Many employers now use psychometric tests within their recruitment processes. Once mainly deployed within the corporate, finance, and technology sectors, their merit is now recognised amongst a diverse range of industries and sectors.
These standardised assessments help to rapidly gain insight into a candidate’s key skills and efficiently streamline your talent pool.
What is a logic test?
A logic test is a specific type of aptitude test, designed to assess a candidate’s logical reasoning abilities. It may also be referred to as a cognitive ability test.
Logic tests are multiple-choice assessments featuring questions involving shapes, patterns, and sequences. Prospective employees are required to work systematically through the given information, deduce relationships, identify trends, and draw sound conclusions, often by selecting the correct figure to complete the sequence.
The tests draw upon skills of critical thinking and attention to detail, as well as comprehension and spatial interpretation. Spatial reasoning can be challenging as it is rarely presented so overtly during everyday life, though the underlying reasoning processes are key to problem-solving.
Logic assessments require no prior knowledge, as they focus on testing general intelligence and exploring the approach taken to tackle complex problems. They assess both cognitive ability and mental agility as they are usually timed, requiring a steady working pace and accuracy under pressure.
Some logic test publishers offer employers the chance to tailor their tests to best suit the needs of the company's recruitment process. This may involve selecting your set of questions from a large question bank, or incorporating pertinent information or data into the questions posed.
Logic tests can be used post-application in the early stages of the recruitment process or alongside your candidate interviews as part of an assessment centre day for many positions from pilots to account managers.
Abstract, deductive, inductive, and diagrammatic reasoning assessments are all considered to come under the umbrella of logic assessments.
What do logic tests help assess?
As a transferable skill, the ability to think laterally and logically to solve new problems is covered in roles across all sectors. The capacity to understand, interpret and analyse data is relevant to day-to-day responsibilities and therefore essential for success in a role.
Strength in logic indicates a substantial and versatile problem-solving ability. Using a logic test as part of your hiring process will help to ensure you are selecting the best talent to join your organisation.
Why are the results of logic tests important?
Logic tests are an important gauge of lateral thinking and problem-solving ability. The results of logic assessments help to highlight the candidates in your cohort that possess the strongest logical reasoning skills.
This information can be used to make objective, data-driven hiring decisions, helping to avoid unintended bias and secure the right person for the role.
The results of your logical testing will be comparable across your candidate cohort. Most test publishers administer cognitive assessments through an online platform, which will amalgamate and present the results in an easily accessible format.
You will be able to view individual raw scores, percentiles, or comparative scores against a benchmark. This enables comparison to be made both within and across candidate cohorts.
Many employers believe that a high score on a logical aptitude test strongly correlates to a strong on-the-job performance once in the role. In fact, out of all features which may be found within a recruitment process (including CV screening according to education or experience level, group tasks, presentations, knowledge tests and panel or competency/strengths-based interviews), cognitive tests are deemed to be the strongest predictor of job performance.
The results of logic tests tend to indicate a propensity to rapidly adjust and thrive in new and challenging situations. Only candidates that achieve a high score on a logical reasoning assessment should, therefore, be considered for progression to the next stage of the recruitment process.
What are the benefits of logical testing?
Using logical testing within your recruitment process offers many benefits for your organisation and your employees. Here are some of the key benefits:
Logical reasoning tests assess mental skills that cannot be appropriately gauged from an online application form or CV.
The standardised nature of logic tests helps to keep your hiring process objective, providing data upon which recruitment decisions can be made.
Screening candidates using the tests helps to simplify and speed up the recruitment process, decreasing the time to hire.
The tests provide solid insight into the candidate cohort’s reasoning, interpretation and problem-solving skills, talents which will be needed daily when working for your company.
As they assess the ability to absorb and interpret new information, the tests can be an excellent indication of potential and capacity to develop amongst entry-level or junior hires.
The tests are also useful when seeking a more experienced hire or assessing for progression within the organisation, as logic tests provide insight into the ability to rapidly work through complex problems with multiple variables. Some publishers provide logic tests tailored to different career levels.
The fact that the assessments are timed means they indicate how well an individual works under pressure, assessing pace and accuracy.
Candidates who score highly in logic tests tend to settle in and adapt to their new job role faster, reaching peak productivity sooner and thriving in the position.
Conducting thorough aptitude testing during your recruitment process helps to ensure you are selecting from a pool of candidates who are well-suited and qualified for the job. Selecting the right individual leads to greater job satisfaction and lower staff turnover.
Using aptitude testing in your recruitment process helps to guard against unintentional bias – and protects against any claims of such.
Use of logic tests can improve candidate experience and perception of your recruitment process, leaving prospective employees with the feeling that you value taking the time to find the right talent. As your recruitment process reflects directly upon your company brand, it is important that it creates a good impression and receives positive feedback.
Logic tests save money in the long term – by speeding up the recruitment process and improving employee retention rates.
Employing the tests will help you perform better across your recruitment KPIs (improving metrics such as time to hire, quality of hire, candidate experience, and turnover/retention rate).
