Chapter 6

Employee Testing
and Selection

Part Two | Recruitment and Placement

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. PowerPoint Presentation by Charlie Cook

publishing as Prentice Hall The University of West Alabama
WHERE WE ARE NOW…

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LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Explain what is meant by reliability and validity.
2. Explain how you would go about validating a test.
3. Cite and illustrate our testing guidelines.
4. Give examples of some of the ethical and legal
considerations in testing.
5. List eight tests you could use for employee selection
and how you would use them.
6. Give two examples of work sample/simulation tests.
7. Explain the key points to remember in conducting
background investigations.

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 Why Careful Selection is Important

The Importance of Selecting

the Right Employees

Organizational Costs of recruiting Legal obligations

performance and hiring and liability

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The Importance of Selecting the Right
Employees
• Organizational performance: employees with the right
skills will do a better job for the company.

• Cost: it is important because it is costly to recruit and

hire employees.

• Legal obligation: mismanaging the hiring process has

three legal implication: negligent hiring and defamation.

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 Negligent hiring:
• Negligent hiring: means taking “reasonable steps” to avoid hiring
employees with criminal records or other problems who commit
crimes or other acts for which the employer can be held liable.
Avoiding Negligent Hiring Claims:
• Carefully scrutinize information on employment applications.
• Get written authorization for reference checks, and check references.
• Save all records and information about the applicant.
• Reject applicants for false statements or conviction records for
offenses related to the job.
• Balance the applicant’s privacy rights with others’ “need to know.”
• Take immediate disciplinary action if problems arise.
Watch video: what is negligent hiring?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_DjjURB25s

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 6–6

Basic Testing Concepts
• Reliability
 Describes the consistency of scores obtained by the same
person when retested with the identical or alternate forms of the
same test.
 Are test results stable over time?
• Validity
 Indicates whether a test is measuring what it is supposed to be
measuring.
 Does the test actually measure what it is intended to measure?

Watch the video: what is the difference between reliability and

validity?
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHY81goxVFg

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 FIGURE 6–1 A Slide from the Rorschach Test

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 Types of Validity

Types of
Test Validity

Criterion validity: means

demonstrating that those Content validity: means
who do well on the test showing that the test
also do well on the job, an constitutes a fair sample
that who do poorly on the of the job’s content
test do poorly on the job.

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 6–9

Evidence-Based HR: How to Validate a Test

Steps in Test Validation

1 Analyze the Job: predictors and criteria

2 Choose the Tests: test battery or single test

3 Administer the Test: concurrent or predictive validation

4 Relate Your Test Scores and Criteria: scores versus

actual performance

5 Cross-Validate and Revalidate: repeat Steps 3 and 4

with a different sample

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Expectancy Chart:
• represents the relationship between test scores and job
performance graphically.

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 TABLE 6–1 Testing Program Guidelines

1. Use tests as supplements.

2. Validate the tests.
3. Monitor your testing/selection program.
4. Keep accurate records.
5. Use a certified psychologist.
6. Manage test conditions.
7. Revalidate periodically.

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 6–12

How Do Employers Use Tests at Work?
• Major Types of Tests
 Basic skills tests

 Job skills tests

 Psychological tests

• Why Use Testing?

 Increased work demands = more testing

 Screen out bad or dishonest employees

 Reduce turnover by personality profiling

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 6–13

Computerized and Online Testing:
• Computerized and/or online testing is increasingly
replacing conventional paper-and-pencil and manual
tests. Many firms have applicants take online or offline
computerized tests—sometimes by phone, using the
touch-tone keypad, sometimes online—to prescreen
applicants quickly prior to more in-depth interviews and
background checks.
• Online tests
 Telephone prescreening
 Offline computer tests
 Virtual “inbox” tests
 Online problem-solving tests

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Types of Tests
 Specialized work sample tests
 Numerical ability tests
 Reading comprehension tests
 Clerical comparing and checking tests

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 Types of Tests

What Different Tests Measure

Cognitive Motor and Personality Current

abilities physical abilities and interests achievement

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 Type of tests
• Cognitive tests include tests of general reasoning ability
(intelligence) and tests of specific mental abilities like
memory and inductive reasoning.
• Tests of motor and physical abilities measure motor
abilities, such as finger dexterity, manual dexterity, and
reaction time.
• Personality tests measure basic aspects of an
applicant’s personality, such as introversion, stability,
and motivation.
• Achievement tests measure what someone has learned.
Most of the tests you take in school are achievement
tests. They measure your “job knowledge” in areas like
economics, marketing, or human resources.

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 FIGURE 6–5 Type of Question Applicant Might Expect
on a Test of Mechanical Comprehension

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 The “Big Five”
watch video: what are the Big Five
personality dimensions?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zj8K5z
KXhM
Extraversion

Emotional stability/
Conscientiousness
Neuroticism

Openness to
Agreeableness
experience

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 The “Big Five”
• Extraversion: represents a tendency to be sociable,
assertive, active, and to experience positive effects such
as energy.
• Neuroticism: represents a tendency to exhibit poor
emotional adjustment and experience negative effects,
such as anxiety, insecurity.
• Openness to experience: the disposition to be
imaginative, nonconforming, unconventional, and
autonomous.
• Agreeableness: the tendency to be trusting, compliant,
caring.
• Conscientiousness: is composed of achievement and
dependability.
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 Work Samples and Simulations
• How to measure work performance directly?
• Work samples: examinees are presented with situations
representative of the job for which they’re applying, and
are evaluated on their responses.

• Management assessment center: a simulation in which

management candidates are asked to perform realistic
tasks in hypothetical situations and are scored on their
performance.

• Video based situational testing: a situation test in which

examinees respond to video simulations of realistic job
situation.
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Background Investigations and
Other Selection Methods
• Investigations and Checks
 Reference checks
 Background employment checks
 Criminal records
 Driving records
 Credit checks

• Why?
 To verify factual information provided by applicants
 To uncover damaging information

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 6–22

Background Investigations and Reference Checks:
watch video: what are the information collected through
background checks?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNOtehNSJv8

Former Employers

Current Supervisors
Sources of
Information
Written References

Social Networking Sites

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 Limitations on Background Investigations
and Reference Checks
Legal Issues: Defamation:
Watch video: the definition of defamation?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri_hlQhX4KM

Background
Employer Legal Issues:
Guidelines
Investigations and Privacy
Reference Checks

Supervisor
Reluctance

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Legal Issues:
• Defamation:
 Libeling or slandering of employees or former employees by
an employer.
• Avoiding Employee Defamation Suits
1. Train supervisors regarding the importance of employee
confidentiality.
2. Adopt a “need to know” policy.
3. Disclose procedures impacting confidentially of information to
employees

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In practice (as most people instinctively know), giving someone a bad
reference can drag you into a legal mess.
A communication is defamatory if it is false and tends to harm the reputation
of another by lowering the person in the estimation of the community or by
deterring other persons from associating or dealing with him or her.
Employees can sue employers for disclosing true but embarrassing private
facts about the employee.
In practice, many firms have a policy of not providing any information about
former employees except for their dates of employment, last salary, and
position titles.
To avoid potential invasion of privacy issues, employers should obtain the
applicant’s written permission before checking into the applicant’s background
information, even if that information is publicly available (e.g., published on
social networking sites).
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Making Background Checks More Useful
1. Include on the application form a statement for
applicants to sign explicitly authorizing a background
check.
2. Use telephone references if possible.
3. Be persistent in obtaining information.
4. Compare the submitted résumé to the application.
5. Ask open-ended questions to elicit more information
from references.
6. Use references provided by the candidate as a source
for other references.

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The Polygraph and Honesty Testing
The Polygraph is a device that measures physiological
changes that reflect changes in emotional states that
accompany lying.

Watch the video: How Polygraph testing does work?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOYWblCBEaE

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 FIGURE 6–9 “Graphology”

Graphology refers to the use of handwriting analysis to determine the

writer’s basic personality traits. Graphology has some resemblance to
projective personality tests, although graphology’s validity is highly
suspect.

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KEY TERMS

reliability
test validity
criterion validity
content validity
expectancy chart
interest inventory
work samples
work sampling technique
management assessment center
situational test
video-based simulation
miniature job training and evaluation

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 6–30

 Based on what you have learned in this
chapter; try to solve these questions:
True/False
1) A test battery is based on a combination of several tests that
can then measure an array of predictors.

2) There are five steps in the validation process beginning with

analyzing the job and concluding with administering the test.

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 MCQs:
1) ________ tests include assessments of general
reasoning ability and of specific mental abilities like
memory and inductive reasoning.
A) Motor ability
B) Personality
C) Achievement
D) Cognitive
E) Physical ability

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 2) Which of the following terms refers to hiring workers
who have criminal backgrounds without proper
safeguards?
A) employment malpractice
B) negligent hiring
C) unreliable testing
D) improper hiring
E) invalid screening

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 3) If a person scores a 70 on an intelligence test on one
day and scores 110 when retested on another day, you
might conclude that this test is ________.
A) valid
B) invalid
C) reliable
D) unreliable
E) consistent

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 Answers
True/False:
1. T
2. F
MCQs:
1. D
2. B
3. D

For more questions please check the student’s questions

guide on the faculty website.

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