Testing
Ensuring the Validity of Pre-Employment Testing
Elizabeth Hyatt
OMM618
Steven Pierce
March 24, 2014
Ensuring the Validity of Pre-Employment Testing
Hiring and retaining employees has been a huge issue since the beginning of its expansion by franchising. McOpCo has attempted to reduce its turnover by implementing pre-employment testing in order to hire a better quality employee. Pre-employment testing are used to screen potential employees by testing various factors such as personality, cognitive abilities, integrity, emotional intelligence, and basic education evaluation. It is hoped that by testing these various aspects of one’s intelligence, that the employees hired based on the test results will reduce the turnover of new employees, bring about higher productivity, and improve the hiring process all together. The issue remaining is whether or not the testing is legal.
The legality of these test have been in question since the tests have become commonly used. “The use of the pre-employment psychological exams has several different legal implications for private employers. First, in some jurisdictions, the use of such tests may violate state constitutional rule regarding the right to privacy. Second, those who seek to engage in pre-employment psychological screening should be aware of any state statutes that forbid questions concerning religious beliefs or sexual orientation. Last, it appears the use of the psychological tests as a pre-employment screening mechanism raises the specter of federal law (i.e., the ADA). These concerns are significant to all private employers; however, due to the substantial effort and need to select low-risk security personnel via psych screen testing, these concerns may be even more salient among those involved in the private security industry”(Hughes, 2002).
One of the issues of employee turnover is dishonesty. Working in a McDonald’s restaurant gives an employee the opportunity to be dishonest
Elizabeth Hyatt
OMM618
Steven Pierce
March 24, 2014
Ensuring the Validity of Pre-Employment Testing
Hiring and retaining employees has been a huge issue since the beginning of its expansion by franchising. McOpCo has attempted to reduce its turnover by implementing pre-employment testing in order to hire a better quality employee. Pre-employment testing are used to screen potential employees by testing various factors such as personality, cognitive abilities, integrity, emotional intelligence, and basic education evaluation. It is hoped that by testing these various aspects of one’s intelligence, that the employees hired based on the test results will reduce the turnover of new employees, bring about higher productivity, and improve the hiring process all together. The issue remaining is whether or not the testing is legal.
The legality of these test have been in question since the tests have become commonly used. “The use of the pre-employment psychological exams has several different legal implications for private employers. First, in some jurisdictions, the use of such tests may violate state constitutional rule regarding the right to privacy. Second, those who seek to engage in pre-employment psychological screening should be aware of any state statutes that forbid questions concerning religious beliefs or sexual orientation. Last, it appears the use of the psychological tests as a pre-employment screening mechanism raises the specter of federal law (i.e., the ADA). These concerns are significant to all private employers; however, due to the substantial effort and need to select low-risk security personnel via psych screen testing, these concerns may be even more salient among those involved in the private security industry”(Hughes, 2002).
One of the issues of employee turnover is dishonesty. Working in a McDonald’s restaurant gives an employee the opportunity to be dishonest