Korn Ferry is a global organisational consulting firm founded in 1969. In 2015 it acquired Hay Group, which had itself bought the test publisher Talent Q, so many assessments once sold under the Talent Q and Hay Group names are now Korn Ferry assessments.
What Is A Korn Ferry Assessment?
Employers use Korn Ferry assessments as pre-employment screening tests. After applying for a role, candidates are sent a link to one or more assessments that are taken online.
Sometimes these are 'blended' assessments, where several competencies or skills are tested at one time. For other employers, there might be several different tests taken separately.
Korn Ferry describes four dimensions of leadership and talent, known as KF4D:
- Competencies (skills and behaviours needed for success that can be observed)
- Experiences (assignments or roles that prepare a person for future opportunities)
- Traits (natural tendencies, including personality and intellectual capacity)
- Drivers (values and interests that shape motivation and career path)
Korn Ferry Assessments
Korn Ferry assessments can be broadly categorised into two different types of psychometric tests; personality and aptitude tests. The type of test that is used for each industry depends on what the role needs from an applicant - great situational judgement, logical problem solving, or a specific personality or behavioural trait.
Korn Ferry Personality And Situational Tests
Personality tests have been around for decades. The idea that people can find out about their motivations, desires and fears through a questionnaire has been at the forefront of industry psychology for many years, and tests like these can be used in application processes.
The Korn Ferry approach to personality and behavioural assessment is through several different tests that can be used separately or in conjunction with others.
Personality Inventory Tests
In this assessment you rank sets of statements by how well they describe you. It looks at your preferences at work, such as how you approach tasks, how you work with others and what motivates you.
Employers such as the Canada Revenue Agency say the behavioural and trait sections are not timed. Answer honestly and consistently rather than trying to guess what the employer wants.
Competency-based Assessments
These assessments measure your behavioural preferences at work using relevant competencies for the role. In a similar way to the personality questionnaire, these statements need to be ranked according to how true they are about the way you behave at work.
Leadership Assessment
The leadership assessment is similar to a situational judgement test. Candidates are presented with a series of scenarios, and must select the most appropriate course of action.
The scenarios are about leading people and making decisions at work, so your answers give the employer an insight into how you might handle those situations.
Korn Ferry Aptitude Tests
Aptitude tests do not test what you know. They measure how well you reason with information you are given, so there is nothing to revise, although practice helps you get used to the formats.
Situational Judgement Test
The situational judgement test is a scenario-based assessment. You will be presented with a series of work-related situations that need specific actions.
Each scenario will have a number of possible answers, and each might seem like an appropriate response. However, there will be a conclusion that is preferred by the employer, and they are looking for an applicant who has the right problem-solving response.
Cognitive Ability Test
The cognitive ability tests measure reasoning skills with different information sources. This can include numerical and written data, as well as understanding and manipulating images and symbols.
The cognitive ability tests are adaptive: questions get harder when you answer correctly. Employers using them, such as the Canada Revenue Agency, also say each cognitive question is individually timed, while the behavioural sections are untimed.
Verbal Reasoning Test
Verbal reasoning assessments are presented as paragraphs of written text, with a question following with several possible answers.
To be successful in a verbal reasoning test, you need to quickly and accurately read and understand the information given, and then analyse it in order to find the correct answer. The language used in these questions tends to be quite formal and the content is usually business related.
Numerical Reasoning Test
The numerical reasoning test presents questions based on numerical data in tables and graphs. The test is less about advanced maths than about how well you can read, understand and analyse data presented in this way.
The maths knowledge needed is no harder than GCSE level maths, using basic operations as well as percentages, fractions and ratios.
Logical Reasoning Practice
Some Korn Ferry assessments include a non-verbal logical reasoning test. Our practice questions are general preparation for this kind of test, not Korn Ferry's own.
Candidates are provided with a grid containing images or shapes, and one square will be missing. The potential answers are multiple choice, and to find the right one you will need to analyse the images to find the pattern and then the right answer.
Tips To Pass Korn Ferry Tests
Practice, Practice, Practice
Although aptitude and personality tests are not about your learning and experience, they are still tests and practice will make a difference in your performance.
Practice tests not only give you beneficial familiarity with the structure and layout of the assessments, they will also help you to see if there are any competencies that you need to work on and improve.
Practice should be taken seriously, under exam conditions including strict timings.
Don't Be Afraid To Fail
Taking assessments as part of a job application can be nerve-racking. Remember that they are one part of the employer's decision, alongside your application and interviews.
During practice assessments, you can learn from your failures. These help you recognise your weaker areas, so getting questions wrong in practice is useful.
In the real assessment, the pre-employment screening is as much for you to understand whether you have the aptitudes and the personality traits to be successful in the role.
Don't Get Stuck On One Question
Korn Ferry's cognitive tests are adaptive and each question is individually timed, according to employers such as the Canada Revenue Agency. That means you usually cannot skip a question and come back to it, so make your best choice within the time and move on.
Think Outside The Box
Practice for psychometric tests doesn't have to mean finding full practice tests online - you can hone your problem solving skills and other aptitudes in everyday life, too. You can use puzzles like sudoku and crosswords, play game-based brain training apps on your mobile phone, and even just broaden your reading material to include more professional sources like journals for the industry you are applying for. All these things will help your competencies to improve over time.
As most of the questions in the Korn Ferry battery of tests are multiple choice, you have a good chance of being able to work out the answer even if it is not your strongest aptitude.
Read Everything Thoroughly
Each test will have specific ways to provide the right answer, whether it is a simple point and click with a mouse or to drag a slider. Reading the instructions will not only help you calm your anxiety at the beginning of the assessment, it will also give you essential knowledge about how best to answer (and how long you have in the test).
Even if you have practised, read each question carefully rather than assuming you know the answer. Practising reading and analysing written text, numerical data and patterns helps you do this quickly and accurately.
