Employee Testing and Assessments

According to the US Department of Labor all assessment tools used to make employment decisions are subject to professional and legal standards. For example, both the evaluation of a resume and the use of a highly standardized achievement test must comply with applicable laws. Assessment tools used solely for career exploration or counseling are usually not held to the same legal standards. Tests, inventories, and procedures are assessment tools that may be used to measure an individual’s abilities, values, and personality traits. Some of the assessment tools recognized by the US Department of Labor are:

• Observations
• Resume evaluations
• Application questionnaires
• Biodata inventories
• Interviews
• Work samples/performance tests
• Achievement tests
• General, specific, and physical ability tests
• Personality inventories
• Honesty/integrity inventories
• Interest inventories
• Work values inventories
• Assessment centers
• Drug tests
• Medical tests

The Department of Labor defines the assessment process as “a systematic approach to combining and evaluating all the information gained from testing and using it to make career or employment-related decisions”. If you are considering using employee assessments, particularly for pre-employment testing, make sure you use assessments that meet the required standards of validity and reliability. A suitably qualified organizational psychologist can advise on which tests to use.