|
Home > Overview
> PeopleClues Validation Research
PeopleClues Validation Research
Quick Technical Notes – Validation of CLUES™
CLUES™ assessments include validated measurements for Core
Personality Traits, Cognitive
Abilities and Attitudes.
These assessments were constructed in accordance with the revised Standards
for Educational and Psychological Testing (1999) promulgated
jointly by the American Educational Research Association, the American
Psychological Association, and the National Council on Measurement
in Education, together with the revised Principles for the Validation
and Use of Personnel Selection Procedures (2003), developed
by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology—a
division of the American Psychological Association. The development
of the CLUES™ Attitude also follows the steps for creating
a new psychometrically sophisticated instrument outlined by Lanyon
and Goodstein in Personality Assessment published in 1997
by John Wiley & Sons.
In addition, it is important to note that CLUES™ Assessments
have been designed specifically for business selection, development
and training. It is not, and was never developed as a clinical tool
and does not fall under any of the guidelines as a medical test as
defined by the ADA and recent case law.
The CLUES™ Personality and Cognitive Assessments:
The CLUES™ Personality Assessment is a 70-item
assessment based on the Five-Factor approach to personality
measurement and the CLUES™ Cognitive
Assessment is a 30-item assessment. These assessments have been
standardised on a sample of over 6,000 applicants for
employment at a variety of companies across the United
States. This
research, summarised in a recent (2005) technical manual,
provides strong support for the reliability and validity
of CLUES™ in
screening applicants for employment.
The CLUES™ Attitude Assessment:
A pool of 224 items was created to tap the six domains
of counterproductive behaviour as well as the Good Impression scale. These
items were administered to successive waves of volunteers from a variety
of employers. Those
items that best correlated with the total score of that
particular scale were included in the next wave of testing, until 20
items for each scale had been selected for inclusion in the final test. Each
of the 20 items included in the final version of the
test correlated at least .75 with the total score of that scale. This
item selection process was the initial step in creating a valid instrument.
The construct validity of CLUES™ Attitude Assessment
is also clearly apparent in the selection process. As the test
authors point out in their earlier text, obvious items with clear face
or construct validity invariably have the highest internal consistency. All
of the items in the CLUES™ Attitude Assessment are direct inquiries
into the behaviours subsumed in that domain and no subtle
items were included in even the initial pool of 224 items.
The high internal consistency of the CLUES™ Attitude Assessment
is shown in the uniformly high Cronbach alphas that have been obtained
in all of the test samples, typically in the .79-.88 range depending
upon the composition of the test sample. Test-retest reliabilities
of CLUES™ Attitude Assessment scales ranged from .77 to .88 with
a median correlation of .86. These compare favorably with previously
reported internal consistencies (Cronbach alphas).
***
The major issue inherent in any use of a pre-employment
screening process is the degree to which it differentiates
potentially successful applicants from those unlikely
to be successful. PeopleClues will work collaboratively
with our client’s
staff to ensure that CLUES™ provides such differentiation. Specifically,
we will benchmark jobs to identify the pattern of test
scores that can identify potentially successful employees. Once
this pattern is established, we will collaborate to
determine the effectiveness of CLUES™ in improving the quality
of those candidates selected for employment.
These procedures meet the test of “business necessity,” the
criterion established by both legislation and case law that protects
applicants from discrimination—either overt or unintentional. In
other words using a pre-employment selection procedure that leads to
the hiring of the most qualified persons is typically regarded as an
acceptable process, especially if such a process is based upon a job
analysis, such as benchmarking, and can be empirically shown to improve
the quality of the employer’s workforce.
As we are continually updating our technical studies,
it is our intention to extend these validity studies
and we would be eager to work with any customers to
design, conduct and analyse such research data.
Request a copy of our technical manual
If you would like to assess the whole technical manual
for yourself please contact us.
|
