What's the "AHA!" REPORT all about?

This series of newsletters contains AHA! information to help people and organizations hire the best employees, make the best promotion decisions, retain the most qualified people, maintain the widest applicant pool, follow best practices, and (if you are subject to US law) remain aware of EEOC hot-spots.

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I've been reading a number of articles lately that talk about assessment VALIDATION. And I've come away with some decidedly mixed emotions.

In the field of industrial/organization pyschology, it's important to design measurement tools that can be VALIDATED. But what does that mean?

Myth: Some vendors have pre-validated tests.
Fact: “Validation” means that test scores predict performance in your job...not someone else’s. The only way to validate a test is to do it yourself.

Myth: Interviews are not tests and don't need to be validated.
Fact: Any method that separates people into a “looks qualified” and “looks unqualified” group is a test. Unless an organization hires everyone who applies, they are “testing".

Myth: Interviews are easier to defend, if challenged.
Fact: Better defense requires better supporting data. Interviews are seldom well-documented or validated.

Myth: Only a few cases ever get to court.
Fact: The EEOC.gov site states 80,000 charges were brought and $168,000,000 in damages were paid in 2004 (plus attorney fees).

Myth: We can use someone else's validation data.
Fact: Maybe. But only if you can show the two jobs are equivalent (using a professional job analysis) and their validation study was done under professional conditions.

Myth: Any psychologist can do employment testing.
Fact: People don’t consult dermatologists for heart problems. Like doctors, psychologists have different specialties: some counsel troubled people, some treat the mentally ill, some study organizations, and some develop hiring tests. Only the last type has the training and experience to do skills testing. Health-care providers who are being squeezed financially tend to creep into skills testing. Carefully examine everyone’s credentials.

Myth: Any test will work pre-hire.
Fact: Training tests identify personal differences. Clinical tests diagnose mental illness. Only hiring tests predict job performance.

Myth: It is difficult to determine consultant quali-fications.
Fact: Qualifications do not always indicate consulting skills. Always ask the person to describe what he or she knows about the major provisions of the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures and the Standards for Education and Psychological Testing. It is not a hard question.

Myth: We don’t have to “validate” our tests.
Fact: Validation is the only way an organization ever knows whether tests accurately predict performance.

Myth: We can easily do our own validation.
Fact: Only if someone on staff knows statistical design, method and system error, statistical analysis, content validity, criterion-related validity, construct validity, predictive and concurrency designs, the ‘Guidelines’, and the ‘Standards’.

Myth: We only need to worry about validation during pre-hire.
Fact: Sorry, organizations also need to consider employment decisions related to promotions, terminations, reorganizations, demotions, memberships (for example, in a labor organization), referrals, retention, licensing, certification, and using employment agencies.

Myth: This newsletter contains legal and professional advice.
Fact: Only your local labor-law attorney can give legal advice (be sure to ask him or her the same questions you would ask a vendor). Only a qualified professional can give you testing advice.

Myth: Validation is expensive and probably won’t pay off.
Fact: Have you calculated the cost of low performance, lately?