5 ms·
I'll post to this thread because this is very relevant for the hiring companies. Hunter and Schmit did a meta-study of 85 years of research on hiring criteria.
by spitfire 10y ago
I'll post to this thread because this is very relevant for the hiring companies. Hunter and Schmit did a meta-study of 85 years of research on hiring criteria. [1]
There are three attributes you need to select for to identify performing employees in intellectual fields.
- General mental ability (Are they generally smart)
Use WAIS or if there are artifacts of GMA(Complex work they've done themselves) available use them as proxies.
- Work sample test. NOT HAZING! As close as possible to the actual work they'd be doing. Try to make it apples-to-apples comparison across candidates. Also, try and make accomidations for candidates not knowing
your company shibboleth.
- Integrity. The first two won't matter if you hire a sociopath.
This alone will get you > 65% hit rate [1], and can be done inside of three hours. There's no need for day long (or multi-day) gladiator style gauntlets.
[1] http://mavweb.mnsu.edu/howard/Schmidt%20and%20Hunter%201998%20Validity%20and%20Utility%20Psychological%20Bulletin.pdf http://mavweb.mnsu.edu/howard/Schmidt%20and%20Hunter%201998%...
- blowski 10y ago"Smart and gets things done".
- spitfire 10y agoYes, but this is a quantitative way to measure those things. "Smart and gets things done" leaves the door for touchy feely interpretations, which leaves the door open for gaming the system.
- dragonwriter 10y ago> Yes, but this is a quantitative way to measure those things. Well, except that only one of the three parts suggested is clearly quantitative.
- rabidrat 10y agoAnd "not an asshole".
- pnathan 10y agoHe must be smart, he nodejs'd the mongo with haskell#! INSTAHIRE. It's actually possible to model smarts and turn out bad work without actually being smart. Joel's phrase is intuitively obvious and subtly open to deep abuse.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 10y agoMaybe talk to your lawyer or HR person before using IQ tests tho.
- elptacek 10y agoElaborate? These tests are pretty common in interviews. I'd be curious to know what you're thinking.
- canadiancreed 10y agoI wonder if it depends on your location. I havent' seen one for over 15 years in Canada.
- liquidcool 10y agoNot the poster, but as some IQ tests have been proven to discriminate against protected classes, this may be an opening for a discrimination lawsuit. Effectiveness of the lawsuit might vary from state to state. IANAL.
- jldugger 10y agoIn the US, IQ tests are not illegal per se, but they're considered difficult to justify. The courts have adopted a disparate impact criteria -- anything with disparate impact requires a justification. Unfortunate as it is, some minority groups score lower on IQ tests, and it's up to the employer to justify whatever cutoff they choose to use. If you use a cutoff of 115, and someone comes along with a 114, it'll be difficult to argue before a judge that the additional IQ point was not just better for job performance, but necessary. As this applies to any number you pick, there's a certain slippery slope to IQ testing candidates at all. In contrast, a degree in a relevant field is a very yes/no answer, even if the disparate impact is greater.
- baby 10y agoMcDonalds made me pass a low level one to work in the kitchen.
- 10y ago