Premium Essay

The Problem with Using Personality Tests for Hiring

In:

Submitted By xrwan1
Words 1035
Pages 5
The Problem with Using Personality Tests for Hiring

by Whitney Martin

A decade ago, researchers discovered something that should have opened eyes and raised red flags in the business world.

Sara Rynes, Amy Colbert, and Kenneth Brown conducted a study in 2002 to determine whether the beliefs of HR professionals were consistent with established research findings on the effectiveness of various HR practices. They surveyed 1,000 Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) members — HR Managers, Directors, and VPs — with an average of 14 years’ experience.

The results? The area of greatest disconnect was in staffing— one of the lynchpins of HR. This was particularly prevalent in the area of hiring assessments, where more than 50% of respondents were unfamiliar with prevailing research findings.

[pic] [pic] [pic]
Several studies since have explored why these research findings have seemingly failed to transfer to HR practitioners. Among the causes are the fact that HR professionals often don’t have time to read the latest research; the research itself is often present with technically complex language and data; and that the prospect of introducing an entirely new screening measure is daunting from multiple angles.

At the same time, anyone who has ever been responsible for hiring, much less managing, employees knows that there is a wide variation in worker performance levels across jobs. Therefore, it is critical for organizations to understand what differences among individuals systematically affect job performance so that the candidates with the greatest probability of success can be hired.

So what are the most effective screening measures?

Extensive research has been done on the ability of various hiring methods and measures to actually predict job performance. A seminal work in this area is Frank Schmidt’s meta-analysis of a century’s worth of workplace

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Hr Management - Pre Employment Selection Testing

...performance goals according to its strategic intent. To achieve these performance goals it has become imperative for organizations to have competent people. Pre-employment selection tests help organizations identify and develop these competent people and play a major role in the today’s hiring process. These tests consist of one or multiple series of tests used to collect information from candidates for the purpose of aiding in hiring decisions and career development. They are also designed to measure how well the candidates communicate, solve problems, handle change, deal with stress, and manage subordinates, in addition to determining whether they have the specific skills and abilities required to perform the job. Employees affect an organization’s performance and profitability, and hiring qualified people costs the company time and money. Although the process of designing and developing job specific tests can sometimes be costly, selection tests can be quite cost effective in the long run as they help organizations match candidates’ skills, personality, and behaviour to job requirements, decreasing turnover and improving employee morale. Pre-employment tests can also greatly increase hiring effectiveness as they improve the organization’s ability to make accurate and objective hiring decisions about a candidate’s compatibility with the competencies required for a specific position....

Words: 3439 - Pages: 14

Premium Essay

Hrm Softwares

...or so, since then all the well-to-do firms have started investing heavily in it. The process of selecting new recruits is a vital function in its own, where a wrong decision can turn out to be a disaster for the organization. The ultimate goal of selection is to obtain the most suitable candidate for the position in question. As mentioned earlier, the importance of human capital has been truly realized just recently, therefore in this new era of technology HRM has also come of age. There are countless solutions and softwares being developed on continuous basis to facilitate recruiters in selecting the best possible candidates for any desired positions. Almost all the professionally sound firms conduct thorough analysis and recruitment tests for new candidates. With the competition getting stringent by the day, the development of technology has enabled firms to keep themselves aligned with the competition on the Human Resource front. For selection of new candidates every firm have their own unique criterions, but some factors stay universal with all the firms in order to access the individuals for different skill set and...

Words: 2934 - Pages: 12

Free Essay

Are Personality Tests a Good Predictor of Employee Performance?

...Are Personality Tests a Good Predictor of Employee Performance? HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Personality tests have been around since the Roaring Twenties. Objective personality testing began with Woodworth’s Personal data Sheet in 1917. That test was developed to identify soldiers prone to nervous breakdowns during enemy bombardment in World War I (Gibby & Zickar, 2008). Researchers have come a long way since then and over time endured many controversies and debates. Even in today’s time, we are still debating about whether or not personality tests are good indicators of employee performance. There is much evidence that would indicate yes and/or no, which is one of the reasons why it is still such a popular subject in the Human Resources management. In 1930, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was developed at a Midwestern mental hospital. Today, this test is administered to an estimated 15 million Americans each year and was originally intended for the mentally ill, but now given to a broad range of normal people, including doctors, psychologists, officers, firefighters, etc. (Paul, 2004). It wasn’t until about the 1940s that personality tests became much more established and commercially accepted (Gibby & Zickar, 2008). In 1940, Isabel Myers created an instrument called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator which is still popular and used today in many companies. The first publication of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test was in 1962 and since then...

Words: 2310 - Pages: 10

Free Essay

Week 3 Assignment 2

...Week 3 Assignment 2 Personality & Attitudes 1. What did you think of the profile assessment? How did you feel while taking it? I took it imagining I was a job candidate I felt nervous about it as do all job candidates. I also felt confident as I would have been shocked if I somehow “failed” the personality profile or assessment. One misconception we see in the general public is the use of the word “test” when they refer to profile assessments. A test you can pass or fail or fall somewhere in between, but what profile assessments measures are behavioral styles. You are a measure of the behaviors you use and adapt to. The only way to fail a profile assessment is to lie on it. There is a tremendous amount of value that can be learned about you from these tools. Chances are your assessor wants to use profile assessments to see how you would fit with different team members, whether you’d be happy doing the type of work required, or how they may work best with you. You can only fail an assessment designed to pick up on your behavior styles if you tell it you behave in ways you don’t typically behave. 2. Would you use this or another profile to hire/promote within your organization? If so, why and how? If not, why not? Profile assessments were developed during World War II, when there was a desperate need to find people capable of certain types of leadership. Companies then began adopting this process for recruitment. Their popularity increased, and now there's...

Words: 1534 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Reliability and Validity in Personality Testing

...Reliability and Validity in Personality Testing 02-16-2015 Introduction Psychological tests are often used in the selection of projective personnel (Anastasia & Urbina, 1997). The idea is that by using the scientific approach to personality and emotional intelligence testing in hiring, the employers will be able to increase the number of successful employees (Beaz lll, 2013). “Personality refers to an individual’s unique constellation of consistent behavioral traits”, which in relationship to a person’s projected Emotional Intelligence (EI) may lead to matching the right person to the right job. Job proficiency tests are used to select candidates for employment and are the number one tool used to match the right person to the right position (ND.gov, 2015). However, there are quite a few complaints about the fairness of this process and due to many court cases challenging the validity of these tests, many organizations have chosen to drop the assessment. A plaintiff must establish adverse impact upon a protected group by the employment practice used, in order to force an employer to show content validity in terms of examined traits to be consistent with job relatedness. In a court case against Target, the court found that the questions relating to personality traits in terms of religion and sexual orientation did not have any bearing on the desired emotional stability of the projective employee who had applied for the security officer’s job (Schaffer & Smidt...

Words: 1685 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

How to Recruit Applicants for Key Roles at a New Office

...selecting and hiring of employees. I will also discuss the type of position that is filled in the new office. I will talk about the experiences, education level, and qualifications for the position. It will also discuss the interviews and the abilities of testing, and the weaknesses and strengths. It will talk about the integrity testing and drug testing. Introduction: The company is thinking about its company into nearby states. As the Chief Human Resource Officer as one of the initial tasks that of the employee’s tactician and to planned to employ new staff members. The office will need a least 60 employees and a part of the positions will be occupied on inside with individuals that are eager to be relocate. On the other hand, still a large portion of the total employees to be employed will stay. Mostly, the hiring would be for the operations and the marketing division separately from human resource and finances. The inside post will set up a large number of senior level posts, the lower level or other positions will require new employees. Therefore, round 60 extra employees that has to employ for the new office containing, operations manager, sales representative, operations analysts, sales manager, and etc. Employing is to go into detail in course of action and requires development and suitable reasons concerning defiance at every phase. There are numerous legal statues affecting when selection and hiring of employees. There are numerous legal problems to look out...

Words: 1726 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

Hrm 240 Selection Tools

...especially the Human Resource Department to use selection tools that will allow for optimal results. In an instance such as choosing which selection tools to use for the hiring program of a supermarket; it will be assumed that in this program, a majority of the positions being filled are entry-level. It will also be presumed that this program is limited to only three selection tools. With those limitations in mind, the three selection tools that would yield the best results for this scenario would be; personality inventory (personality tests), criminal background checks, and drug testing. One selection tool is not better than another or more effective used alone. In fact, a combination of these three tools used in conjunction with each other would produce better outcomes for the employer using them. In a supermarket position it is safe to say that there will be numerous occasions in which the employee will have to interact with a customer or the general public. It is in the employer’s best interest to place workers in these positions that know and understand how to relate to others; hence the importance of personality testing. The advantage with personality testing is that it allows the employers a means to gage an applicant’s demeanor or temperament. If an applicant fails the required personality testing then it is pretty safe to assume that the candidate is not best suited for a position that deals heavily with customer service, and cannot be placed in such a job...

Words: 1214 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Week 3 Individual

...American Management Association showed 44% of its responding applicants used testing to select his or her potential employees (Shaffer & Schmidt, 1999). While the most commonly used form of psychological testing in the workplace is the cognitive ability tests, personality tests are also being used more and more frequently. Psychological Tests A psychological test is a series of standardized problems or questions that assess a certain individual characteristic. Tests are commonly used to assess many KSAOs, including knowledge, skill, ability, attitudes, interests, and personality (Spector, 2008). There are three types of psychological tests used in the workplace to help differentiate between those used for pre-employment or retention. Essentially pre-employment is called the "recruiting radar." These tests are ability tests, personality tests, and emotional intelligence tests (Spector, 2008). Ability tests Ability tests are the ability or aptitude with the capacity to do or learn to do a particular task (Spector, 2008). Ability tests have been split into many subcategories such as cognitive ability tests, which is an IQ or also known as an intelligence test, or a test of general cognitive ability. Cognitive tests are also done on an individual that focus on the mathematical or verbal...

Words: 1154 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Utilization of Psychometric Reports

...Chapter 1 THE PROBLEM AND THE RESEARCH DESIGN Rationale Fact or fiction? A job interview will tell you much more about a person than any other psychological tests. The interview process will offer an accurate report of the actual behaviors of the person at work, the genuine skills that the person possesses, the productivity of the person and that the happy and affable responses of a prospective employee during the interview suggest that the person is most likely to like his/her job. If you think that the aforementioned statements are nothing more than a common sense, then you must know that common sense is not always reasonable. As a matter of fact, those abovementioned statements are untrue. In most cases, psychometricians who interpret psychological tests and conduct preliminary interviews have confirmed that interviews alone are not particularly good selection tool to distinguish the productivity, skills, behavior and the motivation of the employee. Using interviews alone does not give sufficient information for effective selection decision making, particularly in areas that are not amenable to training, such as cognitive ability and attitude ( Webster, 2010). Psychological assessments are used in succession planning, employee screening, pre-employment decisions, and employee counseling situations. From a purely financial view, if psychological testing can prevent you from making one bad hire, it probably saves you tens of thousands of dollars. From an organizational...

Words: 7989 - Pages: 32

Premium Essay

Human Resource Management

...(a) personality profiles based on the (1) 16 PF and (2) the TAT, (b) interviewer ratings, (c) intelligence test, (d) handwriting analysis, (e) promotability analysis, (f) performance ratings and (g) work sample scores. Cite independent research sources as appropriate to support your position. (20 points) Personality Assessments Thematic Apperception Test While personality tests can offer one the ability to observe an individual’s psyche, both conscience and subconscious, respectively, its validity to actually “judge” an individual within an interview process is not a best-practice method. As research has indicated “…the TAT is a powerful and revealing measure that has made an undeniable contribution to the motivation literature. However, to the extent that the administration and scoring of the test can be improved and refined through the development of a standard set of cues, group norms, and a more efficient scoring system, the true potential of this measure is at present untapped.”TAT Administration TAT Administration Personality Factors (16) Similar to the TAT test, using standardized personality tests as determining factors within an interview process is controversial. However, personality tests are standardized and most employers consider quantitative scores accurate. Thus personality tests, such as the Myers-Briggs, are utilized across multiple industries. While certain personality factors may be considered viable to positions with defined personality requirements...

Words: 4188 - Pages: 17

Free Essay

Assignment #3outback Steakhouse

...Assignment #3 Outback Steakhouse Strayer University HRM530 May 15, 2011 ASSIGNMENT 3 OUTLINE I. For the following reasons the employee selection methods at Outback Steakhouse help the organization achieve a competitive advantage: a. Effective selection provides many benefits. Hiring highly motivated employees who fit the organizational culture along with providing a positive employee experience keeps turnover low. Low turnover reduces disciplinary problems and diminish costs related to replacing employees. b. Rigorous employee selection process rooted in Outback Steakhouse’s principles and beliefs help the organization hire employees able to keep the commitments of the company. Using a well thought out assessment and selection process can consistently assist in selecting the best and brightest employees. Identifying and selecting top performers is the key to achieving a competitive advantage. c. The key for effective staffing is to balance job fit and organization fit, as well as achievement and potential, in ways that align staffing practices with HR strategy. Employee selection can accurately predict future performance. Employee selection can improve productivity, decrease turnover and surpass business objectives. II. The following describes the importance of employee fit to Outback Steakhouse: a. Outback recognized the importance of employee fit early on. They recognized you cannot send turkeys to eagle school. Smart leaders hire smart employees. ...

Words: 560 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Pre Employment Testing

...i improving the hiring process within our trucking company. Using pre-employment testing eliminates bias in the interview and selection process it can also reduce costs in recruiting, hiring and training candidates. What tests are used depends on the company and the positions that are being hired for. In this situation one of the tests that should be used would be a drug and alcohol test. This test is important in that we are hiring for drivers and we want safe drivers and those that don’t have an issue with drugs and alcohol. With that said another test that would be recommended is a criminal background check. Along with the drug testing the criminal background would should if the candidates have had an issues in the past regarding DUI’s, drug charges and how current they are. We have to be careful when using this information in our hiring process. Another pre- employement test would be a drivers test along with a DMV check to be sure that the candidate is capable of operating the trucks that they will be using as well as legal to operate a motor vehicle. I would also recommend a personality test; this test would assess a candidates characteristics and how they would handle a particular situation. Lastly I would also require that the candidate do a physical exam; doing this exam will give the company a great idea what type of health issues the candidate may have such as heart problems, blood pressure issues...

Words: 445 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Selection Test

...------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents No. | Content | Page no. | 1 | Introduction | 3 | 2 | Concept and Meaning | 4 | 3 | Job Analysis | 4 | 4 | Types of Selection Tests | 6 | 5 | Selection Tests | 7 | 6 | Advantages and Disadvantages | 12 | 7 | Summary and Conclusions | 14 | Introduction` Organizations today compete fiercely in the war for recruiting and hiring the best talent available in the market, investing enormous amount of money, time and other resources in advertising and recruiting strategies. Organisations recognize that one of the most important resources - if not the most important - is human resources. Organisations use several ways, methods and tools to select and hire human resources. But it is now a proven fact that organisations using scientifically proven assessment tools to make selection decisions, show significant increase in productivity, increased cost savings and decrease in attrition and other critical organizational problems. Most organizations use what is commonly known in Management circles as a funneling approach to selection, where more informal tools and procedures are used initially to reduce the pool of candidates to a manageable number of individuals who are then be put through a more extensive assessment process. Common initial screening devices include resumes, application blanks and reference checks, which...

Words: 3167 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

The Theoretical and Practical Practice of Recruitment in Hrm

...Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology: Practical and Theoretical Implications of 85 Years of Research Findings John E. Hunter Michigan State University Frank L. Schmidt University of Iowa This article summarizes the practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research in personnel selection. On the basis of meta-analytic findings, this article presents the validity of 19 selection procedures for predicting job performance and training performance and the validity of paired combinations of general mental ability (GMA) and Ihe 18 other selection procedures. Overall, the 3 combinations with the highest multivariate validity and utility for job performance were GMA plus a work sample test (mean validity of .63), GMA plus an integrity test (mean validity of .65), and GMA plus a structured interview (mean validity of .63). A further advantage of the latter 2 combinations is that they can be used for both entry level selection and selection of experienced employees. The practical utility implications of these summary findings are substantial. The implications of these research findings for the development of theories of job performance are discussed. From the point of view of practical value, the most important property of a personnel assessment method is predictive validity: the ability to predict future job performance, job-related learning (such as amount of learning in training and development programs), and other criteria. The predictive...

Words: 14627 - Pages: 59

Premium Essay

Training and Development

...Part III: Staffing Recruiting and Selecting Employees After reading this chapter, you should be able to deal more effectively with the following challenges: ▪ Understand approaches to matching labor supply and demand. El n Weigh the advantages and disadvantages of internal and external recruiting. Distinguish among the major selection methods and use the most legally defensible of them. 121 Make staffing decisions that maximize the hiring and promotion of the best people. El Understand the legal constraints on the hiring process. Specialty Cabinets Company had rapidly expanded from a two-person operation to a small business with 28 employees. This thriving business catered to those who needed high-end cabinet work in custom-built homes or office buildings. Specialty had been able to attract highly trained carpenters; however, the company's president realized that Specialty needed to hire an additional manager. She gave George Zoran, a senior supervisor with strong interpersonal skills, the responsibility for hiring the new manager. George posted the opening on the company bulletin board and put an ad online and in the "Help Wanted" section of the local newspaper and soon received numerous applications. George was particularly impressed with one candidate, Tim Wells. Tim had never worked in carpentry, but George thought Tim seemed personable and had sufficient managerial experience 146 Chapter 5: Recruiting and Selecting Employees 147 and ambition to handle the...

Words: 20651 - Pages: 83