HR Assessment

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Tools, Not Tests

By Kim Silvers

Julie Moreland knows, when it comes to hiring people, what you see is rarely what you get. As the head of a personnel-consulting firm, she has learned that tests do make the hire.
    A Silicon Valley computer-integration firm suffering from high turnover on the sales side was in need of a keen sales team. But, all too frequently, the firm was finding its hires just weren’t the right fit. Worse yet, clients were beginning to question the company’s stability as new sales representatives rotated through its doors.
    To combat the flow of poor hires, the firm began using a sales hire test to screen applicants. Several months passed with no change in turnover. At wits end, the owner called Moreland, managing partner of PeopleClues, to evaluate its process. Moreland quickly discovered the problem: The integration firm was using another company’s scoring benchmark for its candidates, resulting in hiring sales personnel with a style opposite from what the position required.

Shortcuts Short Circuit
The shortcut of not devising its own appropriate test not only put the company’s client relationships at risk but also put it at legal risk by using an assessment tool that had not been validated.
    It is essential, as well as legally required in the United States, to have the instrument deemed reliable and valid for selection and for the position, warns Jenifer Leake, principal at Assessment Pros. “Just because the NFL uses a Wonderlic product does not mean you should use it, too.” The U.S. Department of Labor outlines specific criteria for these testing standards online.
    Historically, hiring assessments have been used primarily for sales personnel and senior-level executives. Given the affordability, ease of online use, and the importance of making the right hire, employers are using applicant-assessment tools more than ever to ensure they hire the right person the first time.
    Applicant-assessment tools have been around for almost a century, and today there are hundreds available. It’s important to note that organizational psychologists or psychometrists, who are professionals administering and evaluating these psychological reviews, avoid using the term “test.” There is no pass or fail, just a better profile match. Employers are challenged with finding the best assessment approach to accurately and consistently measure the most critical skills for job success.
    Today’s assessment instruments are available online as well as in pencil-and-paper versions; costs typically range from $20 to $300 per use. They measure employee attributes such as clerical skills, team compatibility, sales competency, intelligence and specific job skills.
    Assessment tools can also be used to measure work attitude and job fit. Work-attitude assessments can reduce the screening time and eventual employee turnover by eliminating candidates who will likely be a poor fit for the job. Attitude assessments can cover areas such as work ethic, substance abuse, honesty/integrity, reliability, computer abuse and sexual harassment.
    “You can teach job skills if the applicant doesn’t have what you need,” says Assessment Pro’s Leake. “You cannot change attitudes, personalities or interests. Assessments help you know the applicant you hire is the employee you get.”
    Ronald Weissmann, human resources director at Airgas Northern California and Nevada Inc., started applicant assessments two years ago. For many positions, Airgas uses an attitude assessment before the candidate even completes an employment application. “We’re able to turn around the assessment results to the hiring managers at our 45 locations in about 10 minutes. The report also includes recommended interview questions based on the applicant’s responses to some of the key questions.”
    Weissmann notes the caliber of hires was noticeably higher immediately after they began using the assessment. “We found our new-hire orientation classes had more articulate and alert people who asked good questions on the first day.”
    He also points out that applicants who speak English as a second language do not score as reliably or consistently on English-based tests. He advises checking to see if your assessment is offered in other languages. “We tend to discount the survey and give more weight to the interview,” Weissmann says. “We find our ESL applicants may not have a good grasp of the nuances of the language or the cultural differences.”

The Right Stuff
Leake notes the time and financial investment in the screening process can quickly justify the cost of using an assessment tool. She worked with a trucking firm struggling with an 80 percent failure rate on final candidates’ drug tests. (Employment law does not allow an employer to conduct medical or drug exams on applicants until they first have a job offer contingent on successfully passing the exam.)
    The firm began using an assessment tool to measure the candidates’ attitude on a number of work-related issues, including substance abuse. The assessment was given to applicants along with the application. Only those applicants who scored favorably on the substance-abuse evaluation were then sent for interviews and additional consideration.
    With the initial attitude screen in place, the drug-test-failure rate dropped to 20 percent. Not only did the firm save money in drug-testing fees, but the savings in time spent interviewing more than covered the $20 cost of the attitude evaluation.
    A leading Bay Area retail wine merchant, K & L Wine Merchants, has added an assessment tool to its screening process. K & L looks for skilled employees who can provide excellent customer service to knowledgeable and professional wine buyers. “Our retention rate has doubled since the assessment has been added to the screening process. The quality of hires has dramatically increased,” says Brian Zucker, K&L’s vice president.
    Testing professionals and executives consistently stress that no assessment tool must be used as the sole factor in any hiring decision. Further, instruments such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the DiSC Profile are typically not considered as effective as screening or selection assessments by occupational psychologists. “They measure your type or state, not your trait,” says Ken Danderfer, director of operations at View Assessments. “These are good for knowing yourself, but not a good application for hiring and other high-stakes decisions.”
    Michael Lowe, regional sales manager at AB&I Foundry in Oakland, says AB&I has an ideal-candidate profile of the “best fit” for all of the job categories in the company. Although applicants’ assessment results are not the first or the primary consideration in the screening process, they are a red flag for AB&I’s management when a candidate’s profile is the opposite of what the job requires.
    “In our production jobs, we’re looking for people who are somewhat accommodating, not highly social and detail oriented,” Lowe says. “When a candidate scores as ‘assertive, highly social and doesn’t like following the same rules every day,’ we know that’s an indicator there may be a problem. The employee may start out OK, but once he or she gets comfortable, their true behavior or personality will come out, and we’ll realize we don’t have a good fit.”
    Lowe recalls, “When I arrived at AB&I, we were testing and hiring three people in order to get one through probation. We expanded our interviewing techniques, along with the assessment interpretations, and are now able to keep two of the three hires on average.”  

Are You Linked In?
Finding skilled job candidates is tough in this market. Social networking technology is expanding the circle of contacts well beyond the chamber of commerce mixer. Whether you’re looking for a specific business connection or passively hoping to land your next career move, using one of several social networking websites can build your network and open doors through “warm” leads. Think of it as myspace.com for the business community.
    LinkedIn is a web-based tool used by many professionals. Members may add their name, brief or extended background information, references and picture to the site. Business associates and friends may opt in to be listed on the member’s site for others to see. Typically, professionals hang with their own kind, and a search for an engineer can unearth not only one skilled engineer but all the people noted in his or her network.
Other sites include Spoke, Jigsaw and Ryze.
    Richard Pinsker, president of Pinsker and Company, executive selection consultants, frequently uses LinkedIn to search for job candidates. Pinker says, “I love it. I have over a million connections right now. I recently had two executive candidates successfully placed after I found them through LinkedIn.”

Hiring 101
Assessment professionals warn employers to consider the following when selecting an applicant assessment instrument:
    1 Avoid using the assessment as the exclusive decision maker for the hire decision. Effective interviewing techniques, background checks and simulations are also important.
    2 Know the job well. Of course you should have a job description highlighting not only the key duties but also the core competencies the incumbent needs to demonstrate to be successful. A trained psychometrist can help decipher the necessary skills and traits to help create or purchase a tool to measure those.
    3 Avoid using tests that only have the candidate refer to him/herself (“ipsative”) rather than measuring how the candidate’s preferences compare to the broader population (referred to as “normative” in the testing world). An ipsative questionnaire would include questions such as, “Which of the following words is most like you and least like you: captivating, contented, demanding, compliant.”
    4 Learn how to interpret the results or use a psychometric professional to interpret them.
    5 Don’t rely on someone else’s benchmark for your job screen.
    6 Use a tool in the language your candidates will best understand.

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