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 Our tests employ established scientific principles and techniques backed by literally decades of rigorous independent research.
To quantify one or more differences between candidates that are related to future performance and/or tenure on a specific job.
More simply, the purpose is to help hiring managers make better selection decisions.
At the highest level, we adhere to a core set of principles, described below.
Psychologists use the term 'Job Analysis' to describe the activity of studying a job to identify it's most important tasks and their associated knowledge, skills, and abilities.
HR Avatar uses the job analysis performed by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Information Network (O*NET). This continually updated database estimates the relative importance of various knowledge elements, skills, and abilities for more than 900 occupations. We use this data to determine which traits to measure within each test and to set the relative importance or 'weight' of each of them.
Our job-specific assessments combine several assessment types into a single job-related test for a specific job. Each includes measures of cognitive ability, personality, skills, knowledge, and past behaviors (bio-data). As a result employers don't need to worry that they've selected the wrong test or are missing out on valuable information. This approach is well-proven to improve test fairness and reliability.
A measurement is only as good as it is repeatable. In other words, a test that produces random results is useless.
We apply established and broadly accepted statistical method to evaluate and improve reliability within all of our tests.
To make the best possible impression on job candidates, HR Avatar's assessments employ simulations in which test-takers interact with animated characters (customers, co-workers and supervisors) to perform job-related tasks. This principle, often referred to as 'face validity' has been recognized for a long time. Typically, this animated simulation format is used in evaluating cognitive ability, knowledge, and skills within the tests.
Test validity refers to the ability of a test to fulfill its purpose, which is to quantify differences between candidates that relate to performance or tenure. To evaluate validity, we compare individual performance and/or retention data provided by our clients to test scores for those same individuals. Whenever a client is willing to share this information we are happy to perform this analysis and share the results. We also use these results to make improvements in each test.
A 'valid' test must satisfy two criteria:
- It must consistently (reliably) measure the traits it purports to measure.
- The traits it measures must be related to job performance or tenure for the job it is being used for.
It's not the test that is or is not valid, it's the use of the test for a given job that is either valid or not valid.
Also, note that no measurement is perfectly valid. Instead, all measurements are only partially valid, and various measurements may be more or less valid than other measurements for the same job. What matters is that the test you use for a given job uses the best measures available that are related to job performance or tenure (see principle 1), it measures those traits fairly (see our page on test fairness), and it also measures them reliably.
Assessments Are Not Perfect
No assessment is completely accurate. However, like the daily weather forecast, they provide valuable input to your decision-making process - as long as you recognize this lack of accuracy and consider information from various sources before you decide.
Let's take the weather as an example. Suppose you were planning an outdoor picnic a few hours from now. You might look at the weather forecast online. However, you would probably also step outside to see what the weather is like right now. Finally, you might consider the weather you had yesterday afternoon. Armed with all of these data points, you can make an informed decision.
Researchers have proven that this approach - using multiple inputs from independent data sources - is almost always the best way to make a difficult decision.
Assessments work the same way. You should never use assessment results exclusively to make an employment decision. Instead, assessment scores should be considered along with other inputs, such as interview results, or references in order to get the best results. |
