Coming soon · Book Profile
Selection Assessment Methods
A research-based practitioner's guide showing HR professionals how to select and implement scientifically valid formal assessment methods to build a higher-quality, more productive workforce.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
Organizations spend fortunes recruiting talent yet often select employees using haphazard, informal methods that fail to predict who will actually perform well. This concise, evidence-based guide by leading selection expert Elaine Pulakos dispels common myths about employment testing and demystifies the technical, legal, and measurement issues that scare HR professionals away from formal assessments. It surveys the full menu of proven assessment tools—cognitive ability tests, personality tests, structured interviews, work samples, assessment centers, situational judgment tests, biodata, integrity tests, and physical tests—and shows how each stacks up on four critical criteria: validity, adverse impact, cost, and applicant reactions. Grounded in job analysis and meta-analytic research, the book gives readers a practical roadmap for choosing the right combination of assessments for any job while balancing predictive power against legal risk and workforce diversity, delivering millions in productivity gains and cost savings.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- An HR professional or organizational decision maker who wants to build a high-quality, productive workforce through better hiring decisions.
- The problem
- Their organization uses rudimentary, informal selection methods that fail to accurately identify who will perform well on the job. They feel intimidated by the technical, statistical, and legal complexity of selection testing and unsure which tools to trust.
- The plan
- Conduct a job analysis to identify critical tasks and KSAs.
- Learn the array of proven assessment methods and whether they are task-based or KSA-based.
- Evaluate candidate methods on validity, adverse impact, cost, and applicant reactions.
- Select or develop a combination of assessments that predicts both technical and contextual performance.
- Address mode of administration, calculate utility, and ensure legal compliance.
- The payoff
- A higher-quality, more productive workforce with reduced attrition. · Substantial financial gains from hiring successful performers. · Defensible, legally compliant selection processes.
See our guide
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Additional reading
- Design, Implementation and Evaluation of Assessment and Development Centres; Best practice guidelines · British Psychological Society (BPS)
Cited by the author as an authoritative source for best practice, covering key issues like fairness, design, and evaluation that are central to the book's guidance.
- Assessment Centres (3rd edn) · C Woodruffe
Recommended for readers seeking a broader overview and history of the assessment centre method.
- The big five personality dimensions and job-performance; a meta-analysis · Barrick, M R and Mount, K M
Provides the empirical support for the book's caution against over-relying on personality tests in selection, a key topic in Chapter 5.
- A theory of the validity of predictors in selection · M Smith
Offers a theoretical framework for understanding why different selection tools have varying levels of effectiveness, underpinning the book's core argument.
- Competence at Work · Spencer, L M and Spencer, S M
A foundational text on the concept of competence, relevant to Chapter 2 on developing a competence framework.
- Development and Assessment Centres · Charles Woodruffe
Cited as a key text for readers wanting a more recent and in-depth exposition of assessment centre work, a core topic of the book.
- Performance Management: The new realities · Michael Armstrong and Angela Baron
The book uses Armstrong and Baron's definition of performance management as its foundation, making their work a primary source for understanding this core concept.
- The Competent Manager: A model for effective performance · R. F. Boyatzis
The author attributes the current usage and definition of 'competency' to Boyatzis, making this a foundational text for a central theme of the book.
- Appraisal and Feedback: Making performance review work · Clive Fletcher
Fletcher is cited as an authority on appraisals, a key one-to-one interaction within performance management, providing deeper insight into this specific practice.
- The Easy Guide to Repertory Grids · D. Jankowicz
The book presents the repertory grid as a powerful technique for developing interview models; this book is recommended as a highly accessible introduction to the method.