There are several kinds of assessments available in the marketplace:

• Knowledge assessments: test an individual's content knowledge of such areas as supervision, accounting, electronics, and hydraulic systems.

There are specialized tests for these, some developed by trade associations, some by commercial testing companies.

• Ability assessments: measure an individual's ability to perform some mental or physical task.

Typing tests and computer literacy tests are an example of this kind of assessment, as are verbal and quantitative tests. Some of the exercises in assessment center arrangements are also examples of ability assessments.

• Interest assessments: measure an individual's propensity for certain occupations or careers.

The Strong Inventory is the best known and most rigorous assessment of this sort. We have used the Jackson Vocational Inventory to assist an Associate in career planning.

• Personality assessments: measure habits of thinking and valuing. They do this by asking the individual to describe themselves, by having them project their thoughts onto an ambiguous stimulus such as an ink spot, or by asking them to recount elements of their past.

Some psychological tests used by companies also assess signs of psychosis, neurosis, and other elements of mental illness. These have held up in court only when the job clearly is one for which high emotional and psychic strength is a defined requirement, such as with police or fire-fighters.

There have been numerous lawsuits related to invasion of privacy issues surrounding psychological testing. These include inquiry into past experiences and behavior, especially but not limited to sexual experiences and drug and alcohol use.

Tell me more about Using Assessments

A company's chief interest in their human resources is the skills those people bring to the company. Thus, anything that will assist the company to identify the level of skills that exist, either in the candidate for hire or in the employed Associate, will be important.

Knowledge and skill assessments will give us this. The question is, which one is best for us at this time? On the administrative level, it is easy to measure one's ability in word processing or in using specific software. On any level it is less easy to measure one's approach to customers, one's ability to organize thoughts, and one's ability to focus on results and goals.

• One option is to use an assessment that asks the individual how well they perform. This is obviously not ideal, especially in situations where sanctions are implied for not reporting high performance. It is like having a pianist tell us how well he plays, rather than listening to him play.
  
  Unfortunately, most of the assessments today are of this type. They rely on the self-report of the individual as to what they will or will not, can or cannot do. This is problematic for two reasons:
  
  • They may figure out the intent of the statements or questions they are being asked to respond to and bias their responses (either consciously or subconsciously).
  • They may not know themselves well enough to answer accurately.
  Examples of current assessments that fall under this limitation are the Myers-Briggs Trait Inventory, the Gordon Personal Profile-Inventory, the Human Synergistics Life Styles Inventory, and the Personal Profile System, Personalysis, and the Wonderlic ERI.

• Another option is to use true psychological assessments to get at the depth personality of the person. This is impractical for several reasons:
  • These assessments cannot be used without professional supervision.
  • Some of the information available through this kind of assessment is in danger of being misused by managers who are not professional psychologists.
  • Many of the questions involved in these assessments are the kind being addressed in the courts currently as possible violations of privacy.

Now that I know what my options are, tell me how the Right-Hire Assessment™ compares