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As a former senior psychologist with the Australian Federal Police, Psychology Melbourne team member Warrick Arblaster has a great deal of expertise in psychological testing, particularly in the area of security. In this post, he examines some of the issues.
All types of business and organisations may choose to use psychological testing, sometimes as part of a preliminary selection process. Other uses are for more targeted positions, roles and functions for existing employees.
In the latter cases, testing is used to complement other information about candidates, from written material such as CVs and resumes or specific interviewing either before the testing or after to further explore the candidate's suitability.
Sometimes a corporate client of a company or business may have a very specific request. A good example is the security industry, where a client group may request psychological assessment of the security officers that will patrol and secure their premises or business. Some examples include educational institutions, a health campus, corporate premises, or where public safety is a major consideration.
There are significant benefits for the security industry in ensuring their operational employees undergo psychometric testing. These include to ensure they have no underlying problematic psychopathology and to provide a reasonable level of surety regarding their psychological capacity to understand threat and threat immunity and risk-taking. This is especially the case when required to carry firearms. Clients of security companies are increasingly seeking evidence that armed personnel protecting their premises, staff, or students, residents, guests etc. are psychologically cleared and risk has been mitigated as far as possible.
Psychology Melbourne has a streamlined approach from initial corporate inquiry, providing advice about appropriate processes, security of material, time frames, very specific consent authority, testing site/s, a computer-generated report, follow-up and recommendations to the corporate client in relation to the specific roles initially identified.
An example of one reliable and robust instrument or test is the PsychEval Personality Questionnaire (PEPQ), combining a normal personality and a pathology-oriented check, augmenting each other in the single questionnaire. (This also includes occupational interests). This provides an evaluation of the individual’s overall functioning in a relatively brief assessment. (Actual testing time on average is between 75 and 90 minutes and may be conducted individually or in a group).
Please contact Psychology Melbourne's reception team on 1300 161 639 to further discuss your corporate psychometric testing requirements with a tailored approach.
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