Get into HR >> Browse Articles >> Industry Trends

Selection vs. Development Assessments

Featured Author:

Dan McCarthy

Dan McCarthy has been a practitioner in the field of leadership development for over 20 years. He’s currently the Manager of Leadership and Management Development at a Fortune “Great Place to Work”, “Training Top 125”, and “High Impact Learning” (HILO 80) company. Dan has a Master’s degree in Human Resource and Organizational Development and has held management positions in both HR and training. His award winning blog, Great Leadership, offers practical information and opinions about leadership development, leadership, and talent management.

More articles from this author:

• Are You a Talent Magnet or Talent Poacher?
• A First Aid Kit for Managers
• 10 Career Management Strategies

This post is written for the everyday manager, HR manager, coach, or consultant that doesn’t have the time or interest to learn about validation, reliability, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation coefficients, and adverse impact. However, you’re using assessments, and you know just enough to be dangerous. Oh yeah, that pretty much describes me. Maybe you too.

I’ve written about assessments for leadership development before. While there are lots of them to choose from, the common ones used for development tend to be 360 degree assessments (multi rater) and personality preferences (DISC, Kolbe, Hogan, FIRO-B).

Most of my work involves development assessments. That is, the manager takes an assessment, the results go back to the manager, and a coach helps to interpret the results and come up with a development plan.

Here is where I see managers and organizations get into potential trouble: they want to take that favorite development assessment and use it to make selection decisions. They may get a copy of the assessment from a naive or unethical HR manager or coach, or, they might just “ask” the individual directly for a copy.

In most cases, it’s done with good intentions. Managers want to make a smart hiring or promotion decision, so they are trying to learn as much as they can about the candidate. Also, if they do end up hiring the person, they can get a jump-start on their development.

I’m guessing some of you are already doing this, even if you’ve been warned not to.

So what’s the harm?

Here’s the problem:

I’ll start with the legal/HR stuff you’ve probably already heard: if it’s not tested for “validity” (it measures what it’s supposed to measure) and “reliability” (it’s consistent over time), you could get your #%* taken to court and sued.

A disgruntled candidate could claim that you used the results of that assessment to make your hiring decision and it was bogus. Therefore, selection assessments require a stack of research and are held to a much higher standard than your average free online personality assessment or horoscope. And let’s face it – if someone takes one of these things for development – and it’s bogus – who cares? However, if someone doesn’t get hired or promoted because or it, it’s a big deal.