Welcome to personnel assessment

Congratulations, you have been invited to a psychological personnel assessment! On this page, you’ll find information about the goals, content, and process of Psycon’s assessments.

With a personnel assessment, your current or a potential new employer is interested in assessing your working style, cognitive abilities, and motivation factors.

We hope you take advantage of this opportunity and consider your work-related characteristics as comprehensively as possible during the assessment. The process will give you valuable insight into your strengths and areas of development, and you can use the feedback in your work and developing self-awareness.

What is a psychological personnel assessment?

Psychological personnel assessment or suitability assessment is an effective and reliable way to identify your strengths and areas for development. The assessment provides a lot of information about your work methods, goals, and competencies.

The criteria for the assessment is always based on the goals and needs of the new role and the organization. The assessment report does not address your substantive expertise or personality in general.

Psychological personnel assessments are often used to support recruitment decisions. The results can also be used to assess an existing employee’s readiness to advance in their career, for example, to a managerial position.

Are the results reliable?

Psycon has been a pioneer in research-based personnel assessment in Finland since 1953. With our expert staff and scientifically proven methods, we ensure a comprehensive and reliable assessment.

Our personnel assessment consultants are experienced, licenced psychologists with a deep understanding of organizational psychology. Our method development ensures that the assessment methods and results meet the needs of the modern and constantly changing working life.

The methods we use in our assessments are always based on scientific research. We constantly examine the reliability and relevance of the results. According to our long-term follow-up study, our personnel assessments are highly accurate – about 97% of our personnel assessments hit the mark.

How is the assessment done?

We want to make the assessment process a meaningful and positive experience for all participants. The assessment can be done remotely, at our offices, or a combination of the two. The methods used in the assessment are always chosen to match the needs of the role and the organization.

First, we will contact you to schedule the assessment. During the call, you will get detailed information about the content of your assessment. Next, you will receive a confirmation email with all the information for your personnel assessment.

Remote assessment

The remote assessment is conducted in Microsoft Teams. You will receive links to the meetings and detailed instructions on how to join in the confirmation email.

For remote assessment, you will need

• A computer with a camera
• A reliable internet connection
• Pen and paper for taking notes
• Microsoft Teams application or a supported browser

Assessment at Psycon’s offices

The assessment can also be conducted at our offices across Finland: Helsinki, Tampere, Turku, Lappeenranta, or Oulu. All possible pre-assignments must be completed before arriving at the office unless agreed otherwise.

For assessment at our office, you will need

• A photo ID (official driver’s license or passport)

What happens in the assessment?

Our personnel assessment always includes an interview with a psychologist, where you can talk about yourself, your background and your expectations for the new role.

The assessment can also include simulation tasks that evaluate qualities like information-gathering, communication, and decision-making skills. There are also questionnaires relating to your career plans, personality traits, and work motivation.

In addition, there are time-limited ability and reasoning tasks that evaluate your information-processing skills and work rhythm. The goal for the task will be explained at the beginning of each task. You will also get clear instructions on how to complete them.

Usually, personnel assessment also includes preliminary assignments, which must be completed before the interviews and simulation tasks. You can complete the tasks at your leisure in the PsycOnline system. You don’t have to complete all the tasks at once, but we recommend taking enough time, about one to three hours, to complete the pre-assignments. You will get clear instructions with each questionnaire. The information will be transmitted confidentially to the assessment consultant.

What happens after the assessment?

After the assessment, our psychologist writes a comprehensive report. You can discuss the assessment, its results, and the report with the psychologist who conducted the assessment.

The results are usually reported to you and the client one week after the final assessment. We handle all results and personal information confidentially. The report is intended for this role only and will not be disclosed to anyone else without your consent.

We keep personnel assessment reports and materials for two years in accordance with the recommendations of the Data Protection Office. Reuse of the information is not recommended in any situation. However, parts of the assessment material can be used in a new assessment if the previous assessment was done only a short time ago. This is decided on a case-by-case basis.