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4477
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Pre-Employment Personality Tests May

Be Helpful but Exercise Caution

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Personality tests are not new. But the proliferation of easy-to-administer

web-based testing services has made personality tests more ubiquitous. Are
they right for your organization? You need to consider both the potential
benefits and the possible legal risks.

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Useful or Not?
An applicant may be highly skilled at answering interview questions and
securing a job. But what if, when it comes to actually performing the work, it
becomes clear that he or she is not a good fit? By the time you make this
determination, you've devoted a lot of resources that can't be salvaged and
you still have to find someone who can do the job and work well with your
existing staff.
Personality testing is intended to help prevent this type of situation. If you
decide to try personality testing, the test might include questions similar to
these:

Would you describe yourself as a self-starter?

Would you say you are subject to many mood changes?
Which do you find to be more motivating, additional time off or the
possibility of promotion?
Would it bother you if you were asked to help a fellow employee get upto-speed on a task?

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The personality testing industry is experiencing growth between 10 percent

and 15 percent annually, according to personality test provider Hogan
Assessment Systems. That boom suggests that many employers have found it
useful. Yet a management professor and organizational psychologist at
Michigan State University told The Wall Street Journal that while "it's
intuitively appealing to managers that personality matters, [the link is] much
lower than the field has led us to believe.
You will have to make your own determination as to whether personality
testing will be useful to your organization.

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When to Test
If you do give personality testing -- also commonly referred to as "behavioral
assessment" -- a try, after you've checked out competing testing services and
chosen one, the first decision you'll need to make is when to conduct the test,
before or after the in-person interview. There is no universal right answer.

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In principle, the advantages of having the job candidate take the

test before the interview are, 1) if the test delivers a strong negative result,
you can decide to end the process and skip the interview, and 2) the test
might give you issues to explore with the job candidate in the interview.
The case for having the job candidate take the test after the interview is that
you can conduct the interview without being prejudiced by the test results
and then use the results simply to cast additional light on insights gained from
the interview.
Regardless of the sequence, be mindful of using the test in a way that may
give rise to a discrimination charge.

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"If a person's results are affected by the fact that they have an impairment
and the results are used to exclude the person from a job, the employer needs
to defend their use of the test even if the test was lawful and administered
correctly," Christopher Kuczynski, an attorney, summarized the position of the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
For example, a test could "flunk" some candidates with mental health
problems such as bipolar disorder and clinical depression -- conditions that
could be deemed to be disabilities.

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EEOC Weighs In
You should know the use of personality tests can come with some legal risks.
If used improperly, you could be hit with discrimination claims and
enforcement action from the EEOC. The EEOC has published more detailed
recommendations for how to use the personality test in a nondiscriminatory
way:

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Administer tests without regard to race, color, national origin, sex,

religion, age (40 or older) or disability.

Ensure that tests and other selection procedures are properly validated
for the positions and purposes for which they are used. The test or
selection procedure must be job-related and its results appropriate for the
employer's purpose. While a test vendor's documentation supporting the
validity of a test may be helpful, the employer is still responsible for
ensuring that its tests are valid under the EEOC "Uniform Guidelines on
Employee Selection Procedures.

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If a selection procedure screens out a "protected group" (that is, the

classification categories listed in the first bullet point), you need to
determine whether there is an equally effective alternative selection
procedure that has less adverse impact and, if so, adopt the alternative
procedure. For example, if the selection procedure is a test, the employer
should determine whether another test would predict job performance
but not disproportionately exclude the protected group.

To ensure that a test or selection procedure remains predictive of success

in a job, you should keep abreast of changes in job requirements and
should update the test specifications or selection procedures accordingly.

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The EEOC also states that you "should ensure that tests and selection
procedures are not adopted casually by managers who know little about these
processes.
A personality test "can be an effective management tool," the EEOC concedes,
but adds the following caveat: "No test or selection procedure should be
implemented without an understanding of its effectiveness and limitations for
the organization, its appropriateness for a specific job, and whether it can be
appropriately administered and scored.
Regulatory considerations aside, keep in mind that if you use a test that's very
long and cumbersome, you risk making strong job candidates think twice
about coming on board. That's because the test could convey the impression
that you have an overly intrusive management style.

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To Test or Not to Test?

If hiring remorse has been a serious problem in your organization, personality
testing might provide the missing information you need to minimize regret
and maximize success. Clearly this is a decision to weigh carefully with the
help of your employment law attorney.

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