Most of us who work in the I-O arena are interested in looking at how personality and other characteristics predict things such as occupational success or leadership ability. However, there are also others who take an approach that is more oriented toward theory or research. A fascinating example is the Harvard Study of Adult Development (part of which is known as the Grant Study as it was originally funded by W.T. Grant, the founder of the now defunct chain of stores). Begun in 1937, it started studying a series of undergraduates who were at Harvard in the late 1930s to early 1940s and continued to track and collect data from them throughout their lives. The study is now in its 72nd year, and it is interesting to note that about half of the original subjects are still alive and now in their late 80s to early 90s. A recent article in the Atlantic profiles the study as well as George Vaillant, the psychiatrist who has managed the project for the past 42 years. One of the many uses of data collected in the study was to identify the predictors of physical and psychological health. Among them are: • Learning to cope with life changes and stresses maturely by with methods such as finding healthy outlets for anger or disappointment • Education • Not smoking • Not abusing alcohol • Maintaining some level of exercise • Staying at a healthy weight A study like this can also serve as a lens as to what research methods were considered important at the time. For example, in the early days of the study, subjects completed Rorschach tests, submitted handwriting samples, and had virtually every dimension of their body measured (recall that Sheldon’s concept of somatotype was still seen as having validity during that era). Now, surviving subjects take MRIs, provide DNA samples, and are being asked to donate their brains to the study. The study, which has amassed over seven decades of data on it subject, will likely be a treasure trove for researchers for another several decades. Reid Klion
Being from Northwest Indiana, my husband is wholly dedicated to the Chicago Cubs. Sadly, the Cubs have always struggled. (Their last World Series win was in *sigh* 1908.) The team’s current problem: poor offense. While the pitching and defensive strategies appear to be working, the Cubbie bats are not swinging like they should be. In mid-June, the Cubs hitting coach fell victim to the slump and lost his job. One Cub player said, “He’s taking the blame for something that’s our fault…” Let’s assume that the coach wasn’t responsible for their poor performance. Yet when results weren’t achieved, he was held responsible. As the team’s offensive leader, the buck stopped with him. I think the principle of leaders being held accountable for their team’s performance holds true in many organizations. To be effective, managers must ensure their employees are effective. Investing in employees’ professional development not only benefits the employees, it benefits their managers as well. Think about your own organization: Are you dedicating effort to developing your people? Are your superiors committed to your development? If the answer to either of these questions is no, consider what might be done to change it. Assessments are a great starting point for development because they can provide information about job-related areas where the individual is strong and areas he or she needs to develop. Assessments can be combined with other tools such as interviews, simulations, or role plays to collect comprehensive information about the individual’s strengths and weaknesses. From there, the individual can build a development plan and be coached to improve. Given how much is riding on the effectiveness of your employees, these kinds of development programs can lead to big returns. Jocelyn Courtney-Hays
pan offers a wide range of assessments that are suitable for use as pre-employment screening tests. Pre-employment assessments can tap into a number of factors ranging from work skills and cognitive ability to work attitudes and conscientiousness. Employment tests of this nature need to be tailored to fit the requirements of the specific job at hand. Using pre-employment screening tests can be the critical key to building a successful organization because, regardless of the nature of the business, it is vital to select the people who have the right skills. Implementing pre-employment screening tests early in the selection process brings a number of benefits. First, employment tests can help to identify those applicants who are clearly not qualified for the position at hand. This helps to limit the pool of applicants to only those candidates who may be of realistic interest to the organization. These tools can also help to identify the candidates who are most likely to be good employees so that recruitment efforts might be prioritized for this set of individuals. Finally, by integrating pre-employment assessments into applicant tracking systems, the assessment process essentially becomes part of the application process and yields a complete employment screening solution for the organization.
A bit ago, I blogged about the online journal, Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation. Another online journal also worthy of notice is the Journal of Applied Testing Technology. Published by the Association of Test Publishers and edited by Chad Buckendahl and William G. Harris, it is a peer reviewed journal that is concerned with issues related to assessment. The most recent issue focuses on the assessment of individuals with disabilities. Some other recent articles of note include a piece by Nathan Thompson that outlines the types of test administration methods that are available and tries to untangle acronyms like CAT, CBT, CCT, LOFT that psychologists are prone to throw around and a contribution by Richard Luecht that outlines some cost-benefit criteria to be used in evaluating computer-based testing models. As is the case for virtually all the professional journals that I read, there is almost always at least one article in each issue that is of interest or applicable to something that I have been trying to sort out on my own. An added bonus with these two online journals, you can not only access them directly from your computer desktop, it is hard to argue with the cost of the subscription! Reid Klion
I was out with some friends one evening last week and came across a couple of little girls running a lemonade stand. It was hot and they were friendly, so I decided to stop and encourage their entrepreneurial spirit. They had two drink sizes to choose from (at different rates, of course). When I selected the smaller 25 cent size, the older girl took a paper cup, and filled it halfway, and then handed it to me. I gave her the money and caught up with my friends. I laughed when I told them about the half-full cup and joked that the girls were maximizing their resources in a difficult economic climate.
Then I realized that they were doing exactly what most of us are right now – trying to find a way to maximize our resources, minimize expenses, and get the most output. Jocelyn Courtney-Hays gave an e-seminar recently on the same topic: Two for One: Using Assessments for Selection and Leadership Development. Her presentation is an excellent resource to learn how organizations can increase their effectiveness with an assessment for both employee selection and development.
Jenni Ginsburg
Given one of the things we do here at pan is to help employers to select and develop people, I pay some attention to the larger labor market. As we all know, hiring is down and unemployment is now around 9% according to May 2009 reports from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics. As a result, one of the things that I find interesting are reports of industries or occupations that continue to do well despite the overall economic situation. For example, there is still a strong demand for positions such as critical care nursing, electrical linemen, and welders. A couple of commonalities among these positions is that they require significant technical skill and require work that is physically demanding. (If you don’t think bedside nursing is physically challenging, just ask a nurse!) A somewhat similar story can be found internationally. According the Manpower’s recently released Talent Shortage Survey, the most difficult positions to fill globally are skilled manual trades, sales representatives, and technicians who work in the areas of production, operations, engineering and maintenance. The Manpower report goes on to indicate that in down economic times, employers need to do more with less and that workforce planning and selection are even more critical because every employee needs to make a difference. Reid Klion
Knowing a job candidate’s cognitive aptitude or ability level is one of the most useful pieces of information in making an informed hiring decision. Cognitive ability is one of the best predictors of job success because it tells us both how quickly an individual will learn a job as well his or her likely level of work performance. Cognitive aptitude tests are typically comprised of items that measure a job candidate’s ability to learn new material, use logical reasoning, or solve problems. Other cognitive aptitude tests measure more specific topics such as reading ability or math aptitude. The benefit of cognitive aptitude tests is that they are often quite valid in making inferences about job performance. They also tend to be both time and cost effective. However, something to be aware of is that cognitive aptitude assessments may be susceptible to adverse impact. That is, members of protected classes are prone to obtain lower scores on these tests than members of other groups. As a result, it is important that a careful job analysis be carried out before a cognitive aptitude assessment is implemented to ascertain that cognitive ability is critical for occupational success in the position at hand and that the cut score and decisions rules used with these tests are appropriate.
The press episodically covers incidents of cheating on exams. The high profile situations often seem to be found in university settings where large numbers of students are impacted. However, they occur in other programs as well. While these reports often provide commentators with the opportunity to bemoan the tragedy of “falling moral standards in today’s youth” or some such thing, it is important to realize that there were cheating scandals during the Han dynasty on the Chinese Imperial exams over 2000 years ago. In a recent episode, our friends at Canada’s Public Service Commission (PSC) suspected that their Second Language Exam may have been compromised because students who attended one language training school did particularly well on the exam. (Being able to speak both of Canada’s official languages--English and Canadian French—can be a qualification for certain positions in the Canadian federal government so these exams can have rather high stakes.) In impressively thorough and transparent fashion, PSC shared the results of their investigation (that the school was providing its students with a practice exams practically identical to the actual exams but it couldn’t determine exactly how the copies were obtained) as well as next steps (retest everyone who attended this particular language school and accelerate development efforts of alternate test forms). Obviously, test security is a critical issue in what we do, especially with cognitive and knowledge-based tests which are objectively scored with right-wrong answers. While web-based testing systems tend to increase security because they don’t require the distribution of content on paper--which can be notoriously difficult to track, readily misplaced, or copied--it is still incumbent upon us to be aware that test content is sensitive and should always be managed with security in mind. Reid Klion
I love watching sports and the Met's recent loss to the Yankees due to Luis Castillo’s fumble stunned everyone! I’ve been spending a lot of time at the baseball diamonds watching my son play Little League, on a team ironically called the Mets. One kid on his team who talked about Castillo’s now infamous dropped ball claimed that he really could have caught it himself. I believe him. Here’s why: Growing up and playing collegiate athletics taught me many life lessons including the importance of routines and how we all can drop the ball if we don’t use proven techniques that lead to success. For example, using two hands to catch a fly ball is a proven method that leads to success in baseball and softball. We learn this at an early age, but we still see Major league players failing to use both hands all the time. In the world of employee selection, process plays the same important role. Using a selection assessment that measures exactly what it needs to measure is extremely important. If your organization needs to select safety conscious individuals, but your assessment is measuring the ability to work in teams, this method is unlikely to lead to much success in the long run. Dropping the ball in the selection world may mean you are missing out on a great candidate or selecting someone who may not be the right fit. My grandma used to say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We can all learn from Luis Castillo and make sure we prevent dropping the ball by using a proven process that leads to success. Sarah Lacey
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