Pre-Employment Testing

In today's competitive recruiting environment, companies are constantly faced with finding better ways to screen candidates for open positions. Managers and human resource departments are challenged with finding strong tools for screening applicants. Some industries have had great success with this practice. For example, the U.S. Postal Service routinely administers tests to screen for qualified candidates. Although these employers have had success with testing candidates for pre-employment screening, not all industries have had these positive experiences. In fact, many corporations have found that there are many legal and ethical considerations in testing.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

One legal concern that every employer is faced with is the challenge to compose a valid test that does not discriminate. Another legal concern facing employers utilizing tests is to maintain the privacy of test-takers and to obtain their consent for any applications that the results may be used. These examples are legal concerns that tend to protect the applicant.

Sonny Cornelius, official portrait from .

English: William H. Brown, chairman of EEOC

John H Powell Jr, chairman of EEOC

There are additional legal considerations that affect the employers and for these reasons, they will and should continue to scrutinize applicants. One ethical concern is that tests may reveal information that could bias a decision based on information that otherwise would not have been revealed. This information could have the potential to sway a decision. Another example of ethical concerns with testing is the administration of tests without knowing the individual circumstances of each candidate. For instance, if one applicant is not able to read quickly but has terrific retention and ambition, this applicant may score poorly on the exam but then excel in the position.

The number of laws and regulations governing the employment process has increased over the past four decades. Many of these laws and regulations have important implications for conducting employment assessment. This response discusses what you should do to...