consistently call a meeting is through memos. Any HR or professionals in the area of leadership need to make sure that their skills in creating memos is in tip-top shape so that information can effectively be passed on to employees as we go through various changes in the way we work.

If you would like to refine your Memo Writing Skills, you may also attend our webinar sessions on Business Writing: Creating Memos, Emails, and Other Office Communications. Our next Communications for HR e-Workshop will be on 5 June 2020. For more details, you may contact us through the following:

 For inquiries. You may contact us from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm, Monday to Friday except holidays, through the following:

• Landline: (+632) 3433 3342
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• Email: training@competad.com or seminars@competad.com
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The Holy week, also known as semana santa, is definitely an event Filipinos look forward to. Even weeks ahead, many Filipinos take time to plan activities for it. Some take advantage of the holy week to go on a well-deserved vacation while others go for reflection and prayer. As majority of the country’s population comprises of Roman Catholics, visiting different churches to pray is definitely part of the tradition. Our team members took part in visiting a church last week. We went to Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in Sta.Maria- Tungkong-Mangga Road, San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan. As expected, legions of devotees and followers were at the site; so many that you will have to stay under the scorching heat of the sun for a long time of queuing at the gate. Once in, you will be able to see even more people in the front grounds and along the pavement as you come closer to the church. While there, we devoted a few prayers and went on to quickly join a procession that celebrated the Stations of the Cross. We thanked God for all the blessings and challenges he has brought to us in the past year.

The church ground was far from the celebrated serene landmark we were expecting. Sure there were still people praying. A mass was also being held when we arrived, but the crowd was definitely noisy. Outside the church, children were running around; horse-playing on sacred grounds. There were a lot of vendors parading logos of the products they were selling in different colors: Mineral water, beverages, candles, food, toys, religious items, oils, and many others; name it and it is there. Of course, with all these comes all the rubbish. Without any intent of generalizing, Filipinos are not well-known for their discipline in managing trash. This made the team very sad. With the lack, or maybe only lack of visibility, of garbage cans in the area, people littered all over the place. Our team members had some trash, too, but we kept it in our bags until we found a bin to throw it into.

As students, most Filipinos have had their share of repetitive values education lessons emphasizing the importance of a clean environment. I am sure that our teachers, to the point of being redundant, has told us that we need to avoid littering, even when no one is looking. But how has this affected us as we grew older? Was there any fault in our educational system that we seem to not have retained this important piece of information?

I could not tell what goes wrong in this scenario. People go to a place of worship to give thanks and praise their God for the sacrifices He has made for them. In return, these same people trash his sacred grounds. In a sermon by John Wesley, an English cleric and theologian, in 1778, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” While the bible never really directly or literally said this, it does make sense. How can we expect to have our soul cleansed when we cannot even keep our physical surroundings clean? Even the Israelites and other religions were all concerned with the concept of “clean” or “unclean.”

So maybe let us take it out of the context of religious reasoning and be a bit more practical. When you visit your friend’s house, would you throw your food’s plastic packaging in their yard? Would you do the same when you visit an old teacher’s house? Not normally, right? It is but a common practice of courtesy to keep the place as clean as possible when you visit the place of someone you care for or respect. It makes you wonder why these devotees cannot do the same when they are visiting the place of God.

A friend of ours commented that Filipinos may not have remembered this lesson in school because we are taught by our teachers to pass the exams, not to keep the lessons in mind. This truly is very sad. I could not even tell if our friend is right; he might as well be. One thing is true: education was only there to help us make a living; but our decision become educated throughout our lifetime defines whether we do what is right rather than just what everyone else is doing.

We may not be able to change everyone, but we hope we can reach out and impact the few who are able to read this. Our hope is that more Filipinos can decide to become educated in the next Holy week, or maybe more regularly, so that cleanliness would be something they can consider to always keep in mind. If you agree, please share this article and together, let us reach out to more Filipinos.