High Cognitive Ability Correlated by 84% with High Job Performance: Mettl’s Report

Mettl, India’s leading talent assessment company, has released its new report on ‘Cognitive Skills at Work’. Realizing the critical shortage of talent in the market, hiring managers across the globe are now starting to focus on an applicant’s cognitive aptitude and their abilities to learn and be trained, rather than only emphasizing on their current skills. Focus on Hiring Candidates with Higher IQ and Analytical Skills, with the usage increasing by 207% specifically for cognitive assessments across a plethora of organizational verticals.

In the search for the perfect competencies to be evaluated for a particular job role, while conducting 10 million assessment annually, Mettl created a cognitive framework to categorize all popular job roles into job families based on the type and level of cognitive ability required in any job role. The framework classifies job roles from L1 to L5, covering 12 core competencies to measure cognitive intelligence at work.

Fluid Intelligence - Abstract Reasoning, Spatial Reasoning, Creativity
Crystallize Intelligence - Numerical Ability, Verbal Ability, Data Analysis, Logical & Critical Reasoning, Decision Making, Problem Solving
Core Business Function - Attention to detail, Memory, Perceptual Speed, Visualization
Mettl Cognitive Skills Framework

The cognitive ability or raw intelligence is one of the best predictors of an employees’ on the job performance and response to training. High cognitive ability is correlated by 84% with higher job performance. In fact, it is the most accurate predictor of an employee’s success at work.

Therefore, it is extremely important for organizations to, first, identify the cognitive ability requirement of every job role and then hire accordingly. Mettl Cognitive Skills Framework classifies job roles based on the nature of the job across 3 critical factors:

Information Processing: Refers to a person’s proficiency in carrying out the numerical, analytical and critical reasoning
Solution Generation: Refers to a person’s ability to think out of the box by making use of creativity and abstract reasoning competencies
Decision making: Refers to a person’s ability to solve problems and take well thought out rational and accurate decisions

Ketan Kapoor, CEO, Mettl, commented, “At least 80% of the Fortune 500 companies globally use cognitive and IQ tests during the hiring process, and through this report and guide, we aim to help more organizations see why this is a practice that could benefit them immensely. In today’s ever-evolving organizational landscape, organizations need their driving force - the people, to be aligned to their business goals and strategies, aligning them with curated competencies for each and every job role will help them build winning teams which are leaner, meaner, fitter and inclusive.”

Mapping the usage trends for cognitive assessments across major industries

Mettl’s study of various key industries found that the use of cognitive assessments has increased by 29% in the overall IT industry. Its application in the hiring process has increased by 28%, and by 101% for the purpose of learning and development (L&D). The increased usage during L&D programs is driven by the fact that high cognitive intelligence is equal to high learning agility. For an industry like IT that is evolving constantly, it’s crucial that employees in this field are highly agile in their ability to learn and keep up with new technologies.

As a leader in the SaaS-based talent assessments and L&D solutions space, Mettl constantly strives to raise the bar around skills assessments and provides award-winning recruiting and L&D solutions to the Indian corporate sector, global, as well as educational institutions. It seamlessly facilitates transformative results for its customers by employing research-backed assessments, efficient delivery on a cloud platform and in-depth analytics.