[IPAC-List] Use of integrity assessments in public sector

[Harry Brull (OCE)]

I’m not sure my posts are getting through (new company ownership = new e-mail addrerss)

But I think the discussion needs some refreaming.
Honesty/integrity tests and measures of conscientiousness are not the same thing.
The latter does not ask people if they have ever lied/cheated/stolen
It attempts to identify people who possess higher levels of work ethic/rule following/ carefulness/achievement orientation
We typically combine it with a scale measuring customer orientation (helpfulness/service orientation/ concern for otheras)

The result, in over 200 validity studies selects employees with higher levels of conscuentiss work behavior and pro-social behavior and a lower level of a wide range of maladaptive behaviors (including absenteeism/theft/accidents/workers’ comp claims, etc.)

As for the fear of litigation, we have dministered the instrument (the Employment Inventory) to over 30 million job applicants (both private and public sector) with less than a handful of challenges – none successful.

What are we afraid of???????
The cost of litigation has to be far, far less than the value added by hard-working, careful, honest, rule-abiding employees\

Harry Brull

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Harry Brull, Senior Vice President

PDI Ninth House, a Korn/Ferry Company
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USA

1.612.414.8998 direct
harry.brull at pdinh.com
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From: ipac-list-bounces at ipacweb.org [mailto:ipac-list-bounces at ipacweb.org] On Behalf Of Patrick McCoy
Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2014 10:34 AM
To: ipac-list at ipacweb.org; Mark Hammer
Subject: Re: [IPAC-List] Use of integrity assessments in public sector

Interesting discussion.

I think most of us would agree that conscientiousness, honesty, integrity, and a host of similar constructs are clearly important in most employment contexts, whether in the private or public sector.

For me, the question is whether the best we can do is to rely on self-report type tools that rely on the persons's integrity, honesty,etc.  People who have never cheated at something, at some time, are rather rare in my humble opinion.  Same goes for people who have never lied,etc.

Should an honest respondent be penalized for indicating on an instrument they cheated at some point in time, perhaps in their childhood? If the answer is no, one probably needs to be careful that the assessment tool to be used does not, in fact, penalize such an individual.  If a forced-choice approach is used to help reduce the likelihood that the respondent will just pick the desirable option, I guess we must ask ourselves does the approach really work.  It may not, especially in contexts where the approach may need to be disclosed in a recourse situation.

Are there other approaches to assessing the construct(s) that might be expected, a priori, to work better?

Hope you had a great holiday season!

Pat McCoy
in Ottawa, Canada





>>> "Mark Hammer" <Mark.Hammer at psc-cfp.gc.ca<mailto:Mark.Hammer at psc-cfp.gc.ca>> 2014/01/05 5:02 PM >>>

As one can see below, Reid's original question was not with respect to the validity of integrity tests in general - I think we can all envision contexts where they would be the perfect supplement to other validtests, given the nature of the position - but the specific use of such tests in the public sector.

"Public sector" includes two general uses: for external recruitment into the PS, and for competitions/promotions within the PS.  As I commented earlier, without articulating that I was thinking in terms of internal competitions, any tests used, no matter what their validity might be, will often have results available publicly, whether posted automatically (to show who made the short list), or upon request (e.g., an appeal that inquires into "why I didn't make the cut and those guys did").  And under those conditions, Harry's "smoove move" of using a term/construct that does not brand a person quite so negatively, is on the money, as far as I'm concerned.  Of course, once one is within any public-sector organization, the assumption is that you pass muster, with respect to integrity, if you are applying for a promotion or other position, and have not been in trouble as of yet; your "good egg" credit subs for a test.

I don't know about everybody else's public sector context, but in ours there is a security check, and working is contingent on obtaining that security clearance.  If you come from outside, they do a check, and if you're coming from inside and already have that security level, you get credit for that.  That clearance may be relatively basic for a great many positions, but it is there.  What sort of distinguishes private sector and public sector employers is that many private-sector employers may have the resources to spring for integrity testing, but not have either the resources or legal authority to engage in the sort of thorough security check that public-sector employers can.  My employers can have the RCMP run a check on you.  I don't know what Krogers or Target has the legal clout to do.

So, for me, the question that arises is how much any integrity testing is largely reduncant with the one-two-punch of a security check and a structured reference check.  I will grant you that use of even both of these is not necessarily exactly the same as either testing for integrity or conscientiousness.  But I suspect that, as Reid notes, unless we are looking specifically at public safety officers, or any other postions of trust where a security check is considered to not capture the entire construct space of interest, you won't see integrity tests used all that often.

Of course, a member of the public would likely look at the nature of employment in each sector - "at will" in the private, and ultra-secure in the public - and scrunch their face up, muttering "Wait, you're going to hire him/her for conceivably 30 years, and you're not even going to test for that, yet that other employer is going to put a checkout cashier through those hoops, even though they could fire them at a moment's notice?".  That individual is looking at it from the low/high stakes angle, where at-will employment implies the ethical/integrity bar can be a little lower, since mistakes can be corrected by termination.

Mark


>>> Reid Klion 01/02/14 5:44 PM >>>

Happy 2014 to all!
I am curious about the group?s thoughts about a question that was recently posed by a colleague regarding the use of integrity tests in the public sector. Integrity tests are used fairly broadly in the private sector for individuals applying for ?positions of trust.? However, neither of us were aware of their usage in the public sector (setting aside the use of psychological assessments for the selection of public safety officers which uses a different set of assessments much broader in scope ).  Anyone have any thoughts or anecdata? Thanks-
Reid




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