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Pre - employment testing

Pre employment testing policies


The written policy should specify the : Objective Organization commitment to compliance laws Which applicants to be tested Who analyses and interprets the results Format of declaration Description of all the tests used

Testing categories

Definition of Ability Tests


Ability Tests
Are standardized measures of knowledge (e.g., physical, mental, mechanical, and clerical abilities) that results from formal learning experiences

Traditional Forms of Ability Tests


Aptitude tests
Measure knowledge acquired without formal training

Achievement tests
Measure current levels of previously acquired knowledge

Mental Ability Tests


Development of Mental Ability Tests
Binet and Simon
Developed an intelligence test to measure the mental age (academic achievement) of French school children Published as the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale in the U.S.

Otis Self-Administering Test of Mental Ability


The first group-administered mental ability test to have widespread use in industry

What Is Measured by Mental Ability Tests


Content and Academic Achievement
Mental ability tests are validated by correlating test scores with educational achievement as criteria.

Measured Abilities
Mental ability tests measure several distinct abilities but all tests do not measure the same abilities

Scoring of Tests
General tests provide an overall mental ability score Other tests either provide separate scores on each abilities, then sum scores to report a total score or they measure separate abilities and do not combine the scores into a general ability measure.

Abilities Measured by Various Mental Ability Tests

Memory Span Numerical Fluency Spatial

Figural Classification Orientation

Verbal Comprehension
Conceptual Classification Semantic Relations General Reasoning Conceptual Foresight

Visualization
Intuitive Reasoning Ordering Figural Identification Logical Evaluation

The Wonderlic Personnel Test


Wonderlic Personnel Test
Developed in 1938, in wide use thereafter
Is a 50 multiple-choice item test taken in 12 minutes Contentvocabulary, commonsense reasoning, formal syllogisms, arithmetic reasoning and computation, analogies, perceptual skill, spatial relations, number series, scrambled sentences, and knowledge of proverbs. Primarily measures verbal comprehension, with deduction and numerical fluency being the next two factors in order of importance.

Example Items Similar to Items on the Wonderlic Personnel Test

NOTE: An (*) indicates the correct response.

Mechanical Ability Tests


Mechanical Ability
Characteristics that tend to make for success in work with machines and equipment

Testing Methods
Manual performance (assembly/manipulation) Written problems

Abilities Measured
Perceptual speed and accuracy Mechanical information

Mechanical Ability Tests


The Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test
to perceive and understand physical forces and mechanical elements in practical situations. Uses pictures of familiar objects and scenes to ask questions requiring logical analysis. is best used for assessing applicant for positions that require a grasp of the principles underlying the operation and repair of complex devices. Is intended to measure an individuals aptitude for learning mechanical skills.

Physical Ability Tests


Reasons for Physical Ability Testing
More female applicants for male-dominated jobs Reducing the incidence of work-related injuries To determine the physical status of job applicants

Physical Ability Tests


Physical Abilities Analysis
Static strength
Dynamic strength

Explosive strength
Trunk strength Extent flexibility Dynamic flexibility Gross body coordination

Stamina

Definition of Personality
Personality
The unique set of characteristics that define an individual and determine that persons pattern of interaction with the environment. Characteristics
What people habitually want, say, do, feel, or believe, and these attributes are combined distinctly in each person.

Environment
Includes both human and nonhuman elements (organizational demands, work conditions, physical environment, etc.).

Personality Traits
Trait
A continuous dimension on which consistent individual differences in reactions to the same situation may be measured (or explained) by the amount of the characteristic the individual exhibits.
Examples: sociability, independence, and need for achievement

Personality Traits for a Sample of Jobs Studied in Selection


Job
Executive Supervisor Salesperson Secretary Computer Programmer Insurance Agent Newspaper Writer Carpenter

Personality Trait
Conscientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion, ambition (especially) Persistence, endurance, emotional stability, nurturance Conscientiousness, achievement (especially), ambition, extraversion Conscientiousness, dependability (especially), emotional stability, agreeableness Conscientiousness, original thinking, openness to new experiences Conscientiousness, extraversion, original thinking Conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness to new experiences Conscientiousness, dependability (especially), emotional stability

Interaction of Traits and Situations


Powerful Situations
Cause individuals to interpret events in the same way
Create uniform expectancies of appropriate behavior Provide incentives for the performance of a behavior Require commonplace skills

Weak Situations
Cause individuals to not uniformly interpret events in the same way

Do not create uniform expectations of desired behavior


Do not offer incentives for one type of behavior Require a variety of skills

Interaction of Traits and Situations


Effect of Powerful Situations
Powerful aspects of the situation influence an individuals behavior more than the individuals traits.

Effect of Weak Situations


Situational uncertainty causes an individual to act in accordance with personal traits.

Implications
Personality is less important in powerful situations than in weak situations. Personality characteristics are more important for selection devices and job assignments in weak situations than in powerful ones.

Personality Measurement Methods


Inventories in Personality Measurement
Use the written responses of an individual as the information for determining personality

Major Types of Inventories


Self-Report Questionnaires
thoughts, emotions, and past experiences.

Projective Techniques
Require verbal responses to intentionally ambiguous inkblots, pictures, or sentence stems that provide insights into an individuals personality.

Personality Characteristics Inventory (PCI)


150 multiple choice items Each item has three possible responses Requires 30-45 minutes to complete Measures the Big Five personality dimensions
Extraversion Stability Agreeableness Conscientiousness Openness to experience

Scales and Representative Items of Big Five Personality Dimensions


Personality Scale* Extraversion Agreeableness Conscientiousness Stability Openness to Experience Typical Item I tend not to say what I think about things. I tend to trust other people. I approach most of my work steadily and persistently. Whenever Im by myself, I feel vulnerable. I enjoy eating in new restaurants I know nothing about.

*Based on the revised Personality Characteristics Inventory by Murray P. Barrick and Michael K. Mount, published by Wonderlic, Inc., Libertyville, Illinois.

When Specific Traits are Useful


Extraversion, openness to experience, and emotional stability are associated with effective leaders.

Conscientiousness, emotional stability, and agreeableness predict teamwork and performance in jobs involving interpersonal interactions.
All Big Five traits except openness to experience predict success either as an expatriate or an entrepreneur. High conscientiousness and agreeableness scores indicate less likelihood of deviant behavior. Motivation is the means through which personality operates; emotional stability, extraversion, and conscientiousness support job satisfaction, commitment, and job performance.

The Interview in Personality Measurement


Traits are the most frequently assessed constructs in the employment interview.
Conscientiousness is the most frequently measured.

Interviewer ratings of applicant personality are moderately related to job performance.


Interviewers tend to attribute others behavior to personality rather than to situational causes.

Raters often interpret even small amounts of behavior as signs of underlying traits and motives.
Unstructured interviews can increase the accuracy of the raters assessment of an applicants personality.

The Appropriate Use of the Interview


Limit the scope of the interview
Do not attempt to assess the complete personality
Limit the number of personality traits to be judged and identify more carefully the ones that are assessed.

Concentrate on previous behaviors


Use the Behavior Description Interview to assess previous instances of applicant behavior

Behavioral Assessment in Personality Measurement


Methods of Behavioral Assessment
Structured situations
Group interaction and individual role in solving an organizational problem
Example: Leaderless group discussion (LGD)

Observation of behavior
Supervisors record instances of work performance
Example: the Critical Incidents Technique

Behavioral Assessment in Personality Measurement


Limitations of Behavioral Assessment
How job-related are the situations in which the individuals are placed?

How clearly has the recorded behavior been defined?


How extensively have those evaluating the behavior been trained?

Performance Tests
What Performance Tests Do
Ask the applicant to do a representative part of the job for which he or she is being evaluated.
Provide direct evidence of the applicants ability and skill to work on the job.

Limitations of Performance Tests


Creating work samples representative of job activities

Relying on the assumption that applicants already possess KSAs to complete the job behavior
Costs of time, materials, and equipment required to develop and administer performance tests

Examples of Performance Tests


Motor Tests
operating a machine, installing a piece of equipment, or making a product.

Verbal Tests
spoken or written messages or interpersonal interaction

Trainability Tests
for jobs that do not presently exist and specialized jobs for which extensive training is necessary.

Examples of Work-Sample Tests Used in Selection


Test Motor: Lathe Drill press Tool dexterity Screw board test Packaging Shorthand Stenographic Typing Blueprint reading Tool identification Installing belts Repair of gearbox Installing a motor Vehicle repair Tracing trouble in a complex circuit Inspection of electronic defects Electronics test Job

Machine operator

Clerical worker

Mechanic

Electronics technician

Examples of Work-Sample Tests Used in Selection (contd)


Test Job

Verbal: Report of recommendations for problem solution Small business manufacturing game Judgment and decision-making test Supervisory judgment about training, safety, performance, evaluation
Processing of mathematical data and evaluating hypotheses Describing laboratory tests Mathematical formulation and scientific judgment Oral fact finding Role playing of customer contacts Writing business letters Giving oral directions

Manager or supervisor

Engineer or scientist

Customer service representative

Assessment Centers
What Is an Assessment Center (AC)?
A procedure for measuring KSAs in groups of individuals (usually 12 to 24) that uses a series of devices (exercises), many of which are verbal performance tests.

Uses of ACs
Selectionidentifying participants who demonstrate behaviors necessary for the position considered. Career developmentdetermining those behaviors each participant does well and those in which each is deficient.

Behavioral Dimensions Frequently Measured in Assessment Centers


Dimension
Oral Communication Planning and Organizing Delegation Control

Definition
Effectively expressing oneself in individual or group situations (includes gestures and nonverbal communications) Establishing a course of action for self or others in order to accomplish a specific goal; planning proper assignments of personnel and appropriate allocation of resources Utilizing subordinates effectively; allocating decision making and other responsibilities to the appropriate subordinates Establishing procedures for monitoring or regulating the processes, tasks, or activities of subordinates; monitoring and regulating job activities and responsibilities; taking action to monitor the results of delegated assignments or projects

Decisiveness
Initiative

Expressing a readiness to make decisions, render judgments, take action, or commit oneself
Actively attempting to influence events to achieve goals; showing self-starting actions rather than passive acceptance. Taking action to achieve goals beyond those called for; originating action Maintaining a stable performance under pressure or opposition Maintaining effectiveness in varying environments, with various tasks, responsibilities, or people Staying with a position or plan of action until the desired objective is achieved or is no longer reasonably attainable

Tolerance for Stress Adaptability Tenacity

SOURCE: George C. Thornton III, Assessment Centers in Human Resource Management (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1992).

Assessment Devices Used in ACs


Performance (Simulation) Tests
In-Basket
A paper-and-pencil test designed to replicate administrative tasks of the job under consideration.

Leaderless Group Discussion (LGD)


A small group of applicants are each assigned roles and charged with resolving either a competitive or a cooperative scenario. The group must produce a written report that specifies the action to be taken by the company relative to the scenario.

Types of Abilities To Be Developed in Training Assessors Understanding the behavioral dimensions Observing the behavior of participants

Categorizing participant behavior as to appropriate behavioral dimensions


Judging the quality of participant behavior

Determining the rating of participants on each behavioral dimension across the exercises
Determining the overall evaluation of participants across all behavioral dimensions

Rating Dimensions of Behavior in ACs


5 A great deal of the dimension was shown (excellent).

4
3

Quite a lot of the dimension was shown.


A moderate amount of the dimension was shown (average).

2
1

Only a small amount of the dimension was shown.


Very little of the dimension was shown, or this dimension was not shown at all (poor).

No opportunity existed for this dimension to be shown.

Situational Judgment Tests


Situation Judgment Tests (SJTs)
Low-fidelity simulations that present a series of written descriptions of work situations and multiple responses to each situation.
The participant indicates one of the responses for each situation as being the one that the participant endorses.

Integrity Testing
Why worry about employee dishonesty?
Pressure to remain cost-competitive in a global marketplace Wide differences in perceptions of the extent of employee theft

Polygraph Testing
Polygraph (lie detector) Employee Polygraph Protection Act (1988) Made it illegal in selection (with the exception of specific circumstances)

Permissible Uses of the Polygraph


By Specific Employers
Private employers providing security services. Manufacturers, distributors, or dispensers of controlled substances. Federal, state, and local government employers.

Under Specific Testing Conditions


Workplace theft or other incident has occurred that resulted in an economic loss to the company. Employee must have had access to the property that is the subject of the investigation. Reasonable suspicion that the employee was involved in the incident. Employee has been given specific written information about the incident being investigated and the reasons for the testing.

Paper-and-Pencil Integrity Tests


Types of Integrity Tests
Overt integrity tests
Directly ask for information about attitudes toward theft and the occurrence of previous theft behaviors.

Personality-based measures
Do not ask about theft behaviors directly. Inventory traits linked to several related employee behaviors that are detrimental to the organization.

Drug Testing
Issues in Drug Use Measurement
Distinctions related to use (levels and frequencies of consumption) and impairment (deterioration in performance)

Drug use varies by:


Occupation Gender Age Education

Types of Drug Tests


Paper-and-Pencil Tests
Resemble paper-and-pencil integrity tests Limited by prohibition on self-incrimination

Urine Tests
Require screening and confirmation tests Results are dependent on threshold level set

Hair Analysis
Requires screening and confirmation tests Allows for longer detection periods

Types of Drug Tests (contd)


Fitness-for-Duty (Competency) Tests
Compares an individuals response times and accuracy while operating a computer game to the individuals previous scores on the game.

Oral Fluid Test


Oral swab taken from inside of individuals mouth is analyzed for presence of drugs.

Acceptance of Drug Testing Programs


Drug testing is accepted when:
An advance warning of the testing is given
Rehabilitation rather than termination is when the presence of drugs is detected There are fair detection procedures and explanation of results

There is a perceived need for testing.


Either urinalysis or overt paper-and-pencil tests are used rather than a personality inventory.

Graphology
Graphology
The analysis of the handwriting of an individual in order to infer personality traits and behavioral tendencies.

Graphologist
The individual who performs the analysis of handwriting features:
Size of letters, slant, width, zones (top, middle, and bottom), regularity of letter formation, margin, pressure, stroke, line of letters (upward, straight, downward), connections of letters, form of connection, and word and line spacing.

Some Examples of Handwriting Features and Their Interpretation

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