How Do I Make it Valid?

A common question from my clients is ‘How do I make it valid?’ They know to ask this question because of their experience dealing with all sorts of hiring, promotion, and performance processes. Or sometimes they ask simply because their Legal Department wants to make sure the company meets legal rules and regulations for having valid processes.

For my first few years as a Business Psychologist my response to this question focused on explaining the specific steps needed to establish validity. But after seeing that glazed-over look in my client’s eyes, I realized I was being too detailed and needed a better way to answer this question. After some trial and error I hit on an approach that seems to work well. I now explain that asking ‘How do I make it valid?’ is very similar to asking ‘How do I make it fair?’ That is to say, is the interview, test, rating form, etc. developed and used in a fair way? And I go on to explain ‘fairness’ should be view from the employee or potential employee’s point of view.

As an example, if I’m a potential employee applying for a job I would (hopefully!) think it’s ‘fair’ to be asked interview questions about my ability to do the job (‘job related’ questions). So if I’m applying for a construction job, asking me about my construction experiences and how I got along with co-workers would be fair. But if I was asked, ‘If you were a tree, what type of tree would you be?’, then chances are I wouldn’t think it’s a fair interview; and it probably wouldn’t be a valid interview either.

Of course, the actual process of legally establishing the validity of an interview, test, or other process is more detailed with specific required steps; such as making validity ratings, having job experts review test questions, and writing a validity report. But all of those steps still boil down to the core issue of ‘Is it fair?’

It typically takes just a few days to complete the validation process. And usually only small changes are needed to the interview, test, rating form, etc. to make them valid. But that small investment pays off many times over; especially if there’s a legal challenge. And once it’s valid, the process is set for 5-7 years before re-validation is needed. But taking the risk of bypassing the validation process is just asking for trouble (especially if you run into job applicants who don’t know what type of tree they are).

Romantic Interviewing

For many years I’ve helped managers figure out how to hire and promote the best employees. One thing I’ve noticed over that time is there are some managers who are willing to spend extra time and effort to make sure they find the best employees. After talking with those managers, I realized they all have something in common--plenty of frustrating days and sleepless nights dealing with problem employees.

So what did those managers do to reduce their frustrations? How did they get more sleep? They became very selective about who they hire and promote. They became much more willing to say ‘thanks, but no thanks’ to lots of candidates (about 75% of them!), less willing to settle for ‘good enough’ employees and more determined to find great ones.

The managers also embraced more ‘scientific’ approaches to help them find great employees. That’s not to say they abandoned their instincts and experience, far from it. But they welcomed the use of standardized approaches (for example, structured interviews based on specific job qualifications) as a first step to weed out ‘bad fit’ candidates. After that first cut, they used their experience and judgment to make final hiring and promotion decisions.

It’s completely understandable that managers who haven’t yet experienced their fair share of problem employees have difficulty embracing the idea of investing extra time to make decisions. Instead, they tend to bypass the structured analysis step, and rely only on ‘gut feelings’. But more experienced managers tell me over and over again that the ‘romantic’ notion of going with your gut feeling doesn’t work in reality. Oh, a manager may get lucky once in a while and find a diamond in the rough; but those situations are very rare. So you may want to take the advice of those experienced managers and add a little ‘science’ to your hiring and promotion decisions. It just may help you sleep better and keep the romance with your employees going for a long time.

Click here for a case study of how managers used a more scientific approach to find great employees. The company’s investment in the new approach was only a small fraction of the costs they suffered from having too many problem employees. Also, the new materials will be used for years to come; and reused in other parts of the company after some minor tweaks.