Companies are increasingly using psychometric tests to recruit their managersexplains The Economist. The growing popularity of these tests has led to the creation of a new market that the paper estimates to be worth between $2 billion and $4 billion (around €1.75 billion to €3 billion). The software heavyweights have understood this, and IBM and Oracle have already acquired companies that develop skills measurement applications.

Client companies appreciate these tests because they are cheap (starting at 22 euros per candidate) and allow them to make a drastic selection from the many applications they receive. Many of these tests seek to measure certain aspects of personality, order potential, and emotional intelligence. But according to Nik Kinley, co-author of the forthcoming book "Talent intelligence", these characteristics are very difficult to assess, and for this reason these tests can be misleading.

Yet the companies that use them are convinced of their Reliability, as confirmed by the headhunter Korn/Ferry, who works for large American companies.

However, John Rust, Director of the University of Cambridge Centre for PsychometricsThe "Good Answers" test, says that the correct answers to these tests are usually obvious, so it's easy to fake the results. Companies that use them end up recruiting people who have understood what the correct answers are, which would be good for a maths test, but not for a personality test, he says.

Some tests, such as Potentiel, use adherence scales to check the sincerity and dishonesty of candidates in their test responses.