As more companies turn to pre-employment tests, complaints of bias are cropping up. Employers are increasingly looking for assessment tests to ensure they make the offer to the candidate that is the best fit for the company. Will testing lead you to the perfect candidate? or to a disparate impact lawsuit? The EEOC has developed a set of rules for employers to follow to ensure their selection process does not discriminate against any protected classes, Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures. The employer needs to be in compliance with these guidelines or be guilty of discrimination. The guidelines are designed to ensure that the selection process doe not create an adverse impact on any group of candidates. If the overall selection process has an adverse impact, the adverse impact of the selection procedure should be analyzed. The employer needs to validate its test. The test needs to be a validated predictor of success for the job description. Validation is the demonstration of the job-relatedness of a selection procedure. The Uniform Guidelines recognize the same three validity strategies recognized by the American Psychological Association:
- Criterion-related validity—a statistical demonstration of a relationship between scores on a selection procedure and job performance of a sample of workers.
- Content validity—a demonstration that the content of a selection procedure is representative of important aspects of performance on the job.
- Construct validity—a demonstration that (a) a selection procedure measures a construct (something believed to be an underlying human trait or characteristic, such as honesty ) and (b) the construct is important for successful job performance.
Employers need to develop a selection process that enables them to hire top talent and not discriminate.