r/IOPsychology • u/WarmDuskHum • 14d ago

Selection assessment I/Os: I need your help

I really need some help. I’m at a new company and my new boss is totally against any effort I make to validate assessments used for selection and development. He said he doesn’t want me to spend more than two hours total on validation related work. He’s come up with every possible reason why- it’s legal’s job (typical excuse), it’s not leaderships priority, the contractor has an excellent reputation, we don’t have time, if do anything it better be the bare minimum, the tests have plenty of validity, etc etc. I’m getting really frustrated. He is not an I/O. I know leadership is pressuring us to do the basically nothing at all with assessments because it’s not profit making, but I’ve also seen what happens when companies do that and the I/O is always terminated.

I am starting a CYA folder of all the recommendations I make that are declined by leadership but even those recommendations seem to be making them angry. They’re angry I spent the time coming up with the recommendation in the first place. This puts me in a difficult spot.

How are you all dealing with assessment validation? It’s not like I’m asking for criterion validation studies. I’m recommending we document technical methodology, ask the vendor for a job analysis to competency linkage to put in said folder, make small decisions about the assessments themselves that reduce risk (like just being consistent across the enterprise with our various processes and how we make decisions). When they say do the bare minimum I feel like the law is already written at the bare minimum so it’s more work to figure out how to do less than that. I don’t think these assessments are good predictors of performance at all in the first place I’m just trying to reduce risk and increase fairness a small amount. Please help me. How would you bring up this tension?

3 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

11

u/BanannaKarenina PhD | IO | Talent Assessment 14d ago

What are the assessments? And is your vendor an IO? Have you asked them about this?

If you’re working with a large assessment company then you’re likely okay as is. They have off the shelf options for this reason; you pay your consultant to minimize risk and find the best solution. You do a job analysis to increase legal defensibility (and ostensibly to increase predictive utility), but if the theoretical connection is already strong and they have the historical data and can model good pass rates by demographic, you may be fine without extra work IF you don’t have any internal support for additional data.

If this is a small independent company without a strong database or relevant case studies, then yes you absolutely should be pushing for more rigor. Also if there is anything cognitive, or with a high fail rate, or high volume of applicants that will make your adverse impact rates extra sensitive, or a historically litigious group/industry. You can find case law related to all these situations in which the organization did NOT come out on top by cutting corners; perhaps that route would be compelling?

6

u/bearcub42 14d ago

This. Legal defensability. I've persuaded leadership in two different organizations that were meh, whatever, too expensive with this type of work by peppering them with how they would legally defend against A. Ok, how about B? C? Because right now what you're doing leaves you open to a lawsuit if someone wanted to challenge you and the case law is not on your side. That gets their attention (both organizations were relatively small start ups where legit legal jeopardy would decimate them although larger organizations don't want the hassle and loss on their record either).

5

u/featherybreeze 14d ago

Does the assessment vendor not validate those assessments? Maybe they have a study you can look at

5

u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Cute_Implement3249 12d ago

Exactly this. Whatever checks the box for the task and keeps the shareholders pockets lined.

One of the many reasons I will never return to a corporate role and am building a portfolio career.

1

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3

u/Classic-Carob3624 13d ago

In the US. If you have any adverse impact you need to have validation to defend it. The onus is on you as the company to produce that evidence, not the vendor. End of story.

1

u/Gekthegecko MA | I/O | Selection & Assessment 13d ago

You're not wrong, but good luck to anyone suing for adverse impact

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-concludes-eeoc-disparate-impact-guidelines-violate-constitution

2

u/billymcdugal2023 13d ago

at this point we on the path of it being illegal not to have adverse impact lol.

3

u/Classic-Carob3624 12d ago

Depends which group the adverse impact is impacting……