1. Size
A key principle of norm groups is that they are representing a sample from a larger population. This
population will vary depending on the way in which we are using the assessment, but might represent
graduates, managers or those in more administrative level roles. Whilst we could never compare a candidate
to every person in that population, we need a large enough sample to be confident the outcomes could be
applied to the population more generally. For example, if a candidate applies for our graduate programme,
we might want to compare them to other graduates. Whilst we could never compare them to every graduate
in the world, our sample or norm group needs to be large enough that we can be confident it represents a
comparison to graduates more generally.
A larger norm group means we can be confident that the mean of our norm group is accurate and in turn,
use this to accurately transform our candidate’s score. Therefore, a general rule with norm groups is the larger
the norm group, the better. You can find information related to the size of all Talent Q norm groups in the
psychometric review for the product you are using