Talent Identification & Selection

Psychometric assessment consultancy. The science behind better people data.

Not all psychometric data is equal. The tool is only as good as the person interpreting it.

All instrument selection and interpretation carried out by British Psychological Society qualified occupational psychologists, working with HR Directors and talent teams at medium-to-large organisations.

The psychometric market is largely unregulated, a genuine wild west of instruments ranging from rigorously validated tools with decades of occupational research behind them, to questionnaires that produce numbers with no demonstrable relationship to job performance. It is also a market dominated by a small number of large test publishers, each with a commercial interest in selling you their own tools regardless of whether those tools are the right fit for your organisation or your objectives. It can be hard to tell the difference. Wharton Global works exclusively with BPS-registered tools which set the gold standard and are measured against reliability and validity. We are independent of all test publishers, therefore our recommendation is always driven by what is right for you, our client.

Architectural facade representing rigour and structure in assessment

The problem

Organisations routinely make recruitment, succession, and development decisions based on psychometric data they assume to be reliable. The British Psychological Society’s Psychological Testing Centre rigorously reviews instruments against criteria such as test construction, standardisation, reliability, validity, and fairness - a process that takes years. However, most tools on the market have not been accredited against these standards. In many cases, publishers have not established robust normative baselines or produced transparent evidence of reliability and validity. As a result, organisations are often making consequential decisions based on data that appears robust, but is not.

The second problem is interpretation. Even the highest-quality instruments, read by someone without the training to understand them, produce conclusions the data does not support. A psychometric profile is not self-explanatory. The interactions between scales, the significance of elevation patterns, and what a profile means in the context of a specific role and organisation require expert reading. Without it, the output creates false confidence in a judgement that remains as intuitive as it was before the test was administered.

What Wharton Global does

Wharton Global advises organisations on psychometric assessment: which instruments to use and why, how to administer them with proper process integrity, and how to interpret the results at the level the decisions they inform deserve. Where organisations want to build internal capability, we provide training through the BPS qualification framework.

The offer is consultancy-led. We sell tests, we advise on tests, administer them, interpret them, and train the people who need to use them. We only use instruments that meet BPS standards, so they are properly supported by evidence and fit for purpose. Selecting the wrong tool is one of the most common and least visible errors in organisational assessment practice, and one of the most commercially significant.

The instruments

Personality and behavioural style

SHL OPQ32

Measures 32 dimensions of work-relevant personality across relationships, thinking style, and feelings and emotions. One of the most extensively researched occupational personality instruments available, with strong UK and international norm groups. Well suited to selection and development at volume and at senior level.

Saville Wave

Measures work-relevant personality alongside the underlying motivations and talents that drive behaviour. It has unusually strong predictive validity for job performance and was designed for the occupational context from the outset rather than adapted from a clinical instrument.

Hogan

Measures personality from three angles: how someone presents in their best light, the patterns that emerge under pressure or when their guard is down, and the values and motivations that shape their decisions. It is the only leading suite to directly address why leaders fail, not just what makes them effective.

Cognitive ability and reasoning

Watson-Glaser

The standard for measuring critical thinking and analytical reasoning. It assesses the ability to evaluate arguments, recognise assumptions, draw inferences, and interpret data accurately under real conditions. Rather than testing general intelligence, it assesses the specific reasoning skill that is linked to performance in judgement-heavy roles.

Mosaic

Next-generation cognitive assessment. Adaptive delivery produces a more precise picture of cognitive ability in less time, with significantly reduced susceptibility to preparation or coaching. It represents a material step forward in psychometric precision for assessing potential.

Newer and specialist instruments

Empathy and social reasoning

Measures empathic accuracy, perspective-taking, and social cognition. Distinct from self-reported emotional intelligence scales, these assess a demonstrable cognitive and social capacity. Relevant for leadership selection, clinical and healthcare roles, customer-facing environments, and any context where the ability to read and respond to others is a performance driver.

Online safety and cyber risk attitude

Measures an individual's attitude to information security risk, susceptibility to social engineering, and the behavioural patterns that create or reduce cyber exposure in a working environment. The question they answer is not whether people know the policy. It is how they behave when the pressure is on.

Physical safety attitude and risk behaviour

Measures safety orientation, risk tolerance, and the behavioural patterns that predict safe versus unsafe working in operational environments. In the pictorial formats they remove the language barrier entirely, producing valid, reliable data across linguistically diverse workforces. Relevant for construction, manufacturing, logistics, utilities, and any sector where a lapse in safety behaviour carries direct cost and liability.

Our approach

Assessment brief

Every engagement begins with the decision, not the tool. What is the organisation trying to find out, at what level, and in what context?

Instrument selection

We identify the instruments that best fit the brief from across the full range of BPS-reviewed tools. We are independent of all publishers and commercially aligned to none.

Administration

We administer assessments with the process integrity the instrument requires: proper briefing, controlled conditions, and consistent application across all candidates or participants.

Interpretation

Chartered occupational psychologists can interpret results, integrating data across instruments and reading profiles in the context of the role, the culture, and the individual. The interactions between scales and what a profile means for this person in this role require expert reading that cannot be automated.

Capability build

Where organisations want to use validated instruments independently going forward, we provide BPS Test User standard - Occupational Ability (TUOA) and Occupational Personality (TUOP) training (previously Level A and Level B) so that internal teams can administer and interpret with confidence.

What it produces in practice

A global manufacturer with a strong safety record commissioned an audit of its preselection framework after identifying that new recruits varied considerably in safety readiness despite passing identical training. The instruments in use were professionally administered but calibrated for general cognitive ability and broad personality traits, not the specific behavioural profile that safety critical environments require. Wharton Global conducted a diagnostic across global operations, observing experienced performers and translating consistent patterns into a precisely calibrated framework measuring hazard perception, cognitive agility under pressure, and safety-oriented behaviours including rule adherence and adaptability. The replacement framework was piloted, refined, and translated into over 30 languages before full deployment. The result was a 35% improvement in safety readiness scores as measured by onboarding assessment scores, consistently across divisions, with supervisors reporting faster integration and stronger first month performance from day one.

Who this is for

We provide advice to any organisation making consequential decisions about people, whether recruitment, succession or development, that wants to be certain the psychometric data behind those decisions is fit for purpose. HR Directors, Heads of Talent, and Recruitment Partners are the most frequent commissioners, but the need applies equally to business owners and senior leaders at SMEs reviewing a single instrument and to large organisations auditing an entire assessment framework.
Organisations making senior or specialist appointments where the quality of psychometric data will be directly scrutinised.
Operational businesses in high-consequence environments where safety attitudes and risk behaviour carry direct liability.
Any organisation where the gap between what assessment should produce and what it currently produces has become visible.

Questions we get asked

Investment case

From as little as £70

A recruitment or promotion decision made based on an invalid psychometric instrument has the same risk as a decision made with no data at all. Wharton Global's assessment consultancy provides a defensible, evidence-based process, at a cost that is a fraction of a single poor appointment.

Talk to us about testing

Client feedback

“The data was compelling, but what convinced us was what the trainers and supervisors were reporting. The recruits coming through the new framework were arriving with the right mindset, not just the right qualifications. That difference showed up immediately, and it has improved over time.”
Group VP of Human Resources