Assessments

Assessments in the workplace are used to measure the knowledge, skills, abilities and behavioral attributes related to a job or corporate culture. They can also be referred to as screening services, tests, surveys, exams, evaluations, simulations, work samples, assessment centers, interview guides, or realistic job previews. Employers use assessments to hire applicants, develop and promote employees, and collect talent intelligence on internal and external talent pools.

Professional fields related to the scientific research, development and use of workplace assessments include Industrial Organizational (I/O) Psychology and Organizational Development (OD). Also, the fair use of workplace assessments is overseen at the state and federal level or the territory, national and regional/multinational level by various government organizations, such as the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Depending on their professional credentials, authors may also be involved with the following assessment services:

• Job Analysis – determines job-related competencies to include in the assessment.

• Validation Study – determines if the assessment is a reliable and valid measure of the selected competencies and to what degree it predicts job performance.

• Adverse Impact Analysis – determines if the assessment could potentially impact protected groups or promote unfair bias.

• Business Impact Study – determines the cost and time savings, or return on investment, from using a validated assessment over a period of time.