Recruiting Candidates and Interview Types

What types of psychometric assessments (e.g., personality inventories, cognitive assessments, and integrity tests) are best to identify applicants with the strongest job and organizational fit? Why? The Big Five personality theory is widely considered to be one of the most cross-culturally accurate methods of assessing personality. Although trait-based personality theories still remain controversial, the Big Five traits are broad enough and represented widely enough throughout the literature on psychometric testing to have some validity as a screening device.

The five traits the Big Five inventories assess are openness to experience, conscientiousness or dutifulness, extraversion versus introversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (Cherry, 2018). For workplaces which require interaction with customers, extraversion and agreeableness are essential. Creative workplaces require openness, while detail-oriented occupations, in contrast, demand conscientiousness (Cherry, 2018). Neuroticism is largely considered a negative trait and in virtually all occupations, resiliency is required.

Using cognitive assessments like IQ tests would be problematic, given that accusations of racial bias and the validity of different IQ tests remain controversial and could result in legal trouble for an organization. Even within the academic community, there is considerable debate about how to measure cognitive ability, such as whether it is a general attribute or whether multiple intelligences exist.

However, skill-based tests that specifically test job skills, such as using a computer or knowledge about the subject area the candidate should know, would likely not be able to be opposed in a court of law, so long as needed job skills were being assessed. Integrity testing is likewise controversial. These tests “have been validated against very different criteria—theft, faking credentials, ‘counter-productive’ behavior, etc.—and they do tend to produce rather different results.

Working on company time or taking long lunch breaks is called ‘time theft,’” (Furnham, 2015, par.9). The lack of standardization of these tests designed to measure honesty likewise makes them questionable as an instrument to screen out dishonest candidates. Of course, arguably instruments such as drug testing are a kind of integrity test and have biological validity, although they too have been challenged in the court system. References Cherry, K. (2018). The big five personality traits. Very Well Mind. Retrieved from: https://www.verywellmind.com/the-big-five-personality-dimensions-2795422 Furnham, A. (2015).

Can you really test someone for integrity? Fortune. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2015/08/11/hiring-integrity-test/ When should interviews be used in a multi-hurdle selection process? Are structured interviews best? Why or why not? Do multiple interviewers add validity to the hiring decision? Explain. Interviews can be used throughout a multi-hurdle selection process.

It is not unusual for a candidate to be called for an initial phone interview, based upon the strength of his resume and application, and then submit to a one-on-one interview and later a panel interview, if the position is highly competitive (“6 Interview Types,” 2018). Companies may find that using a rigorous screening process is ultimately more effective and saves in money and time, versus initially selecting the wrong employee for the job.

Interviews can act as multiple levels of screening, with phone interviews being used to screen out less-than-serious applicants or applicants with obvious flaws. One-on-one interviews in person can probe more deeply into the candidate’s strengths, weaknesses, and reasons for applying, while panel interviews can determine how the candidate reacts under pressure. Multiple interviewers are not necessarily better, but do test different skill sets of the candidate to respond and also provide multiple perspectives upon the candidates. Someone from IT may have a different perspective than someone from HR.

This also introduces the candidate to more people with whom he or she will be working with as an employee. Structured interviews allow for a closer comparison of the different responses of candidates. They also usually have an informative section, which enables the candidate to understand the job better.