Hire the Best Employees with Attitude and Behavior Testing
by Michael W. Mercer PhD, Robert W. Cormack BS,ACP, and Thomas E. Kennedy CPC

    Question: What's the cheapest, easiest and quickest way to have your Company staffed by productive, dependable and honest employees?
    Answer: Hire productive, dependable and honest people. Most managers do well at managing their Company's day-to-day operations. Unfortunately, all too often they do not do quite as well when they need to decide which job applicant may turn out to be a topnotch employee.
    Fortunately, pre-employment testing gives managers a fast, simple, accurate and reliable method to make on-target hiring decisions.
    The main purpose of screening job applicants is to predict how an applicant will behave on the job before the manager hires the person. After all, it proves to be a lot better to make this prediction before hiring a applicant, rather than after the applicant already is on the payroll.
    Three methods exist to predict or forecast how an applicant will behave on the job: 1)interviews, 2) reference checks, and 3) pre-employment tests.

Methods to Predict On-The-Job Performance

    Extensive research conducted for the federal government and private businesses found most interviews and reference checks are poor predictors of actual on-the-job performance. In fact, this in-depth research by leading industrial psychologist John Hunter, Ph.D., and Frank Schmidt, Ph.D., showed most interviews and reference checks were about as useful as flipping a coin.
    However, pre-employment tests proved to be the best predictors of actual on-the-job behavior. Why? Because of these three screening methods, only tests are developed with scientific research techniques to make sure they help predict how a person may behave on-the-job. In contrast, most interviews and reference checks rely chiefly on subjective, unscientific "hunches." As such, tests aid managers in making more objective, informed hiring decisions, whereas typical interviews and reference checks provide mainly subjective "guesstimates" of an applicant's potential to do the job. Reference checks are even weaker and becoming more difficult to obtain. Many companies feel that the safest thing for them to do is say nothing other than verify employment dates and position.

What Can Pre-Employment Tests Tell You

    Three traits needed to work successfully in most jobs are: 1)A = Abilities, especially mental abilities; 2)B = Behavior on the job; and 3)C = Character or integrity. As such, A+B+C = Success on the job. Pre-employment tests help evaluate job applicants in these three trait areas.

Character or Integrity Tests

    Tests evaluating an applicant's character measure three key aspects of a person's integrity: 1) stealing potential, 2) substance abuse attitudes, and 3) work ethic.
    As such, organizations using character tests may make predictions to hire employees who are unlikely to steal or abuse drugs. They can find out if the applicant has a good attitude toward putting in a day's work for a day's pay.
    Importantly, character tests often give a "risk rating" on each applicant: low, moderate or high risk. Also, an applicant's character test responses can give the interviewer clear ideas about questions to ask each applicant about their opinions and attitudes.

Work Behavior Tests

    Work behavior tests predict how an applicant may behave on-the-job in terms of the person's interpersonal skills, personality at work and motivations. For instance, a work behavior test indicates a person's interpersonal skills, such as friendliness, assertiveness and preference to work in a group. Personality sections of the test forecast how much the person follows the rules and policies, how well the person takes criticism, optimism, anxiety and how the person likes to deal with people.
    Finally, a work behavior test tells a manager what motivates each applicant. For example, how much is the applicant motivated by factors like money, helping people, doing creative work, exerting power or doing research.

Mental Abilities Tests

    Mental abilities tests reflect an applicant's talent at 1) reasoning, 2) handling small details, 3) workplace arithmetic, 4) vocabulary, and 5) grammar. Did you ever hire someone and later notice the person was not bright enough to learn the job? That is because the person did not possess enough mental ability to "reason" and solve workplace problems.
    A great deal of work in many organizations is handling lots of small details with speed and accuracy. Mental abilities tests measure this ability. Also, an acceptable applicant often needs skill to do calculations. Problems with an employee's arithmetic may cost lots of money. The arithmetic portion of an abilities test assesses this primary ability.
    Finally, when hiring people for professional or management jobs, a decent vocabulary and mastery of grammar often prove helpful. To be successful, managers and professionals must have these skills.

Legalities of Testing

    Any screening method -- interviews, reference checks, or tests -- that may be legally defensible should be 1) job related, 2) valid-accurate, 3) reliable, and 4) used in a nondiscriminatory manner.
    In much the same way, a legal and useful screening method should provide an accurate prediction of how an applicant would behave on-the-job (valid - accurate). If two managers both use the same screening method on an applicant, such as interviews or tests, both managers should come up with the same predictions of how the applicant would behave on-the-job (reliable). Finally, the screening method should not be used to discriminate against anyone because of the person's gender or ethnic group (nondiscriminatory in use).
    Many managers are concerned with not discriminating against disabled people, as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. However, managers can require all candidates be able to carry out job-related duties. As such, managers should make sure that all screening methods they use, such as, interviews, reference checks or tests delve into job-related factors in a valid, reliable, nondiscriminatory way.

Examples of Tests and What They Predict

    Three widely used pre-employment tests are 1) P.A.S.S.III® D.A.T.A.® Survey, 2) Behavior Forecaster,™ and 3) Abilities Forecaster™. These tests measure three key traits managers need to know to help predict if an applicant successfully can perform on-the-job. Specifically, P.A.S.S.III® D.A.T.A.® Survey evaluates an applicant's character in terms of theft potential, substance abuse potential and work ethic.
    The Behavior Forecaster™ test helps predict an applicant's interpersonal skills, personality and work motivations. The Abilities Forecaster™ assesses an applicant's mental abilities in reasoning, handling small details, arithmetic, vocabulary, and grammar.
    As stated earlier, research has shown that pre-employment tests can be helpful in hiring good productive employees. They have helped thousands of companies to hire the best employees by using attitude and behavior tests to evaluate job applicants.
©COPYRIGHT 1993 Michael W. Mercer, Ph.D., and Robert Cormack,B.S.,A.C.P.

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