Why do employers use selection tests?: evidence from British workplaces

This paper provides an analysis of the determinants of selection test use in British workplaces. The analysis is based on the results of the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey (WERS 98) and the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) 2001 Recruitment Survey. A review of existing theoretical literature is used to develop a set of hypotheses about the economic factors and organisational characteristics that are likely to influence test use. The empirical literature is reviewed to illustrate the lack of empirical testing to which these theories have been subjected. Key findings from WERS 98 are that: (1) workplaces using a lot of formal off-the-job training are more likely to use personality tests as part of the recruitment process; (2) workplaces with managerial and professional vacancies are more likely to use personality tests for selection than those with vacancies for routine unskilled manual occupations; (3) the use of personality and competency tests is associated with the extent to which workplaces used a range of formal policies to manage equal opportunities in the workplace; (4) competency tests are associated with the presence of formal grievance procedures and with workplaces where there had been official employee complaints in the past; (5) private sector workplaces are more likely than those in the public sector to use personality tests with no such relationship for competency tests; and (5) competency tests are more likely to be used where vacancies for skilled craft workers and technical staff exist. CIPD data revealed that equal opportunities practices and the use of external consultants in the recruitment process increases the probability of personality test use but these factors are not significant for general ability tests.

This paper is complemented by a review of the evidence on levels of test use (indexed at TD/TNC 69.159) and a qualitative analysis of the reasons for the growth in test used, based on interviews with employers across a range of industrial sectors (indexed at TD/TNC 73.394). Show less