Nine Criteria for Evaluating Your Selection System

Nine things to consider when evaluating your method ofselecting new employees:

·   Ease ofimplementation: if it is difficult to administer, you won’t use it.

·   Ease ofinterpreting outputs: if it is difficult to interpret results, it’s notuseful.

·   Breadth ofprofiles offered: how many titles and positions covered? Often, a fewprofiles are able to widely predict performance across many jobs.

·   Coverage ofcompetencies: if you can only test for three competencies, test forinterpersonal skills, problem solving and work ethic.

·   Time to hire:the process should only take one to two days tops, including evaluating andscoring.

·   Legaldefensibility: how would the results generated help or hinder you in court?

·   Price per hire:if two systems are equally valid, then you’d take the cheaper one.

·   Reliability andconsistency: will a hiring manager still use it correctly three years aftertheir initial training sessions have been completed?

·   Perceivedfairness of test: test takers are future customers. How will they feelabout your test later?

SOURCE: From a speech by MatthewO’Connell, co-founder of Select International, at a conference on Recruiting & Hiring in a Tight LaborMarket: New Practices in Recruitment & Selection, May 5-6, 1999.