Applicant Screening and Evaluation Flashcards

Which term describes the degree to which a selection instrument measures the specific knowledge, skills, and abilities required by the job, as demonstrated through a thorough job analysis?

Answer: Content validity

Content validity is the evidence that a test's content represents the domain of knowledge, skills, and abilities identified as essential through job analysis.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, an employer may require a medical examination of an applicant:

Answer: After a conditional offer is made but before employment begins

The ADA permits medical examinations only after a conditional job offer has been extended, and the exam must be required of all entering employees in the same job category.

The 'banding' technique in applicant ranking addresses which psychometric concern?

Answer: Measurement error and score unreliability

Banding groups candidates whose scores fall within a statistically equivalent range (based on standard error of measurement) and treats them as equally qualified to reduce the impact of measurement error.

Which document serves as the primary legal framework governing federal employment selection procedures in the United States?

Answer: Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978)

The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures provide the authoritative technical standards for the development and validation of employee selection procedures used by federal agencies.

In a multiple-hurdle selection process, at which stage should the most expensive or time-intensive assessment typically be administered?

Answer: Last, after candidates have been screened by lower-cost methods

Placing expensive assessments at the end of the multiple-hurdle process ensures they are administered only to candidates who have already met earlier, lower-cost screening criteria, maximizing cost efficiency.

Which type of reliability coefficient is used to assess consistency of scores across two different forms of the same test given at the same time?

Answer: Alternate-forms reliability

Alternate-forms (or parallel-forms) reliability measures the correlation between scores on two equivalent forms of a test to assess whether the forms measure the same construct consistently.

A jurisdiction administers a written knowledge test and discovers it has disparate impact on a minority group. Which action should the jurisdiction take FIRST?

Answer: Conduct a validity study to determine if the test is job-related

The Uniform Guidelines require that when adverse impact is found, the employer must be able to demonstrate job-relatedness and validity; the first step is conducting a validity study rather than immediately abandoning the test.