Do Personality tests predict candidate viability?

1. PERSONALITY TESTS: ARE THEY EFFECTIVE?

2. SOME GROUND RULES FOR ALL OF US
1. Everyone must participate, give their opinions. Do not think what
you say is not important, all opinions count.
2. We will respect everyone’s input(s)
3. The most appreciable approach will be to come up, and show what
you want to explain (draw/write and show- there is nothing like
visual learning!!)
4. We should have everyone taking turns to speak or come up with a
topic every week (if the sessions are not cancelled due to any
unforeseen circumstance)
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3. LET US DISCUSS…
1. What do you know about personality tests?
2. Do you know what is measured?
3. How do these tests measure?
4. Are they effective?
5. What can we (HR) do to maximize use of these tests?
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4. WHAT ARE PERSONALITY TESTS?
-written or computerized tests used to measure
1. traits as general patters of behaviour
2. show a candidate’s standing relative to other people
- how?
- By gauging the responses of a candidate to a set of questions,
these tests ‘claim’ to create a picture of a candidate’s
personality
- What are measured?
- 1. sociability
- 2. adaptability
- 3. creativity
- 4. personal organization and a lot more…
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5. WHY PERSONALITY TESTS?
1. search for more convincing and concrete ways of assessing
candidature
2. They are quick and easy to administer
3. Easily interpretable by someone who has been trained and
4. Saves a lot of time and effort in shortlisting candidates
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6. APPROACHES
1. Nomothetic :
a. Self-report
b. Self-presentation
Ex: Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, Myers-Briggs, Hogan
Personality Inventory, etc.,
2. Idiographic or Projective Tests:
Ex: Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), Rorschach test are some famous
idiographic tests
Important
There are no right or wrong answers in the tests, but useful insights can be
formed on personal choices of a candidate and how they are likely to behave at
work.
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7. APPROACHES
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8. 8
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9. 9
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11. WHAT ARE THE ISSUES YOU THINK MIGHT ARISE WITH ADOPTING
SUCH TESTS?
Important to ask..
1. Is personality the only factor behind job performance?
2. Is the relation between personality and job performance linear, i.e. straight forward?
3. Are
1.
2.
3.
the tests valid and reliable?
Face Validity- High FV does not make a test valid
Content Validity – job analysis is important
Most important- Predictive/Criterion related validity which is the extent to which
a test or questionnaire predicts some future or desired outcome, for example
work behaviour or on-the-job performance.
4. Can the test takers fake?
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12. WHAT ARE THE ISSUES YOU THINK MIGHT ARISE WITH ADOPTING
SUCH TESTS?
More deeper issues:
1. Can they test across gender/race/other segregations?
2. Can they the whole person or the whole job dimension?
3. Sadly, none of the tests are conclusive predictors of performance
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13. Can we see the whole picture
here!!!
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14. Assessment Method
Predictive Validity
Assessment Centres (multiple
methods)
.65
Behavioural Interviews
.4 – .6
Work-sample Tests
.54
Ability Tests
.53
Modern Personality Tests
.39
Biographical data
.38
References
.23
Traditional Interviews
.05 – .19
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15. WHAT CAN HR DO TO GET THE MOST OUT OF ADOPTING SUCH TESTS?
a. Improve integration between job requirements and associated behaviours‘Job analysis is a must’
b. Only administer statistically validated tests that reflect your
industry/workplace
c. Used computer based testing methods to reduce faking/cheating
-Social desirability scales – these scales are designed to detect overly favourable answering by an individual
-Consistency scales – these scales measure the level of consistency of answering, often those who fake are less
consistent
-Bogus items – these items ask about knowing or doing things that are not real, therefore if an individual endorses
these then they are lying or exaggerating their results
-Timing of item responses – slower response times indicate a person may be over thinking the question and
therefore may be trying to falsify their responses
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16. WHAT CAN HR DO TO GET THE MOST OUT OF ADOPTING SUCH TESTS?
d. Make personality tests part of your selection regime
Guilford & Fruchter (1978) : “In general, if there is a choice between lengthening of tests in a battery to
make them more reliable and adding more tests of different kinds that contribute unique valid
variances, the decision should certainty go to the second alternative.”
We can therefore increase the validity of testing by using a battery of different assessments or
methods. This also explains why assessment centres that have multiple measures then do have higher
validity.
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17. LET US DECIDE ON NEXT WEEK’S TOPIC
YOUR OPINIONS PLEASE..
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