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About using Tests to
Screen Job Applicants
There are two batteries of tests you can use to screen job applicants. It
is
recommend that you use them approximately as follows:
- Put a good ad in your local paper or
other media. Describe the job carefully and in detail. Ask interested
parties to complete an application you can send them or send in a
cover letter, resume and copy of relevant school transcripts by a
certain deadline.
- Review received applications, letters, etc. and select those who seem
to meet your basic criteria.
- Contact those persons and schedule them to take the battery of tests
you have decided best suits your needs.
- Administer and score the tests. Select the candidates who meet your
test criteria. Tell "failing" candidates that they did not meet your
specific test score criteria and wish them well in seeking employment
elsewhere.
- Conduct remaining interviews, background checks, physical exams, etc.
in order, selecting only those applicants who pass each subsequent
screening step. Don't let anyone back in the pool if they've failed an
earlier step.
The reason I recommend putting the testing early in the process and
before you interview is to protect your interviewers from feeling
upstaged by the test, which will de-select some whom the interviewers
have okayed. Also, interviewing costs money, and the tests will
screen
out many applicants, saving you money in interviewing and other steps.
There are other issues you must consider, including state and Federal
regulations governing hiring practices. For example, you should not
inquire about disabilities, such as alcoholism or physical handicaps
until after you make a job offer. An EEOC employee I spoke to once said
that what the government especially likes to see is a written protocol
for hiring (how you do each step, what your passing scores are, etc.)
and that the company apply it consistently to all job applicants
regardless of age, gender, ethnic status, etc.
Your must be sensitive to any of your screening steps having "adverse
impact." Adverse impact means that it tends to favor majority group
members (white males, typically) over minority group members. If a
hiring procedure does have adverse impact, you can still use it, as long
as you can demonstrate that it has validity for the purpose you are
using it and you continue to seek equally effective screening tools that
have less adverse impact.
Research I have done with my tests has shown that measures of
intellectual aptitude and factual knowledge (e.g. of math, English, and
truck driving regulations) do have slight adverse impact against one or
another minority group.
Research over many decades has shown that tests are generally better
than any other screening procedure, so the chances are not good that you
will find anything better than well designed tests.
Therefore, if you want to be especially careful when using tests, you
can do a pilot study first to seek validity data for your test battery
before you use it to screen job applicants. You can test 30 current
employees in the job for which you will be hiring and running
correlation statistics between test scores and other in-house measures
of job performance. I can help your do this study. You can usually
demonstrate validity, so your use of tests will be justified. Remember
though to use them as part of a written hiring protocol that you follow
consistently.
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