Employment Testing

Employment Testing strategies are that allow employers to use pre- and post-hiring testing to place the right employees in the right positions. Although employment testing creates some risks, it can often provide employers with information that could otherwise only be gained the hard way – after failure of the employment relationship.

The following issues that pertain to testing in the employment context: general federal standards applicable to employment testing under the Civil Rights Act, medical tests under the Americans with Disabilities Act, psychological, personality, or character tests, drug and alcohol testing, and polygraph testing. Employment testing includes many other testing according to the job.

Types of Employment Testing

There are two types of employment testing.
1- Pre Employment Testing
2- Post Employment Testing

In total, employment testing includes, Pre Employment & Post Employment
Testing, Training, and Assessments & Appraisal.

Pre employment Testing includes the measurement of job matching, aptitude, abilities, interest, personality, sales skills, soft skills, integrity, work ethic, customer service and evaluation of competencies during the employee selection process.

Post employment assessments includes employee evaluations / performance reviews, team building, team analysis, customer service, succession planning, coaching, training, and 360 multi rater feedback used for management and leadership development.

 "Probability of Success" in Selecting A Top Performer:

What Guidelines should be done in Employment Testing?

1-Standards Imposed By Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures.

If an employer uses a test for hiring or promotion purpose that has adverse effects on a protected class but does not accurately predict likely future job performance, the test may be violate of the anti-discrimination laws.
The Guidelines and subsequent federal interpretations impact the employer seeking to implement employment testing in several ways. First, if a complaint is ever received alleging that an employer's testing procedures have an unjustified adverse impact on protected classes, the employment test at issue will be carefully scrutinized. Therefore, employers should be careful in implementing such employment testing. Employers will probably want to use professionally - developed ability tests from a source that can also provide appropriate "validation" studies demonstrating that the employment test does not have an unjustified adverse impact on protected classes. Second, employers will want to monitor and examine the practical effect of such employment testing once it is implemented. If a test tends to result in fewer employees from protected classes being hired or promoted, further examination is warranted. An adverse impact may be justified where the test is job related and consistent with business necessity. In the event that an adverse impact is noted, the employer may want to hire a professional to conduct a validation study on the test as applied to ensure that it is employment testing for appropriate criteria.
In addition, the employer should consider other alternatives to the existing employment testing procedures that might have less adverse impact. It appears that an employer will not be required to adopt a less effective test because the original test has adverse impacts.

2-Language Fluency Guidelines

Issues related to language fluency requirements may arise under the Guidelines when an employer specifically tests for fluency in a particular language or administers other types of tests in one language only. Although employers should scrutinize their specific situations, most courts that have considered the issue have held that a requirement of basic fluency in English is sufficiently job related and consistent with business necessity. Again, the validity of a language fluency requirement is based on its relation to the job and an employer's business necessity; a fluency requirement that is only a proxy for discrimination against a protected class will not pass muster.

3-Tests Under The Americans With Disabilities Act.

The ADA includes several provisions directly addressing appropriate testing under the Act. Generally, with respect to all type of testing, the ADA provides that the following conduct constitutes prohibited discrimination:

(a) Using qualification standards, employment tests or other selection criteria that screen out or tend to screen out an individual with a disability or a class of individuals with disabilities unless the standard, test or other selection criteria, as used by the covered entity, is shown to be job-related for the position in question and is consistent with business necessity;

(b) Failing to select and administer tests concerning employment in the most effective manner to ensure that, when such test is administered to a job applicant or employee who has a disability that impairs sensory, manual, or speaking skills, such test results accurately reflect the skills, aptitude, or whatever other factor of such applicant or employee that such test purports to measure, rather than reflecting the impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills of such employee or applicant (except where such skills are the factors that the test purports to measure).

4-Medical Test Guidelines

A test as "medical" under the ADA, including whether:

1) The test is administered by a health care professional,
2) The results are interpreted by a health care professional,
3) The test is designed to reveal physical impairment or mental health,
4) The employer is trying to discover physical impairment or mental health,
5) The test is invasive (including blood, urine or breath tests),
6) It measures an applicant's performance of a task or his physiological responses to performing them,
7) It is normally given in a medical setting,
8) Medical equipment is used.

The Tests of Employment Testing

An employer cannot inquire or test as to whether an individual has a disability at the pre-offer stage of the selection process. The reference to "entrance examinations" allows employers to administer medical exams or physicals once an offer of employment is made but prior to actual work. Employers may make an offer of employment contingent on the results of a physical and mental examination, but only if all employees in the same job category are required to take the examination.
There are many types of tests are done in an Employment Testing. The tests are in Employment Testing includes:

1-Medical examinations and inquiries

Post-offer, pre-employment medical tests may be very extensive in scope and are not limited to job-related items consistent with business necessity; however, if an employer screens out an applicant based on information obtained in the medical tests, that particular factor must be job-related and consistent with business necessity. We do a medical test to know whether such applicant is an individual with a disability or as to the nature or severity of such disability. This medical test includes: health test, blood test, urine test, breath test and vision test etc.

2-Physical Testing

Physical Tests are done to know whether the employee is physically challenged or not.

3-Acceptable inquiry.

A covered entity may make pre-employment inquiries into the ability of an applicant to perform job-related functions.

4-Psychological or Mental Testing

A psychological test is designed to reveal mental illness, but a particular employer says it does not give the test to disclose mental illness (for example, the employer says it uses the test to disclose just tastes and habits). But, the test also is interpreted by a psychologist, and is routinely used in a clinical setting to provide evidence that would lead to a diagnosis of a mental disorder or impairment (for example, whether an applicant has paranoid tendencies, or is depressed). Under these facts, this test is a medical examination.

5-Personality, Character, Integrity, and other Qualities

Employers are increasingly relying on tests that attempt to measure an applicant's psychological makeup, personality, character, integrity, or other qualities that may be relevant to a particular position. Collectively, we will refer to such tests as "character tests" for purposes of this paper. Character test, like all employment selection procedures, are subject to the general requirements; that is, they should be job-related and consistent with business necessity. Beyond that initial hurdle, character tests also raise other issues: whether they are medical in nature such that pre-offer testing is impermissible and whether they violate applicants' privacy interests.

6-Psychscreen tests

In this test we asked about the applicants' religious, sexual, and political beliefs to produce a psychological profile of the applicants. This employment testing is very personal and private of applicant’s.

7-Drug And Alcohol Testing.

Drug and alcohol testing are increasingly popular means for employers to increase the safety and efficiency of their workforce, reduce workers' compensation claims, and reduce losses. While the benefits of drug testing can be great, the risks posed by implementing a drug-testing program can be significant and daunting. Individuals who are currently using illegal drugs are specifically precluded from "disability" on that basis. It appears that drug use within two months of the test will be considered current. Therefore, it is permissible to conduct a drug test even before a job offer. The safer (and cheaper) course, however, would be to conduct a drug test after a job is offered but before employment begins, because the same test that can reveal the existence of illegal drugs may also reveal the existence of prescription drugs that indicate a disability. Since a test for the current use of illegal drugs is not a medical examination, employers may also drug test their existing employees without violating the ADA.
In contrast, an alcohol test will probably be considered a medical test. Alcoholism is a protected disability under the ADA and the EEOC takes the position that pre-offer alcohol testing is prohibited under the ADA.

8-Applicant Testing

Some employers require a drug screen of every applicant for employment. A test for current use of illegal drugs may be conducted before an offer is given, but an alcohol test may only be given to an applicant post-offer (though it may be given pre-employment). So applicant testing is considered the safest drug-testing alternative.

9-Reasonable Suspicion or For-Cause Testing

Some employers test current employees based on erratic performance or other indications that an employee may be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Reasonable suspicion testing can be risky, since an employer will frequently have to base the suspicion on a supervisor or co-worker's subjective impressions of an employee's behavior or performance.
Employees often argue that the employer did not have sufficient cause to test the employee for drug or alcohol use and that the employer tested the employee for drugs in violation of contract or based on some discriminatory basis, such as race, sex, or disability. Therefore, before conducting reasonable suspicion testing, an employer should ensure that the "cause" includes specific behavior or performance, preferably documented by more than one source.

10-Random Testing

Some employers test randomly across their entire workforce. Random testing raises the possibility of invasion of privacy concerns most acutely, because it tests current employees, but is unrelated to behavior or performance. With random testing, it is therefore particularly important to place employees on notice that they are subject to random drug testing and may be disciplined if they fail or refuse to take a random drug test. Such notice reduces employee's reasonable expectations of privacy and hence reduces the risk of an invasion of privacy claim. Random testing is preferred by many employers because the existence of a random selection process is easier to show than "reasonable suspicion" to conduct a drug test.

11-Post-Accident Testing

Some employers require an automatic drug test after any accident of at least a minimum level of severity. This approach can be effectively used in combination with other testing methods. Post-accident testing provides some of the benefits of reasonable suspicion testing because it tests employees after a mistake has been made, but also provides some of the benefits of random testing because the testing is based on an objective event, rather than a supervisor's subjective belief. The key in implementing post-accident testing is to clearly define the types of workplace accidents that require a drug test and obtain employees' consent to drug tests in such circumstances.

12-Polygraph Examinations

The Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 (EPPA) restricts the use of polygraphs by employers. An employer may request a current employee to submit to polygraph testing as part of an "ongoing investigation" only if the test is conducted in connection with an investigation of economic loss or injury to the employer's business, if the employee had access to the property in question, and if the employer has a reasonable suspicion that the employee was involved in the incident.
Federal regulations provide that reasonable suspicion for seeking a polygraph test may be based on information from a co-worker, the employee's conduct, behavior, or demeanor, and inconsistent statements made during an investigation.
Conclusion
We do all these tests to get right employees for right positions. All these tests are done to know employees better. Employment Testing helps to know about physical, mental and historical background of employees. Many kinds of other tests are done in employment testing according to the requirement of the jobs. And the main thing is getting Employees through Employment Testing satisfies Employers.