From July, 3rd to July, 5th, the 8th Congress of the International Test Commission (ITC) takes place in Amsterdam. Participants from all over the world are expected. The „best brains“ come together to discuss up-to-date questions. We have dedicated our article to a topic that connects HR management with modern psychological tools and that should initiate new perpectives for recruitment and Employer Branding.

Employer Branding is one of those „magic terms“ in modern HR work. Attracting talented candidates is the cruicial challenge for companies in times where globalized markets require top staff, technologies get more and more complex and skilled professionals get scarce.

There is a wide range of suggestions what companies can do to build strong employer brands. But how can we measure if these activities are successful and whether a company attracts the candidates it aims at?

Surveys and rankings give an idea if a „brand“ is well known and if it is associated with positive attributes amongst certain groups of candidates, i. e. Young Professionals. Also, the quantity of applicants a company can expect when advertising job postings can be estimated. But these surveys and rankings are of limited power when the question is: do we attract the right, meaning „talented“ candidates? This question refers to the quality of an applicant pool rather than to its quantity.

In other words: how can we operationalize „talent“?

Psychological findings give hints to answer this question: in many studies, general intelligence („g“) turned out to be the most powerful single factor to predict job performance.

Therefore, our idea is to measure „g“ to estimate whether a company attracts candiadates who are able to learn new skills and knowledge quickly in order to contribute to a successful market participation of their employer.

We will discuss our idea with colleagues on the 8th Congress of the International Test Commission and we are looking forward to an active and fruitful discussion and feedback.