Psychological testing - a rising tide is missing the boat

By way of both Dan Johnson at Get That Job! and the HR Blog at Boston.com, here's an article on ABC News about the increase in the use of psychological tests in the interviewing process. Unfortunately, much of the testing seems to be fear-based, rather than focused on potential.

A few posts back, I pointed to an article on "passion based hiring." One of the points made in the article was:

When selecting employees, put as much or more emphasis on the applicants' values, beliefs, and interests as on competencies and credentials.

The idea is to focus not just on "can they do the job?" but also on, "will it be something that will really engage them?" (which will consequently have an impact on the bottom line, as suggested in this post).

I hoped this might be part of the how the testing is being used, but from the looks of the ABC News article, much of the focus of the testing seems to be fear-based - weeding out people who aren't "good enough." As the president of Hogan Development Systems, a company that makes the tests, says:

"Everyone in the world thinks he or she is a great judge of character, and it's just not true — look at the divorce rate," says Hogan, who says his company's tests can show "what you see after you marry them."

Adds Hogan: "We call them dysfunctional dispositions that emerge when people are tired or drunk or bored, or when they let down their guard. Factors that end careers for managers, like arrogance, paranoia and compulsive lying."

Whew! Talk about solidly missing the boat. I know it's a vast oversimplification, but which would you rather build your company on (and that's what you're doing when you're hiring) - the fear of what people might be, or the potential of what they could be.

I know which one I'd choose. But then, I'm biased.

Comments

[John Moore]

Good stuff Curt. Part of the problem here is the tendency to see weaknesses as being simply in people. It might be more useful to look at weaknesses in relationships. Misused, these tests strip away context and create a story of good or bad people; but a community thrives on the way in connects people.

And I hear that at The Men's Wearhouse they sometimes keep staff who have been caught pilfering because they see a prospect of rehabilitation and prefer to invest in a relationship rather than get into an endless cycle of hire-and-fire.

[David]

I think you are on to something.

Unfortunately, in my experience, the mind set of people who rely on psychological tests is oriented toward preventing changes rather than facilitating them.

Earlier, you wrote:
"When selecting employees, put as much or more emphasis on the applicants' values, beliefs, and interests as on competencies and credentials."

I would add only that the results of someone's values, beliefs and interests is more important than what he says about his values, etc.