Psychological testing or evaluation tools have been used since the mid-1900s for evaluating potential employees. In fact, there is an entire branch of psychology that is focused on work-related issues — industrial and organizational psychology.
Psychological tests were used to help assess Army recruits for World War I, and industrial psychology came to the forefront after the war as American industry grew and the private sector began to pursue the kind of successful testing that had been used for military personnel.
Fred Vrugteveen, general manager of Niagara Pallet in southern Ontario, Canada, noted in a recent Pallet Enterprise article that it is not easy to recruit, hire, and retain good employees in the pallet industry. “Obviously, we’re all challenged with employing people,” he observed.
Niagara Pallet is one company that uses psychological testing to assess potential employees for attributes such as aptitude and motivation, and it has been very successful in helping the company identify good candidates for jobs.
Niagara Pallet uses tests provided by Wonderlic Inc. The company is named for Eldon Wonderlic, who developed the Wonderlic Personnel Test in 1936. It is a popular intelligence test used to assess someone’s aptitude for learning and problem-solving in a range of occupations. Today, Wonderlic Inc. provides businesses and schools with a variety of psychological assessments and surveys for selecting employees and students.
National Football League teams began using the Wonderlic Personnel Test in the 1970s to evaluate potential players, although in recent years the league has been trying a new psychological test called the Player Assessment Tool.
About 18% of businesses use personality tests in the hiring process, according to a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, noted Ben Dattner in a 2013 article for the Harvard Business Review. The number is growing 10-15% annually, according to many industrial and organizational psychologists and the Association for Test Publishers, noted Dattner, a consultant specializing in executive coaching and organizational development.
Cognitive and personality tests can increase the chances that new employees will succeed, wrote Dattner.
In an article written for the Cornell University HR Review, H. Beau Baez also said that companies can increase the number of successful employees with the use of psychological testing.
However, businesses must keep legal compliance in mind when they add psychological tests to pre-employment screening, both authors warned.
Because of anti-discrimination laws, tests must be job-relevant and well validated, said Dattner. In fact, the NFL has been giving the Player Assessment Tool a try in recent years because — in part — of concerns about racial discrimination and poor prediction of job performance.
Baez, a professor at Charlotte School of Law at the time he authored his article, made the same point but went further. Even companies acting in good faith may be involved in inadvertent discrimination although they use valid, reliable tests, he said.
Business owners and managers also must know what their company needs, according to Dattner. Tests will be of no help without well-established measures of job performance. Once you know what your company needs, you will need a test that evaluates those characteristics.
“High performing organizations constantly evaluate and improve their candidate evaluation systems by paying attention to predictor variables, outcome variables, and the correlations between the two,” wrote Dattner. In other words, evaluate the psychological assessments themselves. If an assessment does not predict performance accurately over time, eliminate it.
Baez described the connection between personality and emotional intelligence to job performance as “compelling.” However, there are over 2,500 tests for personality and emotional intelligence available. So, which one should you choose?
One of the best supported testing models for assessing personality involves the ‘Big Five’ model, according to the 2013 article by Baez. It captures most of the variation in human personality. The traits are neuroticism/emotional stability, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
The five traits are linked to job performance and are predictors of certain outcomes:
- · avoiding counterproductive behavior
- · reducing turnover and absenteeism
- · exhibiting teamwork and leadership
- · providing effective customer service
- · contributing to citizenship behavior
- · influencing job satisfaction and commitment to the business
- · enhancing safety
The first ‘Big Five’ personality test developed for the business community was the Hogan Personality Inventory. A review of 43 studies in 2003 found that the Hogan test is an effective predictor of job performance for many different jobs, including customer service representatives, hospital administrators, bus drivers, department managers and police officers.
There has been some criticism of personality tests, however. Baez pointed to a 2010 study that found correlations ranging from .03 to .15 between personality and job success, which is close to zero.
Emotional intelligence is what the term implies — a type of intelligence, not a personality trait. It has four components related to understanding emotions in ourselves and others, how they impact us, and being able to understand, analyze and manage our emotions. Like the Intelligence Quotient (IQ), the Emotional Quotient (EQ) cannot change much and stays fairly constant in a person’s lifetime.
Businesses are beginning to realize the importance of the EQ. Sixty percent of employers who participated in a survey indicated they would not hire a person with a high IQ if they had a low EQ.
When asked why emotional intelligence is more important than IQ, employers said that workers with a high EQ (in order of importance):
- · are more likely to stay calm under pressure
- · know how to resolve conflict effectively
- · are empathetic to other employees and react accordingly
- · lead by example
- · tend to make more thoughtful business decisions
Baez went on to note that research indicates emotional intelligence has predictive validity for job performance, negotiation, leadership, trust, stress and other factors.
He wrote, “Although the exact role EQ plays in the workplace is still up for debate, it is reasonable to assume from the multitude of studies linking EQ to various performance factors that a valid and reliable emotional intelligence test used in selection process should result in useful data.”
“The key is for employers to use valid, reliable and legally sustainable tests in hiring employees, not only because this will reduce potential lawsuits but also because it is the only way that employers can scientifically identify the best candidates for the job.”
Wonderlic has a number of customer endorsements on its website, including one from Savannah Luggage Works, an American manufacturer of custom, cut-and-sewn finished products, as well as components and assemblies for many OEM, military, and industrial applications including travel, footwear, flooring, sports and military. The Georgia-based company employs 450 people. David Rice, vice president of operations, has relied on a series of Wonderlic tests for more than eight years.
“Wonderlic tests tell you a great deal about people that you wouldn’t otherwise know,” he says in the company’s endorsement.
He prefers job candidates with high analytical skills. “As a manufacturer, we encounter a number of problems that need to be solved every day. You need strong analytical skills for that.”
Rice has never measured the impact that testing has on turnover, but he believes the Wonderlic tests help him to hire the right people. “Wonderlic tests are an accurate measure of how a person will perform,” he says. “If you aren’t using psychological testing for hiring, you don’t know who you are going to get.”
