This Is a Test

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If you do test for job-related fitness, don't set blanket policies -- for instance, that anyone with a back problem is unfit. Rather, check that each person can lift the weight the job requires. Try to make that distinction, too, when you talk about the applicant. Inform managers only of ability, not of condition. "You can say, Joe Smith has a 25-pound lifting limit," Rothstein explains, "not, Joe Smith has a 25-pound lifting limit because he's got a slipped disk." Otherwise, overcautious managers might restrict Joe from jobs he's capable of performing and thus leave themselves open to a lawsuit. For the same reason, keep medical records confidential and separate from ordinary personnel files.

Psychological Exams
Employers have used psychological tests since the 1950s. The oldest of those tests, developed for clinics and adapted for employers, screen for emotional disorders. Some tests contain prying questions about religious beliefs and sexual habits. In California (a state with unusually broad privacy rights), a job applicant sued a company after being given such a test. (He won, but the case is under appeal.) Such tests for emotional disorders should be used only for security positions -- so you don't give a gun to someone dangerous, for example.

The psychological-testing industry blossomed after 1988, when the federal government banned the use of lie-detector tests in most employment situations. Publishers filled that void with integrity tests. The simplest "core" integrity tests look at security issues only -- theft, drug abuse, and violence -- and cost as little as $8 to $16 a test, depending on volume. Others may test for security plus productivity or customer-service attitudes. Some even claim to measure the likelihood that a new hire will have accidents on the job or will quit.

Those tests try to predict job applicants' propensity to steal, for instance, by matching their test results with those of known thieves, asking obvious questions, such as, How often do you tell the truth? and less obvious ones, such as, How often do you make your bed?

Do those tests work? In a way. Just because one person's responses match those given by thieves does not mean that person will steal; rather, it means he or she is more likely to steal. You play the odds and, in the long run, may improve your chances of reducing theft.

Some integrity-test publishers scare employers with estimates of thefts by as many as 30% of all employees. But they may be counting people who take home pens or make personal calls from the office. Other experts say the rate of serious theft is as low as 5%. Whatever the situation in your company, be warned: even the best integrity test will produce many false positives -- people unjustly suspected and rejected.

Beyond integrity tests, publishers have developed all sorts of "personality-assessment tools" to predict how an applicant will do the job and fit into your organization. Those tests may judge a prospective salesperson's aggressiveness, for instance, or an accountant's attention to detail.

Few tests work in all situations. If you are considering using psychological tests, how should you choose? Get references from others in your industry, a state psychologists' association, or a local university's professor of industrial psychology. Then contact publishers and ask to see their validation studies, which are like trial runs. The trial group should resemble your work force in job duties and in demographics.

Also ask the publisher if the test has ever been challenged in court and how it fared, and ask what the publisher will do to help if someone challenges your use of the test. Conscientious publishers will provide you with technical assistance and will send a staff psychologist to testify, if necessary, at no charge.

Remember, tests are often wrong about an individual. For effective hiring, make testing only one part of an overall assessment that includes interviews and reference checks.

Interviews
Publishers of personality tests talk persuasively about how much more accurate their tests are than interviews. And a good test probably does work better -- more accurately for you, more fairly for the employee -- than a bad interview. But a good interviewer can get richer information. It takes time to develop interviewing skills, though, and many managers prefer to invest their money in a quick solution.

Managers also like the reassuring formula a personality test provides. A bad interview seems like purposeless small talk, but a test imposes structure on the process. Ed Ryan has an answer for that. His consulting firm, MPR, based in Chicago, teaches clients to set benchmarks for each job in the same way that some personality-assessment tests do. If you're hiring a receptionist, he says, ask yourself who's the best receptionist you've ever come across. What made that receptionist so good? Categorize those qualities into certain overall behavioral traits -- sense of responsibility, attentive to detail, good at relating to people.

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