Welcome to the May 9, 2007 issue of The Total View

Published by Success Performance Solutions, Written by Ira S. Wolfe

Visit our Human Resources Blog and Perfect Labor Storm Blog where we can post daily (and more often) human resource updates, news, and Perfect Labor Storm facts. 

What's Inside:

1.  Anger and Violence: Can employers test for it?

In the aftermath of Cho Seung-Hui’s mass killing of 32 people at Virginia Tech, the question that is dominating discussions from the water cooler to the halls of Congress is: How could this have happened and what can we do to prevent it from happening again?  Prevention analysis always seems to follow the two-step paradigm of trying to assess an individual's propensity for violence and then
excluding the potential perpetrator from the organization based on the risk. While this makes intellectual sense, both steps of assessment and exclusion pose a risk for employers who wish to exclude high-risk candidates from their workplaces.

The assessment aspect has especially captured the most attention. Psychological testing for the workplace got its start nearly ninety years ago. The Surgeon General's staff administered intelligence and personality tests during World War I to the almost two million recruits of the American Expeditionary Force. The soldiers were given the Wordsworth Personal Data Sheet, a 125-question inventory, that was supposed to detect personalities that would crumble under fire.   Although this test led to mixed results, it spawned a revolution in psychological research and the creation of predictive personality models and assessments.

The majority of these early assessments, including the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Index (MMPI), were clinical in nature, constructed and validated to diagnose psychiatric disorders. The MMPI is considered one of the most researched psychological tests and, as a result, remains consistently ranked as one of the most reliable psychological instruments used by psychologists today.

With that endorsement you would expect every employer, college president and school superintendent to be ordering up MMPI evaluations as fast as shoppers flock to malls the day after Christmas. If only it were that easy.

Despite the requirement that employers provide a safe environment for their workers, government regulations place an even higher priority on protecting the rights of the individual.

The ADA is the principal legal restriction on employment actions by an employer or school against individuals with "psychiatric disabilities,” says Michael Moore, employment law attorney with
Russell, Krafft & Gruber, LLP.

Moore emphasizes that “in the context of screening individuals for violent potential, the ADA applies to the application process, interviews and pre-employment examinations, specifically medical examinations.” The ADA limits pre-employment medical screening, including psychological testing, to job relatedness and even then the proper time is post-job offer.

In two landmark cases - Karraker v. Rent-A-Center and in Saraka v. Dayton Hudson, courts decided against the employer. They determined that the test used, MMPI, was a "medical examination" under the ADA because it was designed to reveal mental impairment. As a medical test, the employers who used it as a pre-employment test violated the ADA. On the other hand, in Miller v. City of Springfield, a court
determined that the MMPI was an appropriate job-related screening tool that was used by a police department in a manner that was consistent with business necessity.

An important distinction must be made at this point between tests like the MMPI and “personality tests” commonly used by employers. The MMPI is considered a clinical assessment, constructed to diagnose
psychiatric disorders. This is in distinct contrast with five-factor personality assessments that are constructed specifically for job placement which infers that personality traits and abilities are
compared to others in the “normal” population.

For example, consider the measures of restlessness and excitability which are measured as part of the five-factor model. This psychometric model is commonly used for workplace selection. ASSESS®
and Prevue® are two examples of five factor EEO-compliant assessments.    One of the five factors is called stability (also known as neuroticism).

Despite the temptation to use this stability scale to predict violent tendencies or behaviors, it is not a diagnostic tool. It merely describes an individual who may have a short fuse, is impatient and
frustrates easily. Lack of stability does not predict the conditions of depression, psychoses, or psychopathy, all possible diagnoses for the killers at Virginia Tech and Columbine. Stability traits merely identify potential behaviors that might lead to workplace disruptions ranging from tears or anger to temper tantrums to bullying.

This leads us to an important legal distinction that is drawn between a "violent profile" and actual conduct that amounts to "threats of violence". Conduct in the workplace, regardless of the cause, that
violates an employer's policies may be disciplined even if the individual may be "disabled". While not considered predictive of violent tendencies, five-factor personality assessments can identify traits that pit one employee against another or drive an individual to unacceptable workplace behavior. These personality differences although subtle are often the root cause of conflicts between employees that lead to charges of harassment or discrimination.

Despite the legal limitations on the MMPI and other psychological testing that prevent employers from using them to screen out potentially violent individuals, Moore advises, “there is still a place for pre-employment testing to ensure that candidates have the qualifications and abilities or potential to do the job and demonstrate compatibility with the culture.”

I want to thank Mike Moore for his collaboration in writing this column. I highly recommend Mike's blog - PA Employment Law Blog: A Legal Perspective on Employment, Labor and Human Resources.

Click here to read more about any of these assessment system
or call us at 717.291.4640 or 800.803.4303.

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Facts and Trends

The cost to hire replacement workers is enormous and varies based on industry and geographic influences.  A sampling of available studies demonstrate the high cost as well as variability:

$ 1,128.00   Average cost to hire a new employee (Wyatt Data Services)
$ 2,427.00   Average cost to hire a new employee (Saratoga Institute)
$10,000.00  Cost to hire a new employee stated by 45% of the surveyed employers (William H. Mercer)
$ 2,328.00   Cost to hire a new non-exempt employee (Employment Management Association of the   

                       Society for Human Resource Management)
$ 9,328.00   Cost to hire a new exempt employee (Employment Management Association of the Society

                       for Human Resource Management)

Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 is now available. The year 2007 will see an increase in skilled worker shortages and more competition. The result will be higher salaries, more training and career advancement opportunities, and more flexible work cultures.  How prepared is your company to find skilled and dependable workers?  

Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 is the newly updated and revised 2007 edition of best-selling book first published in 2005.  You can now download an advance copy of PLS 2.0. a $10 value with every purchase of the original Perfect Labor Storm, still a great value at $9.95. 

Don't miss day-to-day updates on Perfect Labor Storm.   Save the Perfect Labor Storm blog to your favorites.

3.  New! Upcoming Webinars, Workshops and Training Dates

Hiring Tool Kit 101
Webinar - May 15, 2007 at 11 AM to Noon EDT
Registration: Free (Limited to 10 participants)

ASSESS Expert System Certification
Date: June 12 and 13, 2007
Time: 8:30 - 5:00; 2nd day ends at 12:30PM
Place: Lancaster, PA
Tuition: $1500 per person; $1000 for 2nd person, same company

ASSESS Expert System User Certification has been rescheduled due to the inclement weather experienced in the Northeast from April 15-17. New dates will be June 12 and 13.

For the first time ever, Bigby Havis and Success Performance Solutions have partnered to sponsor a 2-day ASSESS User Certification in Central PA. (Bigby Havis is one of the top U.S. organizational psychology consulting firms with domestic and international clients.)

Participation is limited and over half the seats are already filled.
Don't wait. Call 800-803-4303 for information.

4.  New Free Audio Podcast:  The High Cost of a Bad Hire

The High Cost of a Bad Hire
Ira S Wolfe speaks with Michael Spremulli about the high costs of hiring the wrong person.

Listen and learn

5.  From the Innovation Graveyard

"Everything that can be invented has been invented." — The Commissioner of the U.S. Office of Patents urging President McKinley to abolish his office in 1899.

"The cinema is little more than a fad. It’s canned drama. What audiences really want to see is flesh and blood on stage." — Charlie Chaplin, 1916.

Chauncy M. Depew warned his nephew not to invest $5,000 in Ford stock because nothing could come along to best the horse.

In Germany, experts insisted that if trains went at the frightful speed of 15 miles per hour, blood would spurt from the traveler’s nose and passengers would suffocate going through tunnels.

Joshua Coppersmith was arrested in Boston for trying to sell telephone stock. All well-informed people knew that it was impossible to transmit the human voice over a wire.

In 1907, DeForest produced the radio tube in workable form. When he wasn’t able to sell his patent, he let it lapse rather than pay $25 for its renewal.

When Buffington took out patents for the steel-framed skyscraper in 1888, Architectural News predicted that the expansion and contraction of iron would crack all the plaster, eventually leaving only the shell.

After the New York YWCA announced typing lessons in 1881, vigorous protests were made on the grounds that women would break down under the strain.

Commodore Vanderbilt dismissed Westinghouse and his new air brakes for trains, saying he had no time for fools.

When rayon was first put on the market, it was declared a transient fad by a committee appointed by silk manufacturers to study its possibilities.

Men insisted that iron ships would not float and they would damage more easily than wooden ships when grounding. In addition, it would be difficult to preserve the bottoms from rust and the iron would deflect the compass.

6.  DISCovering the Styles

The perfect reference guide for effectively using DISC in the workplace. The best study guide to help you prepare for DISC certification.

DISCovering The Styles, a new book by Bill Schult, describes how over 2300 years after Aristotle, the behavioral model DISC is still being used by leaders, managers, salespeople, and coaches to create powerful impressions, build high-performing teams and gain endorsement.

Read more about DISCovering the Styles

7.  Industrial and Adminstrative Skills Testing

SkillClues evaluates technical and/or administrative skill proficiency levels - from industrial to healthcare to basic and advanced computer skills, including MS Office, Accounting, Design/Graphics and more.  Reports contain both graphical and verbal interpretation of the applicant’s results, including overall and specific question scoring.

Learn more about Clues for Skills

8.  Quotes from Hire Authorities

"How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct."
Benjamin Disraeli

Ira S. Wolfe Copyright 2007 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other distribution by permission