Aren't there some people who just don't do well on tests?

The inherent concept in the newest assessment technology is that all people are good at something, but no one is good at everything. That includes testing. In general, most people are anxious about taking any kind of assessment. This reaction has been conditioned by years in school, where passing or failing a test determined an individual's class standing. Other tests such as driving tests or medical tests also contributed to this attitude. This is why it is important to explain the purpose of any test or assessment to all candidates before it is given. Many of the latest instruments provide preliminary messages that do exactly that and put the candidate at ease, whether the instrument is delivered on the Internet or on paper.

It is important to recognize that people with poor skills will seldom be enthusiastic when asked to take a test to measure those skills. People with performance problems will not be enthusiastic about completing an assessment to see how their abilities match a particular job. That is exactly why assessments are a vital part of today's business world. Effective assessment instruments can identify the critical areas that people do not want to reveal, but that the business must know in order to make the best decision.

We use recruiters for our key positions. Finding good people is their job. Why should we use testing?

Professional recruiters can offer significant advantages in seeking candidates for many positions, but it is important to remember these caveats:
- Recruiters get paid for filling positions.
- Recruiters do not get paid for screening out candidates.
- The worst recruiter using good assessments will make fewer mistakes than the best recruiter who does not use assessments.

By incorporating good assessments into the recruiting process, you gain the benefits of recruiting professionals and at the same time, gain insurance against them making a mistake that costs you money.

We use an industrial psychologist. Why should we consider assessments?

Industrial psychologists play an important role by supplying a professional psychological opinion as a supplement to many decision-making processes. This can be quite expensive however. It often makes sense to use an inexpensive assessment tool, such as FirstView^TM, to screen out unsuitable candidates before incurring the expense of the psychologist.

Several things must also be clear about the role of the psychologist:
- The use of an industrial psychologist to supply information used for a hiring
or placement decision in no way limits the exposure of the client company to federal and state regulations (e.g. If that information can be shown to be discriminatory, the decision can be shown to be discriminatory.).
- The psychologist's summary information is only as good as the assessments used
to obtain the initial data. (i.e. A psychologist using First or Second Generation tools cannot provide Fifth or Sixth Generation quality information.).

First of all, be clear on what you want the instrument to do. Instruments are designed for specific uses. Ask to see example of how the instruments were used.

Second, consider your resources. Who will be using the information? Certain instruments provide excellent information but considerable training is required to use the information effectively. This can be a problem if you want the information to be useful to a wide range of people. FirstView^TM produces a unique form of report writing, known as a virtual interview. This type of report requires no interpretation or training and offers specific information on job behaviors.

Third, consider the logistics of your application. Do you want the instrument available online? On paper? On Screen? Do you want to process the reports in-house?

Fourth, how much time do you have? Traditionally, higher quality instruments required as much as 1-2 hours to complete; the only shorter instruments were of substantially less quality. FirstView^TM was the first in a new Generation of higher quality assessment tools that require less than 15 minutes to complete.

How do I know an instrument is valid?

I have heard that I should ask to see the technical manual for the instrument. What is that?

Success profiling was a method for studying large populations of homogenous workers to determine the characteristics that were common to those workers producing a superior level of performance. This methodology is the core strategy of many popular assessment instruments, and it is very appealing to businesses who want to "hire more people like that one." This strategy can be effective in the right circumstances, with a large population of people in the same jobs, working in the same conditions, with the same resources, with the same management, in a stable environment. However, when the jobs vary, or the management varies, or the environment changes frequently, or other things are different, the success profiling concept becomes problematical.

The other limitation is in the collection of data. Most companies have difficulty agreeing on exactly what top performance is. The answer for some assessment companies is to refer buyers to their years of research and many thousands of people tested. They then provide success profiles based upon this data. Experience shows that while these ready made success patterns can be helpful in some cases, they seldom deliver the results that the buyer expects.

Small businesses also have difficulty using the benchmarking concept, since they have many positions with only one or two employees, and therefore lack a robust sample for the study. Job requirement questionnaires may be used to collect data on such positions, but it can be difficult. More importantly, small business employees must generally function in many roles, depending upon the demands of business. The jobs are rarely stable enough to develop reliable profiles.

Even when success profiles are successfully created, they must be revisited on a regular basis to ensure that they still match the positions. With the rapid pace of change in today's business world, this can be as often as every six months.