The Right Assessment is a Good Predictor if Candidate is Able to Learn and Master The Job Classification – Job Relevance is Critical to Legal Compliance and Success – Part 2

by Jim Poole, President of Lifetime Learning, LLC

The need to validate a pre or post-hire assessment to the employer’s job classification is not that difficult to grasp. If one ignores the logic of that linkage, the direct economic reason alone should be obvious. That is why it so surprising that many employers – perhaps in an effort to limit costs – skip this important step, unwittingly placing the employer at risk of litigation in the event of a legal challenge, which can result in significant awards.

Recently, use of a popular “employability” assessment has been questioned, leading to lawsuits in many states, re-enforcing the fact that just because an assessment has been commercialized and claims to have “industry acceptance,” job relevance still has to be proven in order to be Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and state law compliant.

Employee selection has become so competitive today (from both the job-seeker’s and the employer’s perspective) it would seem desirable that if for a little effort a lot of peace of mind can be gained. Knowing that everything has been done to mitigate risk with a simple confirmation before use of proven and documented “job relevance.” Still employees may be turned away from a dish washing job because they lack proficiency in math, or a NC machine operator is denied employment because they tested low in verbal skills when their job is performed in relative isolation form others. Or someone is denied a promotion to management because they scored low on a commercial test that did not seem to have anything in common with the management job at that company.

In Part 1 of my article of the same name,  I discussed the importance of “content validation” of any instrument that is meant to assess, test, qualify or preclude candidates from hiring, participation in a program, promotion, a raise in pay and/or career expansion has to be based on objective fact, not elaborate branding or herd acceptance. Many employers select or create, and then implement tests for such activities – often without realizing the significance of what they do and the vulnerabilities and risks to business it presents. One embittered victim and/or one opportunistic human resources attorney can clarify the risk in a hurry. And, when one practice is found to violate EEOC requirements, all similar practices become suspect.

I and my company, Lifetime Learning LLC,  have partnered with Proactive Technologies, Inc.  on several projects. The data I receive from the Proactive Technologies Job Profile Summary and Job Profile Analysis Reports, among others, provides a wealth of information from which to legitimize for use (or de-legitimize for removal) criteria in assessments and customized tests I suggest and use for clients. Content validation is established with an undeniable link between the test item and the Duty-Task-Subtask-Procedural step where the item is relevant. It is hard to create a stronger case for content validation.

Some commercial instruments in use today claim to be supported by industry “focus groups” and “industry endorsements,” or the “size and strength of the herd” using it, but that offers little or no protection against a challenge to the assessment’s relevance to a specific employer’s job classification. And efforts to perform a “quick and dirty” tour of a job site cannot defend against the scrutiny to the details that might come from a savvy lawyer in civil litigation, a National Labor Relations Board  or Equal Opportunity Opportunity Commission hearing.

For educational institutions and workforce development agencies offering worker screening, this step always seemed important to me and the growing scrutiny of today seems to support that point. Partnering with a specialist like Proactive Technologies can help employers gain confidence in your practices and encourage broader use of the products you provide. No consultant consciously wants to put a client in legal jeopardy, but it is no consolation if that is the outcome by negligence or over-confidence.

The incredible thing about Proactive Technologies’ approach is that the job/task analysis methodology they use for each of the client employer’s job classifications, the data is also processed by its PROTECH© software into an immediately usable structured on-the-job training program and complete workforce development system. So the “easy-to-read” reports to content validate assessments and tests to the job(s) for which the employer is hiring and training workers is the same data used to develop and certify worker task-mastery and facilitate improvement while the job evolves. When the job changes and the data is updated, revalidation of assessments and tests can be done easily and with certainty.

This links everything together into a manageable, credible and measurable system of worker development; from recruitment, screening and selection, to training, documentation and performance management, to performance evaluation and continual improvement. Legal defensibility is supported and compliance with other mandates such as ISO 9001:2015, AS 9100, IATF 16949, safety and internal engineering and quality specifications is supported. Training is accelerated, always backed by the certainty of content validation and job relevance.

When I was a Customized Training Specialist with a career center, I would often attend conferences where I would hear it expressed that an approach such as this is an ideal that is unachievable. But the truth is, this approach has been here, and in practice, for many decades, and I have known Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies and followed their work since around 1998. Today, Lifetime Learning and Proactive Technologies, Inc. partners to combine our strengths to provide a client with the best, most effective, efficient and relevant solutions possible.

Proactive Technologies partners with many educational institutions, as well. Universities, colleges, community colleges and career centers. It make sense, and I know that it has increased the credibility of workforce development efforts (assessments and related technical instruction), broadened the opportunities for those schools to place their products and services and increased the institution’s revenue stream derived from customized workforce development activities. And many of the projects and partnerships last for many, many years – attesting to the credibility and value of the approach to the client.

For employers who have not yet settled on a relationship with their local workforce development resources, or who have but are not completely satisfied they have mitigated risks and have been maximizing their investment in the activity, this approach might be worth their time to look into. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” or in this case, “strengthening the job relevance of any test used in worker development now may prevent expensive errors in measurement that lead to even more expensive defense in expensive challenges.”

I encourage any employer to learn more about the importance of approach. To learn more about Lifetime Learning, LLC and our range of products and services, visit the Lifetime Learning website. Likewise, I encourage any workforce development department director or professional to learn more about Proactive Technologies and their partnerships with institutions, and contact a Proactive Technologies representative.