Whether you’re looking to relocate to Canada for a job opportunity, or you are job hunting inside the country already, its best practice to have an understanding of the recruitment environment you will be facing. An adequate understanding of the tools and techniques of recruitment in the geographic location you’re stepping into allows you to better prepare to compete for the role you’ve applied for; here is a look into how widely psychometric testing is used in Canada today.
Although it is commonly quoted that a majority of the top 100 companies in Canada use psychometric testing as part of their recruitment process, there is a scarcity of information in regards to the proportion of Canadian companies utilizing psychometric testing. Regardless of this lack of specific data, it still appears that psychometric tests are exceedingly popular, with the overall use of psychometric test use predicted to grow each year by as much as 10-15%. Looking at this information, it is reasonable to conclude that almost all companies will be using psychometric testing eventually, as part of their process to find the best fit for their role – you!
Psychometric testing gained in popularity in Canada since the 1980s, when a spate of formal research studies were done to examine the effectiveness and frequency of testing. As there is little formal research on the proportion of companies undertaking psychometric testing today, we decided to have a look for ourselves. According to LinkedIn, the top 10 companies to work for in Canada are as follows: RBC Banking, TD Banking, Scotiabank, CIBC Banking, BMO Financial Group, Deloitte Canada, National Bank of Canada, Shopify Internet, Desjardins Banking, and PwC Canada. Interestingly, these are all financial institutions or businesses that deal with buying and selling, meaning it is vital for all employees to have numerical reasoning – will they all require their employees to undergo psychometric testing?
Prepare for the unexpected
We looked at the recruitment process of each of these companies and found that the use of psychometric testing was inconsistent with 30% of the top ten confirming psychometric testing as part of their recruitment. A whopping 40% of the top ten companies to work for listed psychometric testing as something candidates ‘may’ have to do depending on the roles they are going for at the time with the final 40% being unable to determine whether psychometric tests are involved or not.
This uncertain result makes preparing for a psychometric test more important than ever. Just because they haven’t specified they require this, doesn’t mean they won’t do it. Oftentimes, candidates will fail to prepare for a psychometric test because it has been placed under the umbrella term ‘online assessment’ or ‘pre-interview test’. Don’t let failure to prepare stop you from obtaining your dream job; invest time in yourself and get prepared for any psychometric test that appears during your career journey. Being able to excel in a psychometric test will give you transferable skills that help you both in test conditions as well as on the job – what could be a better investment in your Canadian career than that?
Try our free Aptitude Test Readiness Evaluation to see how prepared you are.
