[IPAC-List] IRB consent for selection research

Thu Jun 27 20:34:05 EDT 2019

Megan,

You can always call me but you are really asking two separate questions.
The questions are:

1. Do you and should you go through IRB, I assume a University or Center
IRB, for a selection project?

2. Should job applicants provide informed consent?

The answers are complex. I believe the answer to 2 is simpler, and for 1
you might need to call me.

For 2 - No, applicants should not provide informed consent. First,
generally job applicants are seen as giving an implied informed consent, by
the very nature of their being job applicants.  Further, collecting
informed consent from job applicants involves another step and also
increases the chances or odds they might be identified, depending upon your
situation, so I would say no to informed consent for job applicants.  There
is already a consent. Now, if the tests or assessment are outside the
normal course of business, or involve extra work or time, then maybe you
could make an argument, I would still say no, but maybe you could make an
argument, or make an argument you should at least give them some
information, but you could give them information without getting informed
consent. Of course, the whole issue of informed consent as I said is
totally separate from whether you need to go through IRB. However, this is
a situation where my guess is an IRB panel would also say - do not get
informed consent. That is what i have usually been told for selection and
survey projects through the University. The informed consent adds a layer
of intrusiveness to what is a normal part of getting or keeping a job, and
you should not be adding a layer of intrusiveness.

1. Now we get complicated though. Do you even need to go through IRB? I
would say that depends on your university. It also depends on how you are
labeling your selection project, is it 1)research for publication - then
yes probably IRB; 2) research for a thesis or a dissertation - then yes
probably IRB; 3) a grant - then probably yes; 4) sales or service - I would
say no. That is where it depends on your university set up, depending upon
your university set up this type of work may be regarded as research, or
sales and service, and they probably have existing rules on whether a
project like this needs to be sent to IRB. Of course, if you do have to go
through IRB, they will tell you if you need informed consent, and what type.

3. This is a big issue you do not mention. I know Omaha and Lincoln are
public universities. And unless you are at a Foundation, which is separate
from the University, then you are doing this research as a public entity.
Because you are doing it as a public entity, you are probably subject to
open records laws. So you might want to consider protecting the company and
all of the applicant data by considering an NDA. Unless your University has
rules that protect such research, although it might not be research as we
discussed, or sales and service, from open records discovery, you probably
want the company to request an NDA from you. Although I do not know
Nebraska open records law law, that may help to shield you from open
records requests. And does Omaha still have an applied center, you could
talk to them as to how they handle it.

You should probably just talk to the University, or if under a foundation
the foundation's, attorney about these issue.

Dennis

On Thu, Jun 27, 2019 at 8:00 PM Joel Wiesen <
jwiesen at appliedpersonnelresearch.com> wrote:

> Megan,
>
> I'll try to find an IRB submission that involved testing and send it to
> you.
>
> Joel
>
>
>
> Joel P. Wiesen, Ph.D., Director
> Applied Personnel Research
> 62 Candlewood Road
> Scarsdale, NY 10583-6040http://www.linkedin.com/in/joelwiesen
> (617) 244-8859http://appliedpersonnelresearch.com
>
> Continuing Education website (home study of recent journal articles): https://www.aprtestingservice.com/
>
>
> Note: This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential and/or legally privileged information. Please do not forward any contents without permission. If you have received this message in error please destroy all copies, completely remove it from your computer, and notify the sender. Thank you.
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>
> On 6/27/19 5:42 PM, Megan Paul wrote:
>
> Does anyone have experience with having job applicants provide IRB consent
> to participate in selection research? We’ll likely be looking at a few
> objective measures (e.g., personality, emotional intelligence), an
> interview, and possibly a writing assessment. I’m anticipating that the
> usual IRB language will be expected, but it seems like a bit of a misfit
> for the circumstances. Results of the objective measures won’t be used for
> decision making until after validation, but the others will be used for
> hiring decisions. It’s possible that we can make a convincing argument that
> consent is not needed (i.e., that it doesn’t constitute research), but if
> we can’t, I’d like some idea of how to best handle it in a way that’s
> acceptable to applicants.
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
>
>
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>
> *Megan E Paul*
>
> *Research Assistant Professor*
>
> University of Nebraska–Lincoln
>
> Center on Children, Families, & the Law <http://ccfl.unl.edu/>
>
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