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Valid by Definition

Validity:

Select Advantage's assessments are content valid by definition. They meet the APA (American Psychological Association) standards for Content Validity. Criterion-related validity studies are currently underway and will be comparing job performance to supervisor’s evaluations. If you would like to participate in one of these studies please contact Select Advantage.

Test Validity and Civil Rights Law:

The law recognizes three research strategies-developed in the behavioral sciences-for collecting evidence that a test (or any objective measurement) actually measures what it claims to measure (i.e. ability to do the job). Each of these strategies requires the collection and measurement of work behavior critical to the work activity’s mission (job analysis) and a demonstration that the test measures this behavior. The relationship between test performance and job performance can be inferred from statistical analysis (construct and criterion-related validity) or by demonstrating the test was constructed to sample the work behavior critical to the work activity’s mission (content validity).

Indeed, the intent of Title VII law is to produce an objective, level playing field where all individuals can be fairly judged according to their ability to do the work, making intentional and unintentional discrimination impossible.

The law clearly views valid hiring and promotion strategies as the solution to employment discrimination. The law defers to the business necessity of an employer as the standard for judging the fairness of an employment decision. Indeed, the ideal that the best qualified should receive first opportunity is underscored by this law’s insistence on scientific proof relating employer hiring decisions to the safety and efficiency of their operations. In their conclusion of Griggs vs. Duke Power Co. (1971) the U.S. Supreme Court eloquently expressed the value of valid measurement for ending all forms of employment discrimination:

“Nothing in the Act precludes the use of testing or measuring procedures; obviously they are useful. What Congress has forbidden is giving these devices and mechanisms controlling force unless they are demonstrably a reasonable measure of job performance. Congress has not commanded that the less qualified be preferred over the better qualified simply because of minority origins. Far from disparaging job qualifications as such, Congress has made such qualifications the controlling factor, so that race, religion, nationality, and sex become irrelevant. What Congress has commanded is that any tests used must measure the person for the job and not the person in the abstract.”

Select Advantage's innovations in employment testing provide employers the fair and valid alternative selection procedures mandated by Title VII law. Our instruments sample the diverse domain of work behavior critical to the safe, efficient operation of the job. Fairness is built into each of our hiring standards, item by item, from a thorough analysis of the job the test has been developed for.

Select Advantage's methods measure the diverse domain of work knowledge, habits and desires which in total, demonstrably and fairly measure each individual’s ability to do the job. Our unique, proprietary assessment of each work activity represents all work elements, ensuring a fair and level standard which, by definition, measures the person for the job the assessment is constructed for. By building validity into our objective standards we have created hiring programs that are fair in form and effect.

Select Advantage's proprietary methods produce employment standards which facilitate achievement of diversity goals and equal employment opportunity under the most difficult circumstances. Our behavioral focus on what distinguishes superior workers has opened employment opportunities to highly qualified women and minorities in jobs which historically were denied them (e.g. state trooper, warehouse order selector, truck driver). The job related, nondiscriminatory nature of our employment standards always pass scrutiny with civil rights enforcement agencies and the courts.

Valid Hiring and Organizational Effectiveness:

Workers differ considerably in their job performance. These differences arise primarily from the fact that people are different. Effective performance in any work activity requires a full compliment of the work habits, values, interests and sense which are imposed by the work environment and the job’s mission. People differ substantially in all the key work behaviors required by any job.

By measuring the behavior which accounts for these differences, valid tests will predict who will excel and who will fail on the job. When hiring standards are raised with valid measurement, the likelihood of hiring a superior worker (top 10% performer) can be improved to 40%, 60% or, under extremely competitive conditions, 90%. This translates into substantial improvements in workforce and organizational effectiveness on all objective criteria of excellence.

Select Advantage's proprietary process builds validity into each of our hiring programs. Each item in our testing process is built on the observations, judgment and consensus of superior workers and managers responsible for getting the work done. Our scientific method is open to all the ways workers succeed and fail, providing standards which discriminate in favor of those individuals with superior work behavior.

By measuring applicants, item by item, against the criteria for success in the job, valid biases are built into our tests which allow an employer to predict an applicant’s level of success at the job the test was constructed for. This robust prediction is achieved through Select's proprietary methodology for defining and measuring the total domain of work behavior which distinguishes excellence. Our behavioral science summarizes and documents each applicant’s competence on all elements of the work in one final score.

This advance knowledge of a potential worker’s standing on the work values, habits, interests and sense which account for excellence in your organization’s mission is useful even if you hire everyone who applies. Turnover, training time, absenteeism, management resource allocations, safety, efficiency and any other objective measure of organizational effectiveness can be predicted and planned for. However, the real value of Select’s test scores is their power to ensure the future of your organization.

By restricting employment offers to only the most competitive applicants, you can control excellence in what you do. A culture of excellence can only be maintained by a cadre of workers who share the work values, beliefs and behavior which sustains your business mission. Select Advantage gives you the power to control these critical, distinguishing characteristics at your organization’s most critical decision point: whom to hire.