The Truth About Psychometric Tests with Paula Baetu

How much trust should employers place in psychometric assessments?

In this episode of the HRchat Podcast, host Bill Banham is joined by Paula Baetu, Psychometric Specialist, Business Psychologist, and Executive Coach at Awemetrics / Pawsometrics, to demystify workplace assessments and explore how HR leaders can make better, more evidence-based talent decisions.

With extensive experience evaluating and implementing psychometric assessments for recruitment, leadership development, internal mobility, and organizational development, Paula explains what psychometric assessments really measure—and why they're about far more than personality tests.

Together, Bill and Paula discuss why HR and talent acquisition teams are increasingly turning to assessments to improve hiring quality and objectivity, while also highlighting the risks of relying on tools that lack independent validation or transparency. Paula explains why every HR professional should ask vendors for a technical manual, how to determine whether an assessment is fit for purpose, and why organizations often continue using legacy tools simply because "that's what we've always used."

The conversation also explores some of the most common mistakes organizations make—from hiring based on a single assessment score to benchmarking against outdated norm groups—and why psychometric results should always inform decisions rather than make them.

Finally, Bill and Paula examine the growing impact of artificial intelligence on workplace assessments. They discuss AI-generated tests, candidates using AI during assessments, skills-based hiring, and the practical steps employers are taking to AI-proof recruitment processes while maintaining fairness and validity.

Whether you're an HR leader, recruiter, talent acquisition specialist, people manager, or organizational psychologist, this episode offers practical guidance for selecting better assessment tools and making smarter hiring decisions.

In this episode, you'll learn about:

• What psychometric assessments really measure—and why they're more than personality tests
• Why independent validation and technical documentation matter when selecting assessment tools
• How to evaluate psychometric vendors and choose assessments that are fit for purpose
• Common mistakes organizations make when interpreting assessment results
• Why skills-based hiring is changing assessment strategies
• How AI is transforming candidate assessment and recruitment
• Practical ways to improve fairness, validity, and transparency in hiring decisions
• Best practices for using psychometrics in recruitment, promotion, and leadership development

If you enjoy this episode, subscribe to the HRchat Podcast, leave a review, and share it with colleagues working in HR, talent acquisition, leadership development, and organizational psychology.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome

Welcome And Why Assessments Matter

SPEAKER_00 0:03

to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talent execs, tech enthusiasts, and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media, and visit hrgazette.com.

SPEAKER_04 0:26

Welcome to the HR Chat Show. This is your host today, Bill Bannham. Psychometric assessments influence millions of hiring, promotion, leadership, development, and career decisions every year. Yet many HR pros use these tools without fully understanding how they work, how they should be evaluated, or whether they actually measure what they claim to measure. At the same time, AI is making it faster and easier than ever to create new assessments, raising important questions about quality, validity, and ethics. And in this particular episode, I am joined by Paula Beitu, a business psychologist and certified psychometrician with more than 12 years of experience developing, validating, and auditing workplace assessment tools. Paula is awesome. I've known her for a long time, and it's a pleasure to have her on the show today. She has worked with organizations including LVMH, NHS, Yorkshire Water, and in these worlds, she has supported career development, leadership development, and recruitment through evidence-based psychometrics. Paula is the founder of All Metrics, an independent consultancy focused on making expert psychometric guidance more accessible to organizations of all sizes. Did I mention that she's just brilliant? Paula, how are you doing? Welcome to the show today.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

It's great to be here. Thanks, Bill. Thanks for having me. I am fantastic. How are you?

SPEAKER_04 1:59

I'm okay. There are lots of big words in that intro, and I am a wee bit sexy. I think I think I got through it.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Like a matrician.

SPEAKER_04 2:09

So as we like to do on this show before we go into the hard-hitting stuff, let's get to know you a bit more.

Paula’s Path Into Psychometrics

SPEAKER_04 2:16

Beyond my intro just a moment ago, maybe you can tell our audience a bit more about yourself, your career background, what motivates you, i.e., what gets you up in the morning, Paula?

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Yeah, great. Um, so since you mentioned most of my qualifications and that side of things, I um I thought I'd skip past that and just say, like a lot of people in HR, I didn't really decide on this career path from a young age. Um, I mean, no one really is a child saying, I want to be a psychometrician when I grow up. Uh so I kind of fell into it by accident. Um, I actually originally wanted to be a neuropsychologist, very interested in biology and the way the brain works and all that. Um, but psychometric uh psychometrics is a growing field, uh, but more importantly, I stayed in psychometrics because I couldn't get past how little scrutiny uh scrutiny surrounds um something with this much power in the workplace. Um, so people are judged on a day-to-day basis by tools that shape whether they get hired or promoted or uh their career paths. So um, and it's really important that uh we understand how that all works. So we're going to talk about that today. Uh so what really motivates me now is closing that gap and challenging the status quo. And not to bore your um audience too much, I thought I'd I'd mention as well that outside of work, I am big into wildlife photography and powerlifting, which are very completely different worlds. Um, but I love to do things that are outside of the workplace, uh not away from our screens. Um, but also powerlifting's taught me a lot about um uh good lessons in in my career, such as progress is not a once-off, it's about that consistency, it's about to keep coming back to the training, to the data, and uh psychmetrics should work the same way. It's not something that you should pick up once and forget.

SPEAKER_03 4:04

Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat Podcast. If you enjoy the audio content we produce, you'll love our articles on the HR Gazette. Learn more at hrgazette.com. And now back to the show.

Lightning Talk Lessons From Stoicism

SPEAKER_04 4:20

All right, okay, very good. Thank you very much. Um, so as I mentioned, Paula and I have known each other now for a while. She has been a big supporter for a number of years of um of our disrupt HR community, our disrupt events uh in and around pretty much the south of England. I I don't think you've been to any top north just yet.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

No, I don't I'm planning on coming to the Birmingham one, so hopefully I'll I'll see you there. But uh Molton Keynes, Cambridge, London, mainly, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:52

Birmingham's a good fun. It's uh that's uh September 24th this year. Be there or be a rectangle if you're in the greater West Midlands area. Um but because of all of your support, um in April you got a shot at going on stage and doing one of the terrifying lightning talks. That was in Cambridge. Um you did extremely well. Um, you and I are WhatsApp friends, and I know that your WhatsApp profile picture um uh you're proudly display uh displaying uh that uh you um presenting at Cambridge. Tell me a bit more about that session and of course tell me a wee bit about the experiences that you had of um of that daunting five-minute presentation challenge.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

It was very daunting. I was very stressed about it, but it was a really fun challenge, um, but also tough for me because I'm a natural waffler. I'm used to doing two-hour workshops where I can talk around the problem and or talk around what I'm trying to say and then go, does that make sense? at the end of it. So five minutes uh took real discipline and practice, and you can't over-explain everything, every sentence has to have its place. Um, but I tried not to over-prepare, so that was one thing. But I actually did my talk on stoic wisdom, which might seem very different to psychometrics, but uh for a couple of reasons. Because one, I I use uh stoic philosophy a lot a lot in my coaching side, um, and the ancient Stoics, um what they have to offer apply a lot to the work, uh modern work and HR. Um, I also chose the topic because I thought it would be engaging and relevant to that particular audience, and I was quite happy with how it landed. So, yeah, I guess if anyone wants to see it, the recording is online. I'm sure you can share the link. Um, and if you have me again, I'd love to talk about a psychometrics. Uh you have a psychometrics focused talk in the future, but uh we can chat about that offline.

SPEAKER_04 6:49

You did a sterling job. Well done again. And uh yeah, as Paula mentioned, uh disrupt HR.co forward slash Cambridge will probably get you there. If not, just go to the main disrupt website and uh search for cities and you'll find Cambridge and then you'll find Paula's amazing talk alongside lots of other very entertaining five-minute lightning talks. So please do check those out. Um okay, let's get into the hard-hitting stuff of today, then. Uh, for

What Psychometric Assessments Really Measure

SPEAKER_04 7:17

listeners who aren't familiar with this term, what what exactly is a psychometric assessment and why have these tools become such an important part of modern human resources?

SPEAKER_01 7:29

So, put simply, um, a psychometric assessment is anything that measures a psychological construct. So it could be a personality questionnaire, a reasoning or ability tool, or even a well-structured interview. So we probably have been exposed to psychometrics in one form or another. Um, there are actually thousands of psychometrics in the world. I can't actually I've tried to find an exact number, cannot find it. So I've just said there's an immeasurable amount of them in the world. Um, but yeah, I'm sure your listeners have completed at least one, even you know, those uh terrible uh aptitude assessments that you did at school, which said you can be an astronaut or a carpenter. Uh that they seem to be valid, but they're actually not very good at all. Um, I definitely don't count if anyone remembers Facebook quizzes or magazine quizzes, those don't count as psychometrics. Um, but in terms of why they're so important is because they promise objectivity for HR and talent teams in the decisions that they're that have typically been by gut feel um rather than using uh a non-structured interview and then just saying I like this person, you use psychometrics to have more predictability um around performance and objectivity. Um, but that only that promise only holds if the tool itself is actually sound.

SPEAKER_04 8:54

Okay, very good. So you mentioned one form of uh psychometric assessment uh could be an interview. So maybe this is some form of psychometric assessment that we're doing right now. Um you're the expert, not the same. You always get 10 out of 10, Paula, you know that. Um okay, uh moving on. What's

The Validation Gap And Hidden Risks

SPEAKER_04 9:14

the one uncomfortable truth about workplace assessments that most HR leaders never stop to question?

SPEAKER_01 9:22

So the statistic that I did find is that around 70% of UK organizations with 50 or more employees use some form of psychometrics in their organization. Um also about 74% of employers have felt that they have made a bad hiring decision in the past. So we can look at those statistics. But only a couple of hundred of the thousands of tools on the market have ever been independently validated by the British Psychological Society. And beyond that, who knows how many have been even independently validated by an organization like mine? Um, because I can't easily find this out. Um, too many test providers don't make their technical manuals and this information publicly uh accessible. Um, and um yeah, so the the uncomfortable truth is that organizations are probably relying on tools that have never been checked by anyone outside of the company selling them. And it's easy to keep trusting something because it's familiar or it's a legacy tool that's been used for so long that no one in the organization or HR team that I speak to, uh, when I ask them, you know, why are you using this tool? They don't even know who made that decision to use that tool in the first place. So, in my opinion, nobody should have their career potential decided by a tool nobody bothered to check. Um, I kind of believe people deserve better than that. So that's my uncomfortable truth.

SPEAKER_04 10:44

Okay, okay, thank you very much. How how confident, Paula, should HR leaders actually be in the assessment tools that they're using at the moment?

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Um, again, something that could be quite uncomfortable to hear is less confident than most of them are. Um, and to be clear, it's not HR and talent's uh fault at all. It's not really their fault. Um, psychometrics is a bit of a black box from the outside. Um, most HR and talent professionals were only ever trained in a handful of tools, maybe two or three when I speak to people at most. Um, and proper accreditation and training is is very expensive. Um, some uh psychometric publishers cost uh charge three over 3,000 pounds to get accredited, and then there's um the cost of the of the profiles over and above that, and um uh fees every year and that sort of thing. So um when they have budgets um implied uh within the businesses, then their choices become quite limited. Um so I don't think it's because HR and talent teams haven't tried, it's because the system makes it really hard for them to do otherwise. So the advice organizations get are not often truly independent, um, and most people don't have the depth of knowledge to know the difference between a rigorous tool and one that just looks credible. So my quick piece of advice here would be uh first thing that you should ask when you're using a psychometric is to ask if they have a technical manual.

SPEAKER_04 12:08

Okay, this is why I do this show. I listen and I learn.

How To Evaluate Tools Amid AI

SPEAKER_04 12:12

Uh Paula, if an HR leader wanted to properly evaluate an assessment tool or even build one internally, what should they be looking for? And I'll just add to that, where does AI fit in these days with with developing those tools?

SPEAKER_01 12:26

So, first thing that you need to do is understand what you're trying to measure and why. Um, before you even look at a tool, before you even you know you have to look at the outcome before you look at at the tool that you're using. If you I I love the quote, if you see everything as a um as a nail, if you only have a hammer, you'll see everything as a nail, and that's not the way that um you should work with psych metrics. Um too many people build or select um an assessment without um thinking through if it's relevant or to the decision that they're trying to make or how they are realistically going to use those results afterwards. Um, once that is clear, it comes down to whether the tool is valid. So, i.e., is it actually measuring what it says it's measuring and is it fit for purpose? Um and um that that is that is the thought process that needs to be started. Um I've had too many horror cases where I spoke to companies and they've told me that the CEO is the one who just decided that we're going to use this tool, or it's because someone in the organization knows someone who's accredited in a tool, or even worse, a tool that is purely designed for development, like Insights or MBTI, is being used for recruitment and selection. So I'm really trying to, and hopefully through this medium as well, educate professionals on how to ask these questions and hopefully as well how to read the data-heavy technical manuals. But in terms of um uh AI, it means that the market is flooding faster than ever. Um, because regardless of your background or expertise, you can go onto Claude and ChatGPT and say, build me an assessment that measures this, um, and it will come up with all the items and questions. And you might not think to question any of that and just think, oh, okay, well, it took me five seconds to build a tool. But it's exciting in some ways, but it it just means that organizations need an independent way to tell the difference between something that is genuinely validated versus something that looks cool or just feels credible, which is part of the reason why I'm building uh um my company out and uh doing various things in that and in terms of building an independent database of assessments that HR teams um or individuals can go and look at information about tools, psychometric tools before they buy, rather than relying on some slick salesperson or website. And of course they can always come chat to me and I'll you know always happy to give advice and have a chat about it.

SPEAKER_04 14:53

Okay, shameless plug there, love it. Uh

Common Assessment Mistakes In HR

SPEAKER_04 14:55

what's the biggest mistake, Paula, that you you see HR teams making with the assessments that they already have in place? So we've spoken about building out new ones, but in terms of the ones that are really there, what are what are some of those mistakes?

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Um unfortunately there isn't just one. So I see quite a few constantly. Firstly, um treating a result as a permanent truth rather than just a snapshot in time. So someone might have had a bad day or completed an assessment when they're really stressed, and that becomes the story of who they are. Um companies are doing high potential assessments, they're trying to identify their hypo groups, and that that can just that one assessment can um uh earmark someone for the rest of their career whether they're going to be treated as a high potential or not. Um, and that that's not fair. The second one is over-relying on a single score to make a big decision. So using one assessment or one piece of information to hire someone rather than triangulating it with other evidence like interviews or work samples. Thirdly, um, another mistake that that I see is uh using the exact same tool for every role, regardless of function, because um you might have that different roles genuinely need different things measured. And lastly, um it's it's about not letting norm groups or comparison data go stale. So comparing someone's result against a benchmark that is years out of date or drawn from a completely different population. So it's one source, one mistake here and there. None of those mistakes are going to be too damaging, but together it means that a lot of organizations are making high-risk decisions on shakier ground than they realize, and that's really risky to their business.

SPEAKER_04 16:43

Okay, brilliant, thank you.

Skills Based Hiring And AI Cheating

SPEAKER_04 16:46

So, what we've seen over the last few years, particularly, is organizations are becoming more focused on skills, so for example, skills-based hiring, um, as opposed to the traditional resume and worrying about the experience that you have. Uh, there's also been a lot of uh focus on internal mobility and workforce planning for different reasons uh over the last little while. Um, because of that, Paula, how do you see the role of psychometrics evolving over the next two, three, four, maybe five years?

SPEAKER_01 17:14

I I I'm kind of hoping that psychometrics will shift more than it has, but uh what I have seen is that there is definitely a shift towards skill-based hiring, and that's only going to continue to accelerate. Um, I see that future-ready organizations are moving away from things like degree requirements or years of experience and actually looking at uh potential and what actually someone can do. Um and um psychometrics which include a skill measure are are becoming more popular. So I'm definitely seeing that. Internal mobility is also becoming a bigger focus. I think that has something to do with you know, it's a tough market, so we have to find our talent in-house. Um bringing in external talent is expensive, but organizations um are the good ones are are focusing more on using tools that match uh people already in in the organization to roles based on capability rather than tenure. So making sure that's not just because someone's been there for a long time that they get promoted, uh, because we see too many um people who get promoted to the level above their level of competence, as we say. Um uh, but AI is going to be the real force of innovation, especially around um recruitment and uh selection, um, and in terms of how assessments are delivered. Uh, not to give anyone ideas, but some tech, very tech savvy savvy uh candidates are already setting up and using AI agents to complete assessments for them, believe it or not, uh, which means that the test is ended up assessing the AI rather than the person. So it's pushing proctoring back up to the top of the agenda and in some cases pushing organizations towards completing assessments in a controlled in-person environment, the way that we did 20 plus years ago, uh, precisely so candidates can't lean on or cheat using AI. Um, and then I've also seen some genuinely innovative companies AI proofing their tools, not just with proctoring, but with um very tight response windows, so you don't have time to consult an LM or tracking mouse movement across the screen so it can pick up whether that's a real human or or not the whole way through.

SPEAKER_04 19:30

Okay, very good. We have flown through this conversation. I always enjoy our chats, Paula. Before we wrap up, one more question for you.

What Paula Is Building Next

SPEAKER_04 19:39

Um and that's uh what's next? What's coming up for you? Uh in terms of your mission to democratize psychometrics all around the world to continue to be famous on various stages. And of course, Paula, how can folks connect with you? Is that LinkedIn? Do you want to share your your website URL? Do you want to share your email? Are you super cool and all over TikTok and Instagram and all these other places? Tell us more.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

I am uh not quite famous yet, uh, but um I not not really TikTok or anything like that, but definitely LinkedIn. But what I what I really want is um what I want for organizations is confidence. Uh what's really driving me is wanting them to know that the decisions that they're making by people are actually backed by evidence, not guesswork. And what I want for everyone else is that their career progression isn't stunted by by bad tools. So as you mentioned, I'm I'm I've got all metrics which I've been building. Um I'm actually in the process of updating my website and building out this uh psychmetric uh database. It's not live yet, but I would genuinely love if anyone is listening, wants uh to reach out and tell me what they'd love to see in it and what would really help them in this space while I'm while I'm still building that. Um so I went directly to my website just yet because I want it to be to be good. Um, but LinkedIn is a is a perfect place to find me and connect. Um and yeah, if you want to talk about anything psychometrics or even anything remotely related to psychology, I'm always happy to jump on a call.

SPEAKER_04 21:09

Or indeed powerlifting, apparently.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

Yeah, let's go powerlifting or bird watching, uh, wildlife photography.

SPEAKER_04 21:17

Or powerlifting birds. Now that would be that would be a niche conversation. Okay, very good.

Final Thanks And How To Connect

SPEAKER_04 21:24

That just leaves me to say for today, Paula, first time on the show. I'm sure we get you back on, but for today, thank you very much for being my guest.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Thank you, Paul. It's been an absolute pleasure to chat with you today.

SPEAKER_04 21:35

And listeners, as always, until next time, happy working.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show. If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette? And remember, for what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media, and visit hrgazette.com.