Jobseekers are being made to complete bogus psychometric tests by the Department for Work and Pensions – and told that in some cases they risk losing their benefits if they do not complete the meaningless online questionnaire.
Apparently this wheeze is the work of Cameroid’s nudge unit. Well, I suppose they have to find something to do and annoying jobseekers with pointless psychometric testing is as good a thing as any.
Sometimes, psychometric testing can be useful – if, for example, you need a set of basic skills and devise a testing system to identify those skills in candidates, yes, it is a useful recruitment tool. But if it is general, it is about as useful as a water butt in the Sahara.
Some of the 48 statements on the DWP test include: “I never go out of my way to visit museums,” and: “I have not created anything of beauty in the last year.” People are asked to grade their answers from “very much like me” to “very much unlike me”.
When those being tested complete the official online questionnaire, they are assigned a set of five positive “strengths” including “love of learning” and “curiosity” and “originality”.
The technical term for this is “wibble.” It is not scientific and it is of no use whatever – especially given that the test doesn’t even work. Jobseekers looking for work need to satisfy a potential employer that they have the relevant aptitude for the work that employer needs doing – so unless they are looking for a museum curator, one might reasonably draw the conclusion that they couldn’t give a flying fuck whether a candidate goes out of their way to visit museums or not. Indeed, beyond “can this person do the job being advertised?” nothing else matters. We all have strengths and we all have weaknesses. Some of us get to use our strengths in our work. I am fortunate in this regard. I am amenable (yes, really), articulate and naturally didactic; all of which are useful for someone who earns a living teaching. None of it was of any use whatsoever stacking shelves overnight in Sainsbury’s. All they really needed to know they gleaned from their own internal recruitment process.
So, frankly, once again we have politicians and the morons who advise them wasting taxpayer’s money on frippery and generally pissing off people who are already annoyed at not having a job even more.
Cretins.
Farmers must catalogue livestock. 😐
Only it’s not a psychometric test, and doesn’t claim to be – that part’s just Granuiad garbage. It’s just supposed to be a ‘motivational tool’, whereby claimants get to hear nice positive messages about their strengths which encourage them to feel more confident about applying for work. Though yes, that means the questions still sound like pointless drivel and a waste of time… Thankfully, it’s a very limited trial.
Semantics aside, there are two fundamental problems here. Firstly, it is a gross waste of money at a time when the state should be tightening its belt. Secondly, it appears to be a glorified placebo and one that was so inept it has been exposed as such. Jobbseekers don’t need silly motivational tools, they need practical help in seeking proper work.
The original blog post that kicked this off was pure conspiracy theory, claiming that the government is engaging in mind control. Given that these witless incompetents cannot even control their own impulses, nor manage the proverbial piss up in a brewery, I prefer the Occam’s razor approach; fuckwits working in a rarefied, incestuous environment come up with staggeringly stupid idea and think it is motivational rather than idiotic.
I wouldn’t disagree with your overall assessment, though I wouldn’t criticise it as a placebo – placebos can work, just on psychological grounds rather than genuine medical ones. However, I seriously doubt this is an effective motivational version of a sugar pill.
The only thing I’d say in DWP’s defence is that it is a very small scale trial – and put together in a such an amateurish way that I wouldn’t be surprised if it were in-house work.So while a waste of money, it’s hopefully unlikely to be a huge waste – given the publicity, expect an FOI request to wheedle out how much in due course.
The DWP’s ‘Jobsearch UK’ website is a lulu. Contains 300k jobs at any one time, but seems very tardy at removing out of date ones, so I’d estimate probably about 250k current vacancies displayed. Also, no public sector jobs displayed: the DWP most conspicously has its own jobsite. Why’s that then?