Cognitive Testing Needs to be Properly Tailored to the Jobs at Issue and Comply with Specific Laws

Cognitive tests are “assessments of the cognitive capabilities of humans and animals. Tests administered to humans include various forms of IQ tests,” according to Wikipedia.org. 

If utilized properly, cognitive testing can be used for many purposes, such as to screen prospective employees for job fit, promotions, career development, training, communication and coaching, as well as team building. Some studies have shown that the cognitive speed of an individual has greater impact on job success than personality characteristics, such as extraversion or the ability to deal with stress. 

Legal Requirements for Testing and Common Mistakes

Cognitive testing can be a little bit scary because of our legal climate in the United States, and in some other parts of the world, so you really have to be careful if you choose to use cognitive testing. Specifically, according the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, cognitive testing must not be “designed, intended or used to discriminate because of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.” Title VII also prohibits employers from using testing that, although neutral on its face, has an effect of disproportionately excluding persons because of their protected class where the tests or selection procedures are not “job-related and consistent with business necessity.” 

A common mistake that employers make is they assume fast cognitive speed is always good, but that’s a totally false and too broad assumption. 

Cognitive speed is relative to the specific job requirements. The reason companies get themselves into trouble is they’ll just make a blanket statement in their hiring ad where they say, “We want bright, fast problem-solvers,” and “We want people who can think strategically and do long-range planning.” 

But if these requests don’t relate to a specific job, that’s when the company can get into trouble legally because the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Department of Labor (DOL), all consistently will tell you—as previously mentioned regarding the EEOC and Title VII—that assessments are acceptable and can be beneficial only if they’re used and administered properly, are relevant and necessary to the specific jobs and do not have either a purposeful or disparate impact on any particular protected job class or classes (i.e. a particular race or age group). 

So an important step to keep yourself from getting in trouble is to make sure that if you are going to use cognitive testing, you know exactly what is needed in the specific job and/or situation for which you are using the information from the tests. In other words, employers should ensure that such tests are properly validated for the positions and/or purposes for which they are used. Along these lines, it is essential that the managers who will implement these tests and selection procedures understand the processes and the applicable limitations in applying them. 

For example, the cognitive speed might be different for two “Customer Service” roles within the same company. What if one of these roles requires the individual to deal with complex technology issues from clients, while the other deals with routine calls that do not require any particular expertise? These two positions might even have the same pay, benefits, etc., but truly be very different in their problem-solving requirements. 

Steps to Take to Use Cognitive Testing Effectively in Hiring or Promotion

Critical steps for using cognitive testing are to conduct a good job analysis, as well as to identify a benchmark for the job.  

1. The job analysis will allow you to determine very precisely what the job requires in terms of activities, competencies and day-to-day behaviors necessary for success. 
2. Benchmarking is a process where you rate individuals who are doing a particular job, test them with the cognitive test and then statistically correlate what level of cognitive speed is common to high performers, versus average performers, versus struggling performers.   
3. Apply the information you gained in the benchmarking process ‘consistently’ to your hiring and promotion decisions, and then track the results over time to ensure and validate that your benchmark is effective and does not need to change. 

Essentially, what you’re doing is documenting what levels of cognitive speed work best in that particular position. This not only ensures that you’re using the cognitive test properly, but it also gives you the ability to defend yourself legally and say, “I have done my homework. I know what it takes for this particular job.” 

Once you have data showing how a particular cognitive test relates directly to a particular position, it also is equally important that you administer tests and other selection procedures without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age or disability and apply the cognitive testing to all applicants seeking the job at issue and not just pick out certain individuals for testing. This will help to ensure compliance with applicable Title VII and EEOC mandates. 

What you’ve done, then, is made the use of the cognitive tests job specific so you know which level of cognition you’re looking for in your applicants or internal employees for promotion.  Remember that ALL tests, interviews, work history, background or other pieces of data you utilize in your hiring or promotion process are ‘one’ piece of information in your overall process. You should never put too much weight on one single piece of information! 

In my next Insight, I’ll give some cognitive testing examples to help illustrate the points I made in this Insight. 

Cognitive testing can be a little bit scary because of our legal climate in the United States, and in some other parts of the world, so you really have to be careful if you choose to use cognitive testing.