Take The Hiring Test

 

6 An ever-expanding number of personality tests provide catnip for hiring managers. It’s tough to resist the allure of assessment tools that claim to take much of the guesswork out of evaluating job candidates.

But these instruments offer limited benefits, especially if leaders lean too heavily on them. Other criteria, such as an applicant’s work experience and references, play a crucial role along with the job interview.

About 90% of large companies use some type of personality test as part of the hiring process, but “most of them use these assessments incorrectly,” says Brad Smith, president of PeopleKeys, a talent management firm in Youngstown, Ohio.

To make better hiring decisions:

› See the full picture. Smart recruiting consists of more than picking the person with the most impressive test results. Even if someone seems to mesh well with your organization based on a personality profile, that’s hardly conclusive.

“Use it as one part of the process,” Smith said. “Don’t make it the primary factor” in arriving at a decision.

› Check the research. Before you purchase a particular personality instrument, do your due diligence. Review the data to confirm it produces at least somewhat accurate or credible results.

“There are lots of personality tests out there that haven’t done a lot of reliability studies or validation against actual workplace traits,” Smith said.

› Consider the audience. In analyzing the data, focus on the size and population of subjects who have taken the test — with an eye on understanding the assessment’s design and purpose.

“Ask ‘Who has this test been validated against?’ and ‘What class (of people) might be underrepresented?’ such as by age or gender,” said Ashley Inman, an HR consultant in Austin, Texas. She cites an example of leaders who want to hire exceptionally smart people, so they seek high-IQ applicants. Problem is, IQ test scores on average have increased over time, putting “older people at risk of adverse impact because the bar has moved,” Inman warns.

› Know the law. Weigh the legal repercussions of incorporating personality assessments into your hiring process. By using them consistently with every job candidate (such as having them complete the test before the first interview) and correlating the results to top performance in your organization, you’re on safer ground.

“The test should be connected to your business purposes, properly validated and not have an adverse effect on minorities,” said David Wachtel, an employment attorney at Trister, Ross, Schadler & Gold in Washington, D.C. He adds that some assessments can violate the Americans with Disabilities Act by probing into an applicant’s medical issues, while others can run afoul of laws against race, sex or national origin discrimination.

› Avoid red lines. Beware of reading too much into a particular assessment’s results. Establishing blanket rules or rigid prerequisites based on a candidate’s answers to a personality test can lead you astray.

“You don’t want to cut corners and say, ‘I’ll never hire someone below (a certain) score,” said Mike Poskey, president and chief executive of ZeroRisk HR, a Dallas-based consulting firm. “It’s better to probe further in interviews than to set up knockout factors” that disqualify a candidate.

› Seek a diverse mix. Leaders sometimes take a personality test, review their results and then seek to hire employees with similar scores. That’s a risky strategy.

“Don’t hire someone with results like yours,” Smith said. If you’re an extroverted entrepreneur, you may try to recruit highenergy, talkative salespeople. But “you can train a less outgoing person who might have other strengths,” such as great writing skills or low-key persuasive power to excel at sales, Smith says.