loubnabenabderrazzakSocial psychology,

Our training as a social psychologist opens many professional doors for us! Some of us turn to health’s professionals, others to research. In my case, it’s about recruiting. But what contributions can my training have in this profession? What makes me different from someone with a background in business or administrative management?

The techniques and tools provided by psychology

Matching a candidate and a job isn’t an easy exercise. It is about matching the qualifications on a CV to the position in question, both personality and values ​​as well as the previous experience and education that candidates have.

The psychologist, to assess these elements, makes technical tools available from psychology. These are the psychometric tests.

Indeed, not all psychological assessments can be done by everyone. The psychologist has the knowledge and skills to be able to create but also to pass the tests.

But it is not just a question of analysing the results, the psychologist also does the interpretation of this data and its correspondence with other information gathered about the person evaluated. The psychological assessment always includes a “comprehensive”, non-psychometric part, which proceeds on the free initiative of the psychologist (Rogard, 2010). This is the interpretation that our training offers us.

Moreover, the test of personality helps to predict job performance. As a recruiting professional, it is important for us to put the right person in the right place. Each job requires specific social skills.

For example, during my various professional experiences in the IT field, I was able to learn what the expectations were in terms of suitability: for example a product owner must have interpersonal skills and oral fluency that is not necessary for a developer.

For this, the psychologist will therefore have to demonstrate his observation and analysis skills.

The psychologist, during an interview, must observe the personality of the candidate to verify his suitability for the position. However, a candidate who is looking for a job will necessarily try to show himself in his best light. The psychologist has the capacity to analyse the situation and the person, as well as ask the right questions to refine his evaluation.

HiringThing offers interesting advice on how to proceed in the recruitment process which is based on the knowledge gained from psychology training:

  • Evaluate candidates on their skills;
  • Use tests to measure cognitive and behavioral skills with structured tools;
  • Write and standardise the recruitment process to apply it fairly to all candidates.

Psychology and discrimination

All these skills also allow the psychologist to guarantee non-discrimination in hiring and ensure diversity in the company (Rogard, 2010).

Indeed, very often we are governed by our first impressions.

First impressions about candidates take place within seconds, based on some information about clothes, postures and ethnicity. Of course, candidates should put a little effort to show a positive impression, but recruiters should know also that clothes don’t show anything about personality and abilities. We should stay objective and evaluate on other criteria

Membership in an ethnic and national group has been found to predict recruitment discrimination (Alehendi, 2019). But the psychologist, by his training, is aware of these forms of discrimination. This is why we can enhance the recruitment process as a recruiter with a psychologist training.

For example, during my processional experiences, I witnessed an injustice in the recruitment process, going against my values. My manager asked me to avoid recruiting profiles from Algeria. Surprised, I asked her about the reasons, knowing that ethnicity doesn”t change the person’s skills in any way, and she explained that for clients, administrative requests are very long and tedious for Algerians. Therefore, we can not keep a profil from there. 

My training and my values have taught me how to detect these anomalies and how to defend my way of thinking so I can always respect the others and guarantee the objectivity and the maintenance of a qualitative exercise of my profession.

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