Personnel Issues

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to outline the legal and ethical considerations that must not be taken lightly in the applicant testing process of an organization. Employee testing is an important part of the hiring process because it allows managers to select the best candidates for the job. Employees with the right skills and attributes will do a better job for the company. The time to screen out undesirable applicants is before they are in the door not after. The applicant testing process is important because of the legal implications of incompetent hiring (Dessler, 2005). Organizations must ensure that they are following EEO laws by following nondiscriminatory selection procedures in their hiring process.

Applicant Testing Process

Selecting the right employee is important for many reasons. First, employees without the right skills or who are abrasive or obstructionist won’t perform effectively and the performance of the manager and the company will suffer. Secondly, it is important because it’s costly to recruit and hire employees. Another good reason for a testing process is to avoid legal implications due to inept hiring.

Effective selection is therefore important and depends, to a large degree, on the basic testing concepts of validity and reliability (Dessler, 2005). There are many forms of testing that an organization can utilize in the screening process. Cognitive tests are tests that can measure intelligence or special mental abilities such as memory and inductive reasoning. An intelligence test measures a range of abilities such as memory, vocabulary, verbal fluency, and numerical ability (Dessler, 2005). A test of specific cognitive abilities measures specific mental abilities such as inductive and deductive reasoning, verbal comprehension, memory, and numerical ability. This type of test is also known as an aptitude test. Many employers test for motor and physical abilities. This requires for a person to be tested on motor abilities, such as finger dexterity, manual dexterity, and reaction time. Others may be tested on their physical abilities which include static strength, dynamic strength, body coordination, and stamina (Dessler, 2005). Personality tests measure basic aspects of an applicant’s personality, such as introversion, stability, and motivation. Achievement tests measure what a person has learned and what their knowledge of the job they are apply for. All these tests are useful tools that organizations can utilize not only to hire the right candidate but to screen out the wrong candidates.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Use of testing in hiring, promotion, or retention is an established and accepted practice. If an employer's selection rate for a protected group violates the four-fifths rule, all components of the employer's selection process should be investigated to determine if they have an "adverse impact" on the affected group. If testing is used and shown to have an "adverse impact", the test must be validated according to EEOC guidelines. In general, this validation process requires that the employer confirm that the test criteria are directly related to job performance, and that the test used actually measures these criteria (Dessler, 2005). One of the legal considerations that cannot be overlooked is negligent hiring. Negligent hiring is hiring workers with questionable backgrounds without proper safeguards. If employers do not take the appropriate action in screening their applicants, they are taking a risk that a person may steal or bring harm to an individual. If this occurs, the company may face legal action and worse lose a lot of money. An organization must proceed with caution when utilizing a personality testing in the applicant screening. Although