Psychometric Assessments

Technical skills are essential for seafarers, but there is also a need to ensure they have the right personal attributes and characteristics for the role they are in. Sadly, many tragedies at sea have been caused by a failure in decision-making or assertiveness rather than lack of experience or knowledge. Our psychometric assessment platform SafeMetrix is our response to the challenge of marrying technical and non-technical skills. It helps those involved in the recruitment and career development of seafarers to better understand and quantify the non-technical skills seafarers should possess to ensure their wellbeing and safety, and to develop into high performing and competent crew.

The assessments allow HR, crewing and training managers to ensure a candidate is suited to a role by assessing characteristics that are not visible on a CV or demonstrated during an interview. For example, they would want a captain to show strong leadership while lower ranks need to demonstrate an ability to follow instructions. Since all candidates are objectively assessed, companies gain reliable and accurate information to make hiring decisions. In addition to recruitment, companies can also use psychometric assessments to identify seafarers who possess higher level abilities and are suitable for promotion. Psychometric assessments can also help identify specific areas that require training in order to design and implement well-targeted training programmes, rather than assuming everyone needs the same training.

We offer two types of psychometric assessments to assist crew and HR managers to make recruitment and employee development decisions.

• MET-3S (Soft Skills for Seafarers) assesses the soft, non-technical skills of the crew, covering three clusters of skills - coping under pressure, interpersonal skills, and self-management.
• MET-CSS (Cognitive Skills for Seafarers) assesses a series of key cognitive functions which are required for optimal performance and ensure a safe work environment.

Soft skills are non-technical skills that make people who they are, rather than what they know. They are characteristics, competencies, and attitudes that provide insight into how an individual seafarer may cope under pressure, self-manage and other react towards work situations and colleagues. Technological advances on board, such as artificial intelligence, sees a shift in job requirements. Soft skills augment automatic processes to enable safer and more efficient operations.

Cognitive skills refer to how the brain processes stimuli. They refer to the ability of people to acquire, perceive, process, store and project information. These skills are becoming increasingly important as the maritime industry embraces new technologies and the complexity of the work environment increases. Seafarers now require a greater level of situation awareness.

MET-3S assesses 13 essential skills for each rank, grouped into three clusters of ‘coping under pressure’, ‘self-management’ and ‘interpersonal skills’. MET-CSS assesses 4 essential skills for each rank

A robust methodology was used to analyse the specific job requirements for the various ranks on board and we conducted a thorough job analysis to identify the skills considered most important and in demand.

We worked with maritime industry experts to ensure the assessments and the SafeMetrix platform were of the highest quality. The assessments were tested against three main criteria: · Reliability – The test needs to be stable for up to two years without changes. · Validity – The test needs to be valid to the profession, skills and conditions. · Fairness – The test needs to be void of gender, culture, age, race implications. SafeMetrix assessments were checked for all these factors and were found to provide crew operators with valid and reliable data on which to make decisions. They are created in such a way that the seafarers’ language or culture do not affect the results.

SafeMetrix assessments are norm-referenced which means that they provide information on how the test takers’ scores compared to other people that are included in the same group within the seafarer population. Each test taker will receive a stanine score for each skill scale, which will be in the range from 1 -9. It indicates how well the participant performed in comparison to others in the group. Stanines can be categorised as:

· Below Average (1-3)

· Average (4-6)

· Above Average (7-9)

SafeMetrix offers three options to calculate the scores of an individual:

· Comparison based on the industry norm (by default).

· Comparison based on the company norm: the system allows comparison based on company norms if there are at least 1,000 results.

· Comparison based on the nationality norm: the system allows comparison based on nationality norm and are considered informative only if there are at least 100 results.

SafeMetrix provides three different reporting mechanisms to provide managers with a comprehensive and easy to understand break down of the results.

· Lite Report –a brief, standardised two-page report that presents results of the individual against others in their cluster with short interpretations for each skill score.

· Extended Report - the results per cluster are presented along with other ways to visualise how results are distributed, with extended interpretations of each skills scale result.

· Integrated Report –includes the results of both MET-3S and MET-CSS along with an overview of all the results, reviewed by a certified psychologist.

It also includes recommendations, such as interview guidelines of how to conduct follow-up interview to countercheck potential weaknesses and/or possible drawbacks.

Both the Lite and Extended reports can be automatically generated directly on the SafeMetrix platform and are included with the license, but an additional license must be purchased for the Integrated version. Learn more >

We offer soft and cognitive skills assessments for the following ranks:

· Management Level Deck officers

· Operational Level Deck officers

· Management Level Engine officers

· Operational Level Engine officers

The company Admin can select the assessment type they want to assign, allowing the test taker to be compared to other people in the same group. This means results are valid and reliable.

All assessments are available in English. MET-3S assessments are also available in Russian, Greek and Tagalog (Filipino) for Management Level Deck officers, Operational Level Deck officers.

The average time for completing the MET-3S is about 45 minutes. The average time for completing the MET-CSS is around 35 minutes.

MET-3S (Soft Skills for Seafarers) is valid for 24 months and should be retaken afterwards to reflect the current level of the soft skills of the seafarer. MET-CSS (Cognitive Skills for Seafarers) is valid for four years and should be retaken after this period ends, to reflect the current level of the cognitive skills of the seafarer

MET-3S (Soft Skills for Seafarers) is valid for 24 months and should be retaken afterwards to reflect the current level of the soft skills of the seafarer. MET-CSS (Cognitive Skills for Seafarers) is valid for four years and should be retaken after this period ends, to reflect the current level of the cognitive skills of the seafarer

Each MET-3S assessment consists of 150 statements to which the test taker must indicate if they agree or disagree. There are different levels of agreement, and the assessment will analyse the results based on the industry norm.

The number of correct responses (accuracy) and the response time (speed) are the two basic measuring factors. In all the skill sub-surveys, the system identifies and records the responses of the seafarer. In this way, the correct and incorrect answers are calculated, and the total number of correct responses in each of the four sub-surveys is taken into consideration. The response time in all items and all the sub-surveys is calculated. The clock starts when an item is presented on the screen, and the clock stops when a response is given.

We recommend conducting follow-up interviews to further assess and counter check the results of the assessment. SafeMetrix Competency-based Interview Guidelines training course guides HR managers in how to conduct effective seafarer interviews that lead to an objective comparison of individuals. The course teaches how to identify critical elements in the responses of candidates through competency-based interviewing:

· Asking a specific set of job-related questions

· Using a specific set of predefined indicators for evaluation

· Using rating scales for evaluation

On completion of the course, learners will receive a PDF copy of the Competency-based Interview Guidelines Template to support future interviews.

We offer a range of soft and cognitive skills training and the SafeMetrix Personal Development package includes unbounded licenses. The package can be purchased and individual courses can be assigned to each seafarer to address potential weaknesses and initiate personal development.