1. Career and Employment Assessment
Chapter 11
Career and Employment Assessment

2. What is Career Assessment?
Career assessment is a process that helps individuals:
clarify goals and values
explore career options
make informed decisions about the future
Career assessment may be necessary in all stages of one’s working life.

3. Career Assessment Methods
Interest inventories
Values inventories
Personality inventories
Career development instruments
Combined assessment programs
Interviews

4. Interest Inventories
Most interest inventories measure how closely an individual’s interests match existing occupations.
Some of the most widely used interest inventories include:
Self-Directed Search
Strong Interest Inventory
Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS)

5. Self-Directed Search The Self-Directed Search (SDS):
developed by John Holland.
can be used with individuals 15 to 70.
easy to use and can be taken online.
The SDS uses Holland’s typology to generate a three letter code which reflects a combination of the test taker’s interests.

6. Holland’s Typology Realistic Investigative Artistic Social
Enterprising
Conventional

7. The SDS has several forms for use with specific populations:
Form R, Career Development: Helps individuals not yet in the work force gain insight into the world of work and match occupations with their interests and skills.
Form E, Vocational Guidance: Assists individuals with limited reading skills as they explore vocational options.
Form CP, Career Path Management: Focuses on the needs of individuals who have or aspire to have high levels of responsibility.

8. Strong Interest Inventory (SII)
The SII was designed for career counselors and academic advisors working with college and high school students who are making initial career choices, as well as all practitioners who help adults with making career decision (Harmon, Hansen, Borgen, & 1994).

9. 6 General Occupational Themes: interest patterns based on Holland’s RIASEC categories (i.e., realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional).
30 Basic Interest Scales: specific interest areas within the six General Occupational Themes
244 Occupational Scales: the individual’s interests related to satisfied workers within various occupations
5 Personal Style Scales: the individual’s preferences related to of work style, learning environment, leadership style, risk-taking, and team orientation.

11. Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS)
CISS measures interests and self-assessment of skills.
Orientation Scales: broad themes of occupational interests and skills
Basic Interest and Skill Scales: detailed subscales of the Orientation Scales
Occupational Scales: compares the test taker’s interest and skill patterns with those of workers in a range of occupations.

12. Other Interest Inventories
Career Assessment Inventory-Vocational Version (CAI-VV)
Harrington-O’Shea Career Decision-Making System Revised (CDM-R)
Interest Determination, Exploration, and Assessment System (IDEAS)
Jackson Vocational Interest Survey (JVIS)

13. Problems with Interest Inventories
Clients change interests over time
Adolescents lack experience to respond to interest inventories
Job success is usually correlated more to abilities than interests.
Many interest inventories are susceptible to faking, either intentional or unintentional.
Clients may respond in socially desirable ways.
Exploration of low scores is often neglected.

14. Societal interests may override personal interests.
Socioeconomic class may affect the pattern of scores on an interest inventory.
The inventories may be geared to the professions rather than skilled vocations.
A profile may be flat and hard to interpret.
Tests use different types of psychometric scoring procedures.

15. Work Values Inventories
Values are stable beliefs that can refer to others or oneself. Values are enduring but can change over time.
Work values inventories are used to identify an individual’s work-related values in order to match that individual with a suitable job choice.

16. Work values can include such dimensions as:
prestige and recognition
independence
social interaction
compensation
working conditions

17. Common Work Values Inventories
Super’s Work Values Inventory-Revised (SWVI-R)
Rokeach Values Survey (RVS)
Salience Inventory (SI)
Hall Occupational Orientation Inventory, Fourth Edition
Minnesota Importance Questionnaire (MIQ)

18. Super’s Work Values Inventory-Revised:
measures the relative importance of a number of work values considered most important in career decision-making.
can be given to middle and high school students, college students, and adults who are planning to enter, continue, or leave a given educational program, occupation or job.

20. Personality Inventories
Personality is defined as the enduring set of thoughts, behaviors and emotions that differentiate one person from another.
When assessing personality for career counseling, personality assessments geared toward normal populations are used.
Personality is a key factor in career choice and career success.

21. Common Personality Inventories
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Sixteen Personality Factor, Fifth Edition (16PF)
NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R)
Eysenck Personality Inventory

22. Abilities and Skills Assessment
Career assessment can help individuals identify current and potential abilities and skills related to career options.
Abilities – one’s present-day, innate capabilities to perform a specific task.
Skills – abilities that come from educational experiences, work experiences, and personal life experiences.

23. Abilities and Skills Assessment Instruments
Career Ability Placement Survey (CAPS)
ASVAB
Kuder Skills Assessments
Ability Explorer

24. Career Development Instruments
Career development assessments:
assess career awareness and knowledge.
provide counselors with valuable information about the career development and educational needs of individual clients.
can provide survey information to help in planning career guidance programs.

25. Common Career Development Instruments
Career Development Inventory – developed for k-12, college, and university populations. The inventory contains five scales: career planning, career exploration, decision making, world-of-work information, and knowledge of preferred occupational group.
Career Factors Inventory (CFI) - designed to help people determine whether they are ready to engage in the career decision-making process.
Career Maturity Inventory - was developed for grades 6 through 12 to measure the attitudes and competencies related to variables in the career choice process.

26. Combined Assessment Programs
Several assessments evaluate interests, values, and ability inventories.
Career Occupational Preference System (COPS)
Kuder Career Planning System
DISCOVER

27. Career Occupational Preference System
The Career Occupational Preference System (COPS) is a comprehensive career assessment program that combines interests, abilities and values inventories:
Career Occupational Preference System (COPS) Interest Inventory
Career Ability Placement Survey (CAPS)
Career Orientation Placement and Evaluation Survey (COPES)

28. Kuder Career Planning System
The Kuder Career Planning System is an Internet-based system that was developed based on the work of Dr. Frederick Kuder.
The Kuder system includes an interest inventory, a skills assessment, and a values inventory, all available online:
The Kuder Career Search
The Kuder Skills, their ability is aligned to career clusters.
The Super’s Work Values Inventory-revised (SWVI-r)

29. DISCOVER
The DISCOVER program collects information about individuals including interests, abilities, and values through self-assessment tools. The results are then matched to world of work information that can suggest specific majors needed for a particular career.
The DISCOVER program also provides a World-of-Work Map that illustrates how interests, abilities, and work values relate to each other.

30. Interviews
Career counselors user interviews to gather information about the client’s:
the client’s work experience
education and training
Interests
leisure activities (Gysbers, Heppner, & Johnson, 2003)

31. Sample questions might include (Gibson & Mitchell, 2006, p. 112) :
Would you give me a brief review of your employment experiences?
What is your educational background?
Do you have any unique experience or interest that might be related to the choice o career, such as hobbies or special interests?
Why have you decided, at this time, to change careers?
Tell me about your ideas about a new or different career?

32. Employment Assessment
Employment assessments are used by employers to make recommendations or decisions about employees or job applicants.
Businesses and organizations use several assessment methods, such as selection interviews, biographical information, and tests.

33. Selection Interviews
The purpose of the interview is to gain information about candidates’ qualifications and experiences relevant to the available job.
More systematic, structured, job-related interviews tend to have higher validity.
The situational interview, with specific questions based on job-related critical incidents, has also proven to be a valid assessment tool.

34. Factors that can influence the outcome of an interview include:
Negative information > positive information
Visual > verbal
Halo Error
Similarities with interviewer
Interviewees are often compared to other interviewees

35. Interviewers need training and instruction in these skills (Gatewood & Feild, 1990, p. 481):
Creating an open-communication atmosphere
Delivering questions consistently
Maintaining control of the interview
Developing good speech behavior
Learning listening skills
Taking appropriate notes
Keeping the conversation flowing and avoiding leading or intimidating the interviewee
Interpreting, ignoring, or controlling the nonverbal cues of the interview

36. Biographical Information
Research indicates that biographical information is a strong predictor of turnover and job success.
Biographical data also have been valuable in assessing individuals and classifying them into subgroups for purposes of better placement and utilization.

37. Gatewood and Feild (1990) identify three assumptions for the use of biographical data.
The best predictor of applicants future behavior is what they have done in the past.
Applicants’ life experiences provide an indirect measure of their motivational characteristics.
Applicants are less defensive in describing their previous behaviors on the form than discussing their motivations for these behaviors.

38. Inventories
Employer inventories assess a wide range of factors, from job satisfaction and skills, to interests and personality.
Effective inventories have the following elements:
valid for the intended purpose
the least discriminating tool for the decisions that need to be made.

39. Common Employment Inventories
Personnel Selection Inventory (PSI)
Career Attitudes and Strategies Inventory (CASI)
Comprehensive Ability Battery (CAB)
Comprehensive Personality Profile (CPP)
Employee Aptitude Survey Test Series (EAS)
Employment Barrier Identification Scale
Employee Reliability Inventory
Job Effectiveness Prediction System
Wesman Personnel Classification Test
Wonderlic Personnel Test

40. Testing in Other Settings
Military
Government
Occupational and Professional Licensure

41. Job Analysis
Job analysis is a purposeful, systematic process for documenting the particular duties and requirements of a job and the relative importance of these duties.
Job analysis is conducted to:
help determine the training requirements of a given job
make decisions about compensation
aid in selecting job applicants
reviewing job performance.

42. Steps in Job Analysis
Read and review existing materials and data on the job to be analyzed.
Have supervisors and experienced workers in the field meet together in a group and discuss the job requirements, producing a list of tasks and roles that are performed.
Display the tasks and job characteristics identified so the group can react to what you have written.
List outputs, knowledge, skills, and abilities, including use of machines, tools, equipment, and work aids needed to get the job done. Get agreement from the group on the tasks performed.

43. Have the workers determine the percentage of time spent on each task or skill.
Combine common tasks together.
Have the workers tell how they know or recognize excellent, satisfactory, or poor performance of the tasks and the job.
Construct an instrument to assess job performance and have supervisors and workers react to the tasks and performance standards identified.

44. Job Analysis Assessments
Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)
Information Input
Mental Processes
Work Output
Relationships with Other Persons
Job Context
Other Job Characteristics
WorkKeys
Job profiling
SkillMap
WorkKeys Estimator

45. Guidelines for Employee Selection
Know the legal and ethical considerations thoroughly.
Know basic measurement concepts.
Know the steps in collecting evidence of criterion-referenced validity.
Be able to analyze the skills, competencies, and personal qualities that relate to successful performance on the job.
Consider practical factors, such as cost, number of employees involved, and time.
Locate tests that purport to measure the characteristics identified for the job.

46. Administer the tests to workers on the job as well as to new applicants.
Observe the workers tested and have supervisors report on the performance of these workers.
Analyze how the test scores and ratings relate to success on the job.
If evidence is favorable, formulate an operational plan to utilize the data for selection purposes. If evidence is not favorable, select other instruments and get additional ratings.
Systematically monitor and evaluate the system.

47. Assessment Centers
Assessment centers are a group-oriented, standardized series of activities that provide a basis for judgments or predictions of human behaviors considered relevant to work performance in a particular organizational setting (Muchinsky, 2008).
Assessment centers are used in human resource management to:
decide who to select or promote
diagnose strengths and weakness in work-related skills
develop job-relevant skills (Thorton & Rupp, 2006).

48. Guidelines for Assessment Centers
Assessment should be based on clearly defined dimensions of the position or behavior in question.
Multiple assessment techniques should be used.
A variety of job-sampling techniques should be used.
Familiarity with the job and the organization is needed; experience in the job or role is desirable.
Thorough training in assessment center procedures is necessary for all observers and raters.

49. All pertinent behavior should be observed, recorded, and communicated to other raters and observers.
Group discussion and decision-making procedures are used to integrate observations, rate dimensions, and make predictions.
Clients should be assessed against clearly understood external norms, not against each other.
Observers should guard against first impressions and other errors commonly made in rating and observation.

50. Current Issues in Employment Assessment
Impact of technology
Internet-based job centers
Internet-based assessment
Discrimination in employee assessments
Honesty testing