P - Z
Updated
by
Amy Thomas
P
Packages
Some applicant tracking systems refer to a set of tests as a package.
See Test Battery.
PII (Personally Identifiable Information)
PII or Personally Identifiable Information includes candidate names, email addresses and other information that would enable a user to identify the candidate. You can disable this function in Company Preferences if you do not wish to collect this information about your candidates in the Criteria platform. This option only works with manually scheduled events. By enabling this option, you will be responsible for maintaining the mapping between Event IDs and your candidates (outside of the Criteria platform). You will also be responsible for creating applications that do not collect PII.
Pipeline
Pipelines enable you to customise the hiring funnel for each job to suit your recruitment process. Candidates can be moved between stages in the pipeline so you will know where each person is up to.
See also Stage.
Predictive Validity
In the context of pre-employment testing, predictive validity refers to how likely it is for test scores to predict future job performance. Predictive validity is one type of criterion validity, which is a way to validate a test’s correlation with concrete outcomes.
The best way to directly establish predictive validity is to perform a long-term validity study by administering employment tests to job applicants and then seeing if those test scores are correlated with the future job performance of the hired employees.
Predictive validity studies take a long time to complete and require large sample sizes to acquire meaningful aggregate data. For this reason, many employers rely on validity generalisation to establish predictive validity, by which the validity of a particular test can be generalised to other related jobs and positions based on the testing provider’s pre-established data sets. Alternatively, employers can also perform concurrent validity studies to measure criterion validity; these are done by administering tests to existing employees and comparing results to job performance. Concurrent validity studies are generally much quicker and easier to conduct than predictive validity studies, and they generally do not have the time-range restriction problems often associated with predictive validity studies.
Q
R
Rating System
Create custom rating systems to gather feedback from the hiring team regarding each candidate. These ratings will be included in the export list of candidates that you generate within the job.
Reasonable Adjustments
A reasonable adjustment is a change made to the testing approach which removes or reduces disadvantages experienced by candidates living with a disability, so they have an equal opportunity to perform as other candidates.
Report
You can run two types of reports in Criteria: test score reports for candidates matching your desired parameters and aggregate reports for a summary of your usage of tests in Criteria. Data visible in reports will be limited to the results that the user has access to. Admins on the account can see reporting data for all jobs.
See also Export List.
Resume Spamming
Resume spamming refers to the act of submitting resumes to a multitude of job postings with little attention to the job description, required qualifications, or general job fit. Resume spamming is a by-product of the internet age and the advent of online job postings. While posting jobs online makes it easier for employers to reach larger and more diverse applicant pools, it has also made it easier for job seekers to apply for jobs in larger volumes.
Job seekers can submit their resumes with a simple click of the button, without necessarily taking the time to assess their suitability for the position. The prevalence of resume spamming means that, in any given applicant pool, a significant proportion of the applicants will be completely unqualified or unfit for the position, and their resumes will essentially amount to spam. For hiring managers, this creates additional work and makes the hiring process more time-consuming. To combat resume spammers, many organisations turn to applicant tracking systems (ATS) or other filtering criteria such as pre-employment tests.
S
Skills Tests - Microsoft Suite
See Microsoft Suite 2016.
Skills Tests - Typing
See Typing Tests.
Stage
A stage represents one step in your recruitment process. You can include as many stages as you need in your pipeline.
See also Pipeline.
Suitability Score
Suitability Score is used in the Revelian system to provide an overall score of the candidate’s assessment results (excluding personality tests and skills tests).
See Talent Signal for the alternative to the Suitability Score in the Criteria platform.
T
Talent Signal
The Talent Signal is an easy way to compare candidates within one job by using a single score based on a weighted average of the aptitude, personality, emotional intelligence and risk assessments. The Talent Signal is generated once all assessments in the test battery have been completed by the candidate. When turned on, the Talent Signal will be visible in Results, the Candidate Summary and in the results email. You can sort and filter candidates by Talent Signal and include it in reports.
Test Battery
In pre-employment testing, a test battery refers to a set of tests grouped together and administered to applicants for a particular position. Test batteries vary from position to position depending on the job’s requirements and the needs of the employer. For example, companies hiring maintenance workers may want to administer a test of mechanical aptitude to assess the applicant’s ability to work with machinery and tools. They may also want to administer a basic skills test to measure attention to detail and to see how trainable the applicant may be. Finally, they may want to administer a personality test to predict how trustworthy, honest, and rule-adherent the applicant will be. Combined, these three tests constitute a test battery, and can be administered to applicants as a sequence. While test batteries are highly customisable, the sum total of the time required to take all of the tests within the battery should not be too long, so as to avoid test fatigue.
Turnover Rate
Turnover rate refers to the percentage of employees leaving a company within a certain period. High turnover can be costly to an organisation because departing employees frequently need to be replaced. For employers or hiring managers, filling open positions can be a time-consuming activity, and leaving critical positions open for too long can have negative effects on an organisation. For this reason, companies should strive to avoid high turnover rates.
Turnover rates can be minimised by analysing why turnover occurs in the first place. Two main kinds of turnover are voluntary and involuntary turnover, and both can be reduced by making better hiring decisions. Voluntary turnover occurs when employees willingly choose to vacate their positions. Employees might choose to do this if they are dissatisfied with their position, have accepted a better job offer, or want a career change. One way to limit the risk of voluntary turnover is to administer personality tests to job applicants to see how likely they are to feel satisfied in their position. For instance, applicants who are non-aggressive and introverted may become dissatisfied in a sales position and ultimately choose to leave a company.
Alternatively, involuntary turnover occurs when an employee is terminated from a position. Employees may be let go for a wide range of reasons, including unsatisfactory job performance or inappropriate behaviour, often called counterproductive work behaviour (CWB). The likelihood that an employee will not be able to fulfill his or her job duties can be minimised by administering aptitude or skills tests in the hiring process. Similarly, certain personality tests can be used to assess how likely an employee is to engage in counterproductive work behaviours that can negatively affect an organisation.
U
Universal Cognitive Aptitude Test (UCAT)
See Universal Cognitive Aptitude Test.
V
Validity Generalisation
There are a lot of ways to validate pre-employment tests, but many validation procedures can be cost prohibitive or may require large data samples. For instance, to demonstrate a test’s predictive validity for a particular position (or the likelihood that the test will predict future job performance), an organisation needs to perform a local validity study on its own employees and applicants. However, the data gathered from this type of study would only be meaningful if the data sample were quite large. Small or medium-sized companies that do not already have a large number of employees occupying a certain position would be unable to perform these types of studies on their own populations.
Instead, companies can rely on validity generalisation. For certain types of tests, particularly cognitive aptitude assessments, industrial-organisational psychologists have concluded that validity evidence can be generalised across a wide range of positions. By generalising the validity of tests across many position types, companies of all sizes can be more confident that the pre-employment tests they are using are valid for the positions they are testing for within their organisations.
Voluntary Turnover
Voluntary turnover is a type of turnover that occurs when employees willingly choose to leave their positions. Employees might choose to vacate their jobs for a variety of reasons. They may feel dissatisfied with their position or their compensation, they may be seeking a career change, or they may have accepted another offer. While involuntary turnover usually involves employees being let go for unsatisfactory performance, voluntary turnover often involves competent employees leaving their positions. As a result, voluntary turnover can be very expensive for an organisation because of the costs associated with recruiting and hiring a new employee.
One way to limit the voluntary turnover rate is to put forth effort in the hiring process to determine an applicant’s "job fit" or job suitability for a particular position. Employers should try to assess the likelihood that their future employees will feel satisfied and fulfilled in their positions. For instance, companies can administer pre-employment personality tests to job applicants to see if their personality traits are compatible with the demands of the position. Some personality characteristics are more compatible with certain types of jobs. For example, applicants who are more extroverted may feel dissatisfied in a role that involves limited personal interaction. Taking “job fit” into account when making hiring decisions may help reduce voluntary turnover for an organisation overall.
W
Workplace Alignment Assessment (WAA)
See Workplace Alignment Assessment
Workplace Productivity Profile (WPP)
See Workplace Productivity Profile.
